Magnus vs Nepo, Anand vs Magnus | Global Chess League Day 6

And of course, Magnus versus Vishy is what I'm looking forward to the most, and that is going to be on the menu later on.

Uh, but first we start off with the 2 teams that will be at the top of the leaderboard. It will be the Ganges Grandmasters Alpine Piper stepping into the arena. Magnus Carlsen playing twice today. Ganji's Grandmasters playing twice today. It truly is a tournament for any one of the league teams, even the one that's at the bottom, Triveni Continental Kings, with a mathematical shot. Now, we will break down all the chess action for you in just a few, but you know what? The Global Chess League is all about celebration, and we had some fun not only on the chessboard but the golf course as well. Take a look. And we will have that up for you soon. And right there it is, Sahaj. A very early morning, an early start for all of us at the Bangalore Golf Club. And now we know the one player who's there very often, Magnus Carlsen. He reaches there really early, but this was a different kind of morning. We had players from all the teams.

Absolutely. And Tanya, I also see that you were there as well. How was your experience overall? Did you have fun?

I had an absolute blast. It was the first time that I was holding a club. Very embarrassing, but I think I didn't do too badly, Sahaj. And I'll tell you one thing, I would only wake up at this hour for a flight. I got there, I was extremely sleepy, but the moment you get on the course— look at that shot! Magnus has got a good swing.

I saw the shot earlier you took, Tanya, and I mean, are you sure you're not— that this is the first time you're holding a club? Because it doesn't look like it.

I'm glad that they got my, like, best swing in for that one. But Sahaj, it was such a great morning, super fun, and the players really getting all the fresh air in before, you know, the chess action starts. We also got a lesson from the pros on the course.

Oh, and, uh, why didn't you show up?

Where were you, Sahaj Grover?

Ah, I was too busy learning about how to play golf, and then I realized, you know, I—

He was sleeping.

Thanks for exposing me, Tanya. Wow, what a shot that was! That is it. So who was the best player overall, Tanya?

You know, I'll tell you what happened that morning. Magnus Carlsen gets on the course and he was going to play just a couple of rounds, but by the end of that, he was so unhappy with the way his first few rounds went, he actually stayed back and played another 9 holes. Magnus spent about 5 hours on the course that morning.

And, and then he He came to the Global Chess League and then won his match there as well. What is going on? This man is just a GOAT at everything.

Yeah, I mean, he's spending 6 hours on the course, 2 hours in the arena right now. He feels like he's a part-time chess player. Maybe he should think about taking up chess, uh, full-time and professionally. I think— how do you think he'd do then?

I, I think, I think he would do, uh— I think he's doing quite fine just now, but I mean, imagine if he actually takes it seriously. Wow, that would be insane.

It was a very fun morning and we've got a very fun day ahead of us as well, Sahaj. Once again, everything that we've seen going into the second half, we're going to have the colors reversed in this big matchup that we've got. Before we go into that breakdown, talk to us about the format of the event.

Um, so, so far I think we have, um, um, 6 teams in total, 6 franchises. We've got double round robin, 30 matches, and Of course, there's one icon player. There's two superstar men, two superstar women, and there's one prodigy. And overall, there's a coin toss, and after that, you know, the teams will of course switch the colors. And I think there is one team that I'm really kind of thinking that this team is becoming a favorite, and it's no surprise that this is the team of the GOAT of chess. The time control, of course, is 20 minutes plus 2 seconds, but that 2 seconds only adds up after move 40. And we have seen this, you know, so many times, players flagging, uh, you know, simply because of time. Of course, if you win with black, you get 4 points. If you win with white, you get 3 points. There is a slight incentive, Tanya, to, to win with the black pieces.

A slight incentive? That has been the biggest game changer of the Global Chess League, Sahaj. How many times we've seen one big win coming from a blackboard, and that just overturns the whole result. Premium on a black win. One of the most unique aspects of the Global Chess League has made it so incredibly exciting. I think this is one of the most exciting scoring systems that I have seen in the world of chess right now. And you know, our first matchup, as we'll set up for it, I want everyone to remember about this premium because it's exactly that that got the Alpine Pipers the win with Humpy and with its scoring on their board with black.

Absolutely, because the score was 3s— well, Essentially three-three, but of course the three wins were with the black pieces. So of course you got one extra point each. That's a lot of points, Nanya.

