Tech Mahindra GCL Day 9: Aronian astounds Carlsen and Nepo, Triveni Continental Kings jump to third place
Levon Aronian has beaten Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in three consecutive must-win situations. Today he defeated Carlsen and Nepo in consecutive games. While, the World no.1 allowed the two-time World Cup winner to score a quick 27-move victory. Against, Nepo he had to grind in the endgame and wait till the former world championship contender blundered. Triveni Continental Kings has now tied Ganges Grandmasters with the same score 15/27. SG Alpine Warriors also has the same match points. However, they still have two matches left. In a day full of events, upGrad Mumba Masters defeated GG 3-0 (10-4) without incurring a single game loss. The last four matches of the double round-robin stage starts tomorrow with SG Alpine Warriors vs Chingari Gulf Titans from 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Maria Emelianova
Favorites get fried by the Undeniables
"We have everything in our hands. We need to beat Ganges Grandmasters. I think that's a possibility. I won't really jump ahead of the train. All I can say is we are going to try our best and you know whatever happens, happens." - Levon Aronian on his team Triveni Continental Kings chances of making it to the finals. "Together with the team. Like all the other days." - Aronian on how he will prepare for the last day of the double round-robin stage. "I think Yu Yangyi is motivating me a lot. He is crushing me every night in blitz with some ridiculous scores. That's extremely motivating... I cannot get a play against him. He is just too good. That is motivating me to try harder." - The only two-time World Cup winner on motivation for tomorrow.
"He is one of the most brilliant players, always an inspiration. I think in this tournament, I played terribly against him. So I will try to improve and not to repeat the mistakes I did against him." - Aronian on facing Anand tomorrow. "It's not pressure at all. We are not supposed to be here at all. I mean, with our terrible play in the start, we got very very lucky. Now there is no pressure. We are just going to continue doing the same thing we are doing in the last three rounds, just enjoying, fighting. It's really not about the result. It's all about the efforts. If we show effort, you know that's what counts for us as a team." - on his team TCK climbing up from the bottom to top three.
Match #23: Chingari Gulf Titans - upGrad Mumba Masters: 3-0 (12-3)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (CGT) drew against Alexander Grischuk (uMM). Daniil Dubov (CGT) scored the first win for his team against Vidit Gujrathi (uMM). IM Polina Shuvalova (CGT) scored the second win for her team over GM Harika Dronavalli (uMM). GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (CGT) scored another win for the team against GM Koneru Humpy (uMM). Thus CGT have already won the match with two games to spare.
Dubov - Vidit
Once Vidit's (uMM) preparation ended, he blundered 16...Re8?? He needed to play it two moves ago. 17.Nxd7 Qxd7 18.Be4 gains an exchange as Rac8 runs into 19.Bf5 and Rab/d8 is met with 19.Bc6. Instead, Dubov (CGT) went for 17.cxd4 Be6 18.Rfe1 Bxd4 19.Nxe6 fxe6 20.Rad1 e5 21.Qh5 h6 22.Qg6 Qf6 23.Rxd4 Black resigned.
Replay CGT vs uMM games
Match #24: SG Alpine Warriors - Triveni Continental Kings: 0-3 (8-10)
The first result of the match is a draw between GM Elisabeth Paehtz (SGAW) and IM Sara Khadem (TCK). Levon Aronian (TCK) scored the first decisive win for his team against Magnus Carlsen (SGAW). D Gukesh (SGAW) and R Praggnanandhaa (SGAW) defeated YangyiYu (TCK) and Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK) respectively. However, Wei Yi's (TCK) victory over Arjun Erigaisi (SGAW) decided the match in favor of TCK.
Carlsen - Aronian
27.Qe7 forces the queen exchange and White would have been fine. Instead, the world no.1 blundered 27.Bxd5?? after Nxd5 he had to resign as there is no way to stop Nc3 and Nb4 threats without incurring heavy material loss.
Gukesh - Yangyi
D Gukesh (SGAW) launched a very nice attack on the kingside after his opponent Yangyi Yu (TCK) misplayed 27...Kh7? 28.h4 Ne7 29.h5 Kh8 30.hxg6 Gukesh went on to convert his advantage comfortably.
