Jonas Buhl Bjerre wins a thriller for Triveni Continental Kings to clinch Tech Mahindra Global Chess League
The recently turned 19-year-old Danish GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre is the hero of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2023 Finals. After three draws in the sudden death matches, he checkmated Javokhir Sindarov (uMM) to etch Triveni Continental Kings as the winner of the inaugural edition. Before this game, Jonas had lost four times against Sindarov today. It was not that he was playing bad. Even in the qualifier stage, he had many great positions but he just could not convert it. What's important is, the teenager won when it mattered the most. IM Sara Khadem (TCK) had to be applauded as well. She defended an inferior position against GM Harika Dronavalli (uMM) in the first sudden death game. Triveni Continental Kings made a fantastic comeback from the bottom of the table at more than halfway to the very top. Did you enjoy the tournament and want a second edition? Photos: Maria Emelianova
A photo finish to a fairy tale ending
GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK) scored only 0.5/2 against the 44th Chess Olympiad Gold medalist, GM Javokhir Sindarov (uMM) at the Double Round-Robin stage. He lost four games against the same player at the Finals. What kept him going? Levon Aronian inspired him to "Fight" throughout the tournament. Captain, GM Loek van Wely also shared a piece wisdom - it does not matter how many games you have lost, what matters iswhat you have done in your last game. That is the eternal truth for any sportsperson in any discipline - you are only defined and remembered as your last match.
Final 1: Triveni Continental Kings - upGrad Mumba Masters: 3-0
Triveni Continental Kings won the toss and they opted for the white pieces. The first result of the Finals is a draw between Kateryna Lagno (TCK) and Koneru Humpy (uMM). Wei Yi (TCK) scored the first win for his team against Vidit Gujrathi (uMM). Javokhir Sindarov scored the first victory for uMM against Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK).
Wei - Vidit
Wei YI (TCK) sacrificed an exchange few moves ago. Then a few pieces got exchanged. Vidit's (uMM) king was stranded at the center of the board. However, there was no way to harm it. 25...Nf4-d5 was the best way to consolidate the center before going for a long castle. 25...0-0-0? turned things in White's favor 26.Ne4 Nf4 27.Qa3 Qc4?? 28.Qxa6+ Kd7 29.Nc5+ and Black resigned as he had to incur heavy material loss to prevent checkmate.
Jonas - Sindarov
Before taking on f4, White needed to go 35.Nc3 then Jonas (TCK) would have won the game. Capturing the f4-pawn immediately turned things in Black's favor 34...f4? 35.Bxf4? Rf6 -+ now the bishop cannot move due to Rf1+ skewer drops the b1-knight. 36.Kxe2 Rxf4 Black won the game in another ten moves.
Aronian - Vachier-Lagrave
Aronian (TCK) got a substantial positional advantage in the middlegame against Vachier-Lagrave (uMM). Even though it seemed like he is positionally winning, MVL obviously put up a tough fight.
After missing out, two moves later MVL did what he needed as a last resort 52...Bxf2! 53.Rxf2 Qe4+ it would have taken a computer-like precision for Black to save the game. Unfortunately for him, running low on time, he had to concede the exciting endgame eventually.
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Final 2: upGrad Mumba Masters - Triveni Continental Kings: 3-0
First result of the second match of the finals is a draw between Vidit Gujrathi (uMM) and Wei Yi (TCK). Alexander Grischuk (uMM) brought the first decisive result of match against Yangyi Yu (CHN). Harika Dronavalli (uMM) and Javokhi Sindarov (uMM) scored two back and forth battle against IM Sara Khadem (TCK) and Jonas Bjerre Buhl (TCK).
Grischuk - Yangyi
Grischuk (uMM) could have won a bit earlier if he had played 32.Nd3 c5 33.e5 fxe5 34.f6. Instead, he went for 32.Nd7+ Ka6 33.Nxf6 Re3 soon White sacrificed the exchange to win the game using e and f-pawns.
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Blitz Tie-break 1: Triveni Continental Kings - upGrad Mumba Masters: 0-3
GM Harika Dronavalli (uMM) struck first against IM Sara Khadem (TCK). Javokhir Sindarov (uMM) also won against Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK). Yangyi Yu (TCK) scored the first win of the match for his team against Alexander Grischuk (uMM). Wei Yi (TCK) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (uMM). The 'Icons' battle between Aronian (TCK) and MVL (uMM) ended in a draw.
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Blitz Tie-break 2: upGrad Mumba Masters - Triveni Continental Kings: 3-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (uMM) checkmated Levon Aronian (TCK) to set the tone for the second Blitz tie-break match. Yangyi Yu (TCK), Wei Yi (TCK) and Kateryna Lagno (TCK) won their respective games against Alexander Grischuk (uMM), Vidit Gujrathi (uMM) and Koneru Humpy (uMM) respectively. Thus, TCK has forced another tie-break. This time, it will be a randomly drawn player will play against another.
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Sudden Death
The first draw of lots drew no.5. IM Sara Khadem (TCK) had a solid draw against GM Harika Dronavalli (uMM). The second draw of lots drew no.2. Alexander Grischuk (uMM) made a massive save against Yangyi Yu (uMM) to draw the game. The next number which was drawn is no.4. GM Kateryna Lagno (TCK) saved a lost game against GM Koneru Humpy (uMM). The next number drawn was no.6 of the 'Prodigy' board. Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK) checkmated Javokhir Sindarov (uMM) to win the tournament for Triveni Continental Kings.
Replay all four Sudden Death games
Video Gallery
Photo Gallery
What is the Scoring System?
The Final will be played over best-of-2 matches. There will be a drawing of lots to determine which Team is White in Match 1, this team will then be black in Match 2. The team who wins more matches will be the Champion. In the event of a tie:
• There will be a playoff blitz fixture, which will be a best-of-2 match. The team that was white in Match 1 and black in Match 2 will play white in Match 3 and black in Match 4. The time limit for each game will be all moves in 3 minutes plus 2 seconds. The Team that wins the most matches in the fixture will be the Champion.
• If the Teams remain tied, there shall be a drawing of lots to determine a board from 1 to 6. The player from each Team on this board will then participate in a sudden-death blitz game. The time limit for this game will be 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. The player from the Team who was white in Matches 1 and 3, will play white in this game.
• If the sudden death blitz game is drawn, then the procedure is repeated except that the colour of the player from each team alternates from the colour the team had in the preceding sudden death blitz game.
• If the tie remains unbroken, the above procedure is repeated until a sudden death blitz game has a winner.
Links
Chess-results: Final
Tech Mahindra Global Chess League: Official site, facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube and linkedin
Tech Mahindra: Official site, facebook, twitter, youtube and linkedin
