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Giri's PBG Alaskan Knights To Face Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings In Saturday's Final
Dardha resigns vs. Sindarov, meaning Firouzja's team is going to the final and not Carlsen's. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

Giri's PBG Alaskan Knights To Face Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings In Saturday's Final

PeterDoggers
| 14 | Chess Event Coverage

Not GM Magnus Carlsen's Alpine Sg Pipers but GM Alireza Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings secured the second spot in Saturday's Final of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. The Kings will be playing for glory against the PBG Alaskan Knights, who qualified yesterday.

The final day starts on Saturday, October 12, at 9:30 a.m. ET / 15:30 CEST / 7:00 p.m. IST.

Final Round-Robin Stage Standings

Global Chess League 2024 final standings

Ganges Grandmasters 12-4 upGrad Mumba Masters

Even with a big win the Ganges Grandmasters couldn't avoid finishing in last place, due to their low number of board points. It was still a nice way of finishing an otherwise disappointing tournament, with two games won by the black pieces (and both as a result of flagging the opponent).

Ganges Grandmasters 12-4 upGrad Mumba Masters
All six games were quite level for a long time, and four ended in a draw. GM Viswanathan Anand finished his tournament without a win, but did draw GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave comfortably to end on a good note.

The first decisive game was decided in favor of GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, who won her first game in the tournament. She dropped a piece but kept fighting and eventually flagged GM Humpy Koneru while having just a second left herself.

GM Peter Svidler lost on time as well, against GM Parham Maghsoodloo, but in this case it was more justified. Maghsoodloo had been completely winning earlier in the endgame, and was still a healthy pawn up in the knight endgame.

Svidler Maghsoodloo GCL
A loss on time for Svidler vs. Maghsoodloo. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

American Gambits 5-14 PBG Alaskan Knights

With the PBG Alaskan Knights already in the final and the American Gambits out of contention, everyone could play freely in this matchup. The Knights can enter the final with confidence, knowing that they won no fewer than eight of their matches in the round-robin phase, including today's.

American Gambits 5-14 PBG Alaskan Knights

White or Black, it doesn't really matter for the Knights, it seems. Today they collected three wins with the black pieces to take this match convincingly. The game shown from this match was their only loss, though, as it was quite the game.

Assaubayeva vs Tan GCL
Assaubayeva vs. Tan. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

Alpine Sg Pipers 7-9 Triveni Continental Kings

Carlsen did manage to take revenge for his unfortunate loss on time against Firouzja last week, but his hopes of winning the tournament are gone. His black win was countered by two white wins on the lower boards, with GM Javokhir Sindarov becoming the match winner on the prodigy board. 

Alpine Sg Pipers 7-9 Triveni Continental Kings

Firouzja vs. Carlsen was an incredible game. First, the world number-one outplayed the younger "icon" nicely, showing his knowledge of many typical Hedgehog ideas. However, Carlsen then spoiled the win and was even briefly losing, in a wildly complicated middlegame with heavy pieces, and eventual won on time in an equal position. A true rollercoaster, which has been annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov below:

Chess.com Game of the Day Dejan Bojkov

Carlsen could only watch and hope for the rest of the team to do well, and saw, with everyone else, draws appearing on the next three boards. A loss for the Pipers on the second women's board (where GM Valentina Gunina once again showed how dangerous she is in rapid play) wasn't terrible yet because of the four points for a black win. 

Gunina defeated her compatriot Kateryna Lagno.
Gunina defeated her compatriot GM Kateryna Lagno. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

It all came down to the prodigy board, where Sindarov managed to win a promising endgame with rooks and opposite-colored bishops. At some point, GM Daniel Dardha had to give up a rook for White's last pawn and the endgame R+B vs. B came on the board. It took a while, but Sindarov eventually won it.

It wasn't all about chess in London, with some of the world's leading players, including Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura, having an enjoyable evening before the final day of the round-robin. They joined a poker party hosted by London-based IM Ali Mortazavi, where one of the other guests was a certain Nobel prize winner.

Apparently it had been planned in advance, because Demis Hassabis had mentioned it to The Times: "Magnus will be there, and some world poker champions. It'll be crazy. That is my kind of celebration."

How to watch?

You can watch the event on Kick. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.


The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024 consists of a preliminary group stage and a final contested by the two top teams. In each match, members of the same team play with the same color. All games have a 20-minute time control without increment.


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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!

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