It's a lot of points, and it's going to be a lot of fun for us. You know what, Sahaj? Let's set the stage with our standings going into this first blockbuster match of the day. It's going to be the Ganges Grandmasters taking on the Alpine Pipers, and take a look at that. And now I want to stay here for a bit because there's a lot to break down here. We've got 36 of the world's elite grandmasters in Bengaluru. We've got six franchisee teams fighting. For championship, currently we see there, and there are three rows that I'd want everyone to focus on: the match point on the extreme right, the game points right next to that, and the very first row, which is the number of matches. We've got three teams tied with twelve match points. The team with the highest match points will win, and the aim is to finish in top two to make it to the finals. Now, the match points, Sahaj, does not tell the full story. If teams are tied, we look at the game points. And right now we see that the Fires American Gambits have 60 game points. But even that doesn't tell the full story. It in fact is misleading because let's go over to the number of matches played. Notice how the Alpine Pipers and the Ganges Grandmasters have played one less match than the Fires American Gambits.

Absolutely. And this is perhaps the last day where the teams will play 2 rounds back to back. And of course, Alpine Pipers and the Ganges Grandmasters have 2, you know, matches. But Tanya, I have a question here. Since Alpine is only playing with the white pieces and Ganges have a, you know, one match with the black pieces— well, actually 2 matches with the black pieces— do you think there is a possibility that they could perhaps take over the Alpine Pipers considering, well, they could win with black, right? That is still a possibility.

And that destiny is in their own hands right now because we kick off the day with the Ganges Grandmasters taking on the Pipers. Now objectively, practically looking at our leaderboard, at this moment it's the Pipers who are on number 1 position. They have match points 12, they have 58 game points, 3 game points ahead of the Ganjis. 3 game points is nothing, but right now gives them the temporary lead, and they've played 1 less match than the Gambits. So looking at that leaderboard, Pipers have a slight edge. If the Ganjis Grandmasters take them down, They topple over the standings and the drama will continue. The other big shocking story of the Global Chess League so far has been the Triveni Continental Kings. They've not moved from the bottom place.

It is such a surprise considering how they have performed in the first 3 seasons, especially the last season where I remember, Tanya, you and I were there and after the first 5 rounds, it felt like they're already in the finals. And now it's a completely different story.

It's a whole different story.

Triveni Continental Kings have been in 100% finals of the Global Chess League, but it looks like this time that story will be overturned. These are the matchups for today. We kick off with Magnus Carlsen's Pipers taking on Jan Nepomniachtchi's Ganji's Grandmasters. We'll follow that up with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's Czech Mumba Masters up against Alireza Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings. And of course, the action continues with Magnus once again in the arena.

Oh, that's going to be a fun day. But Tanya, do you know there is There is a very interesting stat here. Last time, uh, Firouzja was 5 out of 5. I think both of us remember that. But this time, Firouzja hasn't won a single game. That is insane. I think insane to think about that Firouzja, who was 5 out of 5, basically he was the icon, the icon of all icons, has not won a single game.

Absolutely, Sahaj. And he finished the group stage with 7.5 out of 10, pretty much steering the Kings into the finals with no problem. He was cruise control, and we will be breaking all of that down and more. Can Firouzja change his destiny right now? One thing's for sure, that the colors have changed, and we've got our Rohi with the color swap.

Round 2 of a battle that gave us plenty to talk about the last time these 2 teams faced each other, which they're going to do today as well. And we are here at the color swap for match number 21 on the 6th day Of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season Four, let us call upon the coaches. But before that, the match official, Chief Arbiter Mr. Girth Bayer. And now for the Alpine APL Pipers, we have their coach Praveen Thipsay. And for the Ganges Grandmasters, Adiban Baskaran. May we now have the color swap? Pipers with white, grandmasters with black. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes.

No, no, questions. Don't go anywhere. We have to have those questions, especially after y'all have started so well with the white pieces. Now all white pieces is what you're going to play. Match number 2 with the white.

Uh, I think the strategy, as we said, we took out all blacks, so we are hoping to win the rest of the matches. I mean, our strategy is basically to try to win all these matches. Whether necessary or not is different. But yes, I think the attempt will be to try to win all the matches with whatever margin. But the purpose of taking black is basically to try to win last 5 matches.

You know, so much happened the last time the 2 teams faced each other, and it had become the talk of the town. What can we expect today?