Praggnanandhaa - Jonas
20.e3 Qxg5 21.0-0-0 Qg4 22.exd4 Re2 23.Qa5 and here Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK) had a great opportunity to end Praggnanandhaa's (SGAW) unbeaten streak at this event. He missed it and played 23...cxd4. 23...Rxf4 24.gxf4 Qxf4+ 25.Kb1 Rxb2+ 26.Kxb2 Qxd4+ was completely winning for Black. All other variations only would have delayed the win for Black. Pragg used his second chance and went on to win the prolonged endgame.
Replay SGAW vs TCK games
Match #25: upGrad Mumba Masters - Ganges Grandmasters: 3-0 (10-4)
Javokhir Sindarov (uMM) scored the first win of the match on the 'Prodigy board' against Andrey Esipenko (GG). Koneru Humpy (uMM) scored a convincing victory over Yifan Hou (GG).
Humpy - Yifan
In an already dwindling position, Yifan (GG) blundered 26...Ng3?? Humpy (uMM) gobbled it up 27.Qxg3 and this time she converts her decisive advantage against the World no.1 woman.
Replay uMM vs GG games
Match #26: Triveni Continental Kings - Balan Alaskan Knights: 3-0 (10-9)
IM Sara Khadem (TCK) scored the first win of the match against GM Nino Batsiashvili (BAK) when the latter blundered her bishop in the balanced rook and minor piece endgame. Yangyi Yu (TCK) drew against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (BAK). Zhongyi Tan (BAK) scored a win against Kateryna Lagno (TCK). Wei Yi (TCK) defeated Teimour Radjabov (BAK) to put his team in the lead again. Leon Aronian (TCK) once again scores another victory on the 'Icon board' against Ian Nepomniachtchi (BAK). Thus, ensuring TCK's victory. Raunak Sadhwani (BAK) defeated Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK) from a difficult position.
Wei - Radjabov
Sometimes in time trouble you have to play moves which is difficult to calculate. 36.Ne6!? is an interesting sacrifice by Wei Yi (TCK) which was not easy for his opponent Teimour Radjabov (BAK) to refute practically. 36...Qb4 was the right way to continue. However, the game continued 36...Qxb5 37.fxg6 fxe6 38.Qh3 Rf4 39.Rc2 e5 40.Qh7+ Kf8 41.Qh8+ Ke7 42.Qxg7+ Kd8 43.Qh8+ Be8 44.g7 Qa4?? 45.g8Q Qe4+ 46.Rg2 Kc7 47.Qhh7+ and Black resigned. 44...Rd4 Black's last resort to save the game.
Jonas - Raunak
Raunak Sadhwani (BAK) persevered a lost endgame against Jonas Buhl Bjerre (TCK) to turn things around and win the game eventually.
Replay TCK vs BAK games
Standings after Day 9
Day 10 matches
Match #27: SG Alpine Warriors vs Chingari Gulf Titans from 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST
Match #28: Triveni Continental Kings vs Ganges Grandmasters from 4:30 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. IST
Match #29: SG Alpine Warriors vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 5:45 p.m. local time, 7:15 p.m. IST
Match #30: Chingari Gulf Titans vs Balan Alaskan Knights from 7 p.m. local time, 8:30 p.m. IST
What is the Scoring System?
Each team will have six players and a manager, who will be competing on six boards which will be played simultaneously. While each board will be called a game, all six combined boards will be termed one match. Once the board order is decided, it cannot be altered after drawing lots while deciding the run order of play. And in each match, all the players of one team will play with the same colour.
A game won with Black pieces will result in 4 Game Points (GP) to the winning player. A victory for a player with White pieces will see them win 3 GP. A draw will be rewarded with 1 GP, and a defeat gets the player 0 GP. Each players’ GP will contribute to the Team’s total Match Points (MP).
With regards to the calculations on Match Points (MP), a Team which scores more GP than their opposition will be rewarded with a bonus of 3 MP. If both the Teams are level on GP, they will be awarded 1 MP each. However, if a team scores lesser GP than the opposing team, they won’t get any MP for that Match.
Scoring System for Game Points (GP)
4 GP (3+1) | A player wins the Game with Black Pieces |
3 GP | A player wins the Game with White Pieces |
1 GP | Draw |
0 GP | Defeat |
Scoring System for Match Points (MP)
3 MP | The team that scores more Game Points |
1 MP | If both teams are level on Game Points |
0 MP | The team that scores lesser Game Points than the opponent |
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: Round 8 and Round 9
Tech Mahindra Global Chess League: Official site, facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube and linkedin
Tech Mahindra: Official site, facebook, twitter, youtube and linkedin
