GCL Season 3: SG Pipers meet holders Continental Kings in final; Ganges Grandmasters to face Alaskan Knights for third place (Ld)

Mumbai, Dec 22 (IANS) Leon Luke Mendonca’s draw on the prodigy board was worth more than a win for Alpine SG Pipers as they qualified for the final against table-topper Triveni Continental Kings despite losing their last league match 6-11 against PBG Alaskan Knights in Season 3 of the Global Chess League (GCL) at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai on Friday.

Alpine SG Pipers had their fate in their own hand in their final league game as they were locked on 15 match points with Ganges Grandmasters and needed to either beat Alaskan Knights or at least score six game points to assure themselves for the second spot on the leader board with a better game point score.

Pipers finished with 84 game points against 83 for the Grandmasters in the event, a joint initiative of Tech Mahindra and FIDE.

Alaskan Knights also needed a win to at least qualify for the third-place play-off, and they did that in style as world champion Dommaraju Gukesh pounced on an error from Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi defeated Anish Giri with black pieces to score eight valuable points.

For the Pipers, three-time Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan delivered a third win in three matches, this time beating Kateryna Lagno in just 20 moves. At that stage, the Pipers looked primed to advance, but the two top Indian chess stars delivered a master-class when it mattered for the team to give the Pipers some anxious moments.

With Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Nino Batsiashvili playing out solid draws, Pipers fate depended on Mendonca managing to draw a game against Daniel Darda on the prodigy board. And he ensured that Darda did not have a chance to make any further inroads and signed the peace pact after 42 moves despite his opponent having a slight advantage at that stage.

Earlier, Ganges Grandmasters had kept their hope of making it to the final alive after beating Fyers American Gambits 12-3 in their last league match.

At the start of the final day, Pipers, Grandmasters, and upGrad Mumba Masters were in a three-way battle to seal the second spot, and Grandmasters were the first to take the board against American Gambits.

Playing white, Viswanathan Anand shared the spoils with American Gambits’ Hikaru Nakamura on the icon board. But it was Vincent Keymer on the second board who gave the team a leg up with a win over Vladislav Artemiev in 39 moves, and Player of the Match Raunak Sadhwani defeated World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin in 42 moves to drive home the advantage.

Stavroula Tsolakidou then defeated Teodora Injac to complete the tally and put the pressure on the other teams. However, that was not enough, and they will now face the Alaskan Knights for third place.

In the other match of the day, Mumba Masters had a difficult task of beating table toppers Triveni Continental Kings with black and though Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Vidit Gujrathi and Bardiya Daneshvar got the better of Marc’Andria Maurizzi to give their team eight valuable points, but loss for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lost to Alireza Firouzja on the icon board, Wesley So was outplayed by Wei Yi on the second board, and Koneru Humpy was not a match for Zhu Jiner and the local favourites went down 10-9.

--IANS

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