Well, I think that the team is very strong. The opponent team is as strong as ours, probably, and it's going to be a tough match. There's nothing easy in this tournament. Every team is almost the same strength, and I look forward to my players playing the best.

All right, all the best for today's game. Thank you. Hello, Adiwan, with black. Back with the black. Y'all won yesterday's game with the black. Momentum is on your side as well.

Yeah, I think finally at some point we have to play the black pieces. Yeah, we cannot play all the games white. That's what actually our Nepo— sorry, Levon was thinking actually we get to choose every time the color again, and he was probably expecting we can play all whites.

I told him, you have played GCL before, you should know.

How does that mental switch come for him then, that now that he knows that, oh, you're gonna have to play the other side as well?

No, I told him, yeah, like, okay, get ready for the black pieces. You cannot play always white.

Yeah.

Well, the Aikin board, we have to talk about that. Ian almost had it somewhere in the middle game. We almost thought that Is this going to be the first time that Magnus Carlsen loses this season? Can it be today?

Yeah, I'm hoping for that.

All right, all the best to the team.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks.

That is it from the color swap. The Alpine APL Pipers will be playing white while the Ganges Grandmasters go with the black.

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It's a day of unmissable action here at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. I am Sahaj, absolutely hyped because we could not have set ourselves up For a better start today with the 2 teams going head-to-head for the top spots playing each other.

Absolutely. We've got Alpine APL Pipers going against the Ganges Grandmasters. It will be so much fun because there is one team that is on the 2nd place and one is on 3rd place, but well, technically they're 1st and 2nd. And of course, we've got the GOAT of chess who he played a World Championship match against, Tanya. It can't be better than this.

These two on the icon board have so much history between each other, and just a few days ago, history was made at the Global Chess League with a position that we haven't seen before—a defensive structure taken by Magnus Carlsen against Jan Nepomniachtchi in an 89-move presser. It was at the end; it remained unbroken. It ended peacefully, but the game was anything but. We are expecting more of that drama. Six boards; each one of them needs to deliver today, Sahaj.

Absolutely, and and speaking about you know this whole Magnus versus Nepo situation. He did defend in that 89 moves, but we all remember that World Championship match where it was a 150-move game. The only World Championship match that ended on 2 different days with a result, and that was between these 2 legends over here. And of course, let's not forget, they do have Polina. That's the problem, I believe, for Ganges Grandmasters. That's the problem. And Divya has to be careful because Polina— there is no stopping Polina in this event.

We'll talk about that, but the memory that you stirred right now of the World Championship, that was game 6. Today is day 6 of the Global Chess League. What could that mean for the Alpine Pipers right now, who are the defending champions, but they did it last season without Magnus Carlsen? Magnus Carlsen still does not have a Global Chess League title. And to your point, for Polina Shivalova, she plays with the black pieces today, and she's playing a player Who is winless? Divya Deshmukh has been the weak point for the Pipers so far, while Polina has been the scoring engine.

Absolutely, and it's surprising to say that Divya has not scored and you know a single win in this tournament. But that is true. And and of course, when it comes to Polina, there is no stopping her when it comes to you know the time, when it comes to the aggression. I mean, I think she is gonna take that bike, Tanya. That's my that's my prediction. I believe at the pole, that bike has Polina's name written all over it. But of course, if anyone can stop it. It is Divya.

And the bike you're talking about will be given to the player of the tournament. It is the new Silver Knight Java from Mahindra. And what a bike that is! We saw it at the opening ceremony, the unveiling of it, and I can totally imagine Polina chilling on that. And right now, none of the teams are chilling because take a look at the head-to-head stats that we have for some of our pressure point boards, starting with the Icon boards. Sahaj, this has been their performance in the league so far in Season 4. What stands out to you between Magnus and Jan?

I mean, it's completely even. I think for now it's 2-2-4, 2 wins each, 4 draws each. And of course, uh, I mean, the win rate is exactly the same. I mean, look at that— draw, win, draw, win. And it looks like they're completely head-to-head, but of course we know the full story. Magnus, I think, is a slight favorite, especially considering the color and how he defended that against Nepo. But Nepo has been on a run. Tanya, lately he has been on a run. He has defeated, you know, Sindarov, he's defeated Vishy. I mean, and he has remained solid throughout on the Icon Board. He has not lost a single game. That is beyond impressive. And of course, if anyone is a threat to the GOAT of chess, it is of course Nepo right now.

