CoinDCX Chess Super League R4: The Kingslayers advance to the Knockout stage on a dramatic day

Brutal Bishops suffer first loss of the event due to regulations

The fourth day of CoinDCX Chess Super League was the most dramatic day as the Brutal Bishops suffered their first loss of the event against Krazy Knights 4-2. However, the outcome could have been different. Vidit's game was heading towards a draw and Raunak was certainly not losing by any stretch of the imagination. They were both victims of the tournament regulations.

Quintessential Queens - Pivotal Pawns: 2-4

GM Yifan Hou scored the sole victory for Quintessential Queens. GMs Abhijeet Gupta, Arjun Kalyan and WIM Savitha Shri B scored the wins for Pivotal Pawns.

Abhijeet - Humpy

13...f6 is a mistake as it allows White to gain a pawn after 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15.dxc5. Now Black cannot recapture on c5 as 15...Qxc5 runs into 16.Nd7 and 15...bxc5 is met by 16.Rad1. Thus, Black had to retreat her queen 15...Qe7 16.Nxc6 Bxc6 17.cxb6 axb6 18.Nb5 and White converted his extra pawn advantage into a win eventually.

World no.1 among women, GM Yifan Hou was completely winning against IM Bhakti Kulkarni. However, the former women's world champion made an error with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.

Yifan - Bhakti

38.Nxf5 is a big mistake as it allows Black to save the game. 38.g3 Rxh4 39.Rxe7 Qxe7 40.Qxe7 Rxe7 41.gxh4 is completely winning for White. However, 38.Nxf5 allows Black to make a comeback 38...Rxg2+ 39.Qxg2 Rxg2+ 40.Kxg2 Qxf5 41.Rxe7+ and now Black needs to play 41...Kh8 which allows the queen to have the g6 square vacant for the perpetual check. Unfortunately for Black, she played 41...Kg6. once again White is back to having a decisive advantage 42.Re3 and White went on to win the game in another six moves.

IM Tania Sachdev was completely winning against GM Zhansaya Abdumalik.

Abdumalik - Tania

The b6-knight might be in trouble, however Black does not need to bother about it. The game continued 20...exf3 which allowed White to fight back and save the game. Find out what was the better continuation for Black.

WIM Savitha Shri B fought back from a completely lost position and beat WIM Priyanka K.

Krazy Knights - Brutal Bishops: 4-2

Krazy Knights ended Brutal Bishops unbeaten streak as they defeated them 4-2 in the fourth round. GMs Nakamura and Aryan Chopra scored victories, Sasikiran won against Vidit and Aryan against Raunak as the Brutal Bishops players conceded two points by violating tournament regulations as they offered a draw before the completion of 40 moves.

Nakamura - Hao

Nakamura scored a fantastic victory over Hao Wang by showcasing a fine technique in the endgame. The Speed King is delighted to find 64.Rxb4

IM Eesha Karavade had a good opportunity against former women's world champion, GM Mariya Muzychuk.

Mariya - Eesha

25...Rxe1+ 26.Rxe1 Qxd5 gives Black good chances for a win. However, Black quickly decided to exchange queens 25...Qxf2+ 26.Kxf2 and head towards a draw.

Ruthless Rooks - The Kingslayers: 2.5-3.5

GM Anna Muzychuk scored the sole victory for Ruthless Rooks which made her the only player to have all four games so far. GM D Gukesh and WIM Arpita Mukherjee are the only two winners for The Kingslayers.

Sethuraman - Karthikeyan

Karthikeyan's passive play put all his pieces on the back rank except the knight. 21...b6 is a huge mistake. Find out the winning continuation for White. Unfortunately for White, he missed it and played 22.Na4 instead and Black eventually escaped with a draw.

India's 69th GM Harshit Raja had a wonderful tactical opportunity against GM D Gukesh. After a little over three-minute long thought, Harshit decided not to go through with it.

Harshit - Gukesh

White had a very good tactical opportunity after 22..Qe7, a typical sacrifice in this type of position. Find out what it is. Later, White got one more opportunity before Gukesh managed to completely turn things around in his favor and went on to win the game.

WIM Arpita Mukherjee made a short work of WFM Saina Salonika and moved to second-highest individual score so far 3.5/4 along with GM Arjun Kalyan.

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes of Round 4.

How the internet reacted to Vidit, Iniyan and Raunak's forfeit

Vidit, Iniyan and Raunak were declared loss as they violated tournament regulations by offering a draw before the completion of 40 moves.

Vidit was quite upset:

twitter.com/i/status/1448688258402033678

Raunak was also annoyed:

twitter.com/i/status/1448709527080091653

Iniyan did not tweet anything but he liked Arjun Erigaisi's tweet where the latter shared a similar situation:

twitter.com/i/status/1448693187950821387

Giri tweeted:

twitter.com/i/status/1448898099573837825

GM Srinath Narayanan tweeted his thoughts:

twitter.com/i/status/1448888534069243906

Before all this, the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen tweeted:

twitter.com/i/status/1448632208365862914

Giri self-reflecting in his own way:

twitter.com/i/status/1448727805991194635

Overall, readers what do you think about this whole scenario of yesterday - was it too harsh to the players to give an immediate a loss or a warning should have been issued, since most of the chess players do not read the tournament regulations carefully? Also, did the world champion's tweet inspired a certain game's outcome in a certain way, or it would have been the same irrespective of it? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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