And that's because he's playing like an absolute butcher this season. He and Nepomniachtchi, both players on the Icon Board, remain unbeaten. Now I want to bring up another board which was a keyboard in their first encounter, the first meeting these 2 teams had. Vidit Gujarati has been bringing on the points for the Pipers. He's playing against Leinier Dominguez. Let's take a look at how their tournament has gone so far. We've seen Vidit be the player of the match so many times. Both players have had 2 losses, but a slightly different storyline otherwise. Vidit clearly the player in a better form.

100%. But you know, the, the fun fact is, Tanya, that all the games that Vidit has won has been with the black pieces. So he has not won a single game with white in this event so far. I think he's only had one white to his defense, and that was against Mamedyarov, and which he, which he ended up, you know, um, with a draw. But he has remained solid. You're absolutely right about that. But in this match, Tanya, I feel Vidit is a slight favorite.

And Lenny got that first win just yesterday, so it has to do good things for his confidence coming into this big matchup. You know, having a 4-pointer color side on your Uh, on your side of the board right now for the Ganges Grandmasters. They went down 11-6 in their previous encounter. They are looking to turn the tide with the black side. Every win will be worth 4 points, and the one board they are counting for that to happen is Polina versus Divya. And let's look at that because that's a very lopsided story.

Absolutely. Polina, I think, has, has been on this, on this dream run. Look at what that— look at that win rate! What are— what is that win rate? 83% is Ridiculous! And look at those last five matches: win, win, draw. What? What is going on with Polina? I mean, there is no stopping her with with white or with black. And you know, look at the Elo rating also, Tanya. On paper, Polina is lower rated, and yet look at the performance. This is insane.

She's been absolutely unstoppable, Polina Shivalova. And for Divya Deshmukh, who's struggling today, is such a key day because it is against a four-pointer victory. If Polina continues. Her form in this matchup. Sahaj, the strategy for the Ganges Grandmaster could be to rely on that board to get the point in, which gives Yana Pomnashchi, Lenny and Levon to not take too many chances. Hundred percent.

But I think how at the same time, you know, the crazy stat here is that you so far Polina has made one draw. That's it. Five wins and one draw. That's it. And I think at some point you also have to think that, you know, just because the player is winning doesn't mean the momentum is going to continue. Because she's also playing against Divya, who recently won, of course, the Women's World Cup. And I mean, of course, she is a legend, you know, herself. I mean, she's your teammate as well, Tanya. I mean, you know, perhaps you know much better than me how good she is. But of course, in this sense, I think Polina, she has to be the favourite.

Divya is an absolute fighter, but things have been going wrong for her. Now, for these 2 at the Prodigy Board, and a board that we've seen seen be a decisive factor while the icons steal the spotlight and the eyeballs. The match is usually stolen on these lower boards, on the mid boards, on the prodigy board. And these 2 have been having a pretty steady tournament so far.

Absolutely. And let's do a bit of a deep dive on what's happening with Leon, because I believe to have that momentum, you need that push that needs to go your way. And for Leon, you remember that moment when he When he had to, you know, capture the queen and, you know, promote, and and how, you know, whatever happened in that situation that ended up getting him the point. And since then, he defeated Pranav as well. So he's had two wins back to back. I think Leon is looking quite good in this match against Volodar. What are your thoughts?

He was extremely sharp in that matchup against Abhimanyu Mishra that you just pointed out. Volodar Mersin as well. Two wins, three draws. It's two wins apiece for both of these prodigies, and I think today whoever scores. Will be an absolute hero for their team. And the reason I say that is because this could be a very decisive game. This could be the one that makes up our leaderboard going into those final two spots. And speaking of that, our teams have arrived into the Lalit. There we see the Ganges Grandmasters with Yannick Pomnachy alongside coach captain Adiban. They seem like they're in good spirits.

Absolutely. No, I feel Adiban has this effect on you know chess players because I remember in Chennai Grandmasters. Pranesh defeated Gukesh, you know, in a classical game. And I asked Pranesh, you know, what did you do differently? And his answer was, I had breakfast with Adiban. That's it.

You know what? I'm just going to tell you another story around that. I think it was Vaishali who said it. She was having such a tough run in the Candidates, not this time, but the previous Candidates. She had lost 4 matches in a row, and she spoke to Adiban. Adiban put in all that energy in her, positivity in her, and she came back to win the next 5 rounds in a row. So there is something about him. He understands psychology. He knows how to uplift players, and I think he's always one, you know, with that big smile on his face. And Levon Aronian as well arrives in good spirit. Now, for Levon, he has struggled in this tournament since a difficult start.

100%.

And he's playing a player, Anish Giri, who's found his form over the last few tournaments, who comes from a hot win himself. I think for Levon, it's going to be crucial to not let Anish get the edge.

Hot is an understatement here, Tanya. There were 2 pieces, like 2-piece sacrifices on the g5 square. I mean, if I could give him 2 Match of the Player, you know, awards on the same day, I would, because that was an insane game. But of course, Levon is, you know, a very strong player himself. I would say in this match, you know, it's all about, uh, who gets the momentum, uh, in the beginning of the game.

And you know, we can actually hear the fans go wild, which means that it can only mean one thing. That a certain player has arrived. That is the only explanation. Everyone gets the cheers, everyone gets support, but Bengaluru loses its mind when Magnus Carlsen enters the building.

Oh, I thought you were talking about Harshit there. Yeah, I thought Harshit had arrived, you know, over there. But, uh, it must be Magnus. You are right about that, Tanya. But yes, of course, Magnus effect works inside chess and also outside chess, 100%.

And that's the reason right now the fan zone behind us, you know, all the fans are out there to watch the teams come in, to cheer for them as they enter the arena. And Magnus Carlsen, you can always see him with that smile when he sees the auditorium erupt for him.

Absolutely. I mean, he must be used to it by now, but we still are, you know, in awe of how great he is, um, in this sense. And of course, the Magnus effect, I mean, for me, I think I only started to feel it, I think, for the first time with you in, in In an event a couple of years back, Tanya, but it just—you just never get used to it. Yeah, every time it's just—it's just an amazing feeling.

You run out of ways to describe his chess and his aura in tournaments. I completely agree with that, but I will make a case for Jan Nepomniachtchi. In their previous meeting, it was Jan who was pushing on the board. He had the advantage for 89 moves.

The goat had to defend. Absolutely, but he did defend, Tanya. That's the point—that that he just defends in in those moments. And I remember that rook endgame so well. We were. just commentating. And I— and, and there we see, of course, the players just walking in. And of course, a certain Magnus Carlsen is— I think he's already inside the hall, Tanya.

Well, he's missing. He did not come with the players. As we see, the buggies arrive with the remaining 5 boards, with it Anish. Best of friends walking together, no surprises there. But look at this, Sahaj. They're not even— usually they appease the fans, you know, they don't sign the autographs at the beginning. That has to wait till the match ends. But here you can see they are completely locked in. They know the weight that this encounter carries.

100%, 100%. Because of course you've got the, uh, teams who are, you know, basically fighting for the top 2 spots, and this is the team that's currently, you know, the favorites. And of course, if they win this match, they would be heavy favorites going into the finals. So it's gonna be a very, very important match over here.

Alpine Pipers were the big favorites getting in, and there he is, the man who always knows how to convert for his team. He's unbeaten so far in Bengaluru, handling the icon board with class, and right now interacting with fans. This is not something we usually see from Magnus at the start of the day.

Absolutely. And Magnus is here, Tanya, but you know, at the same time, I do have a feeling when We heard those fans. You know, I I did tell you that it could be Harshit, and guess what? It was actually Harshit who was outside. So Harshit, were those fans cheering for you outside?

I think they were cheering for the man, the myth, the legend Magnus Carlsen as he made his way inside the playing hall. This is going to be a very exciting clash.

Harshit, Magnus is fashionably late. ये तो सबको पता है. Where were you this morning?

I'm trying to match up. Yeah, to catch up and match up with Magnus Carlsen.

Hey, as long as it gets the fans going, you know, Harshit is happy with that, we are happy with that. So let's go, let's go, bye!

Wow, what a day we've set ourselves up for, and it's going to be awesome to watch these 2 teams go head-to-head against each other. Only one of them will take pole position at the end of it. We're expecting all 6 boards to deliver, and now the only thing left to do is head straight into the arena.

It's the reverse fixture and there is unfinished business. Both these teams have seen what the other can do. They know what the other can do. And the last time we had some really exciting drama on the icon board. Round 2, what does that bring? It is time to find out. Please give it up for the 2 teams, Alpine APL Pipers and the Ganges Grandmasters. Let's start with the Alpine APL Pipers who will be playing with the white pieces. 9 times World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen. Former Wijk aan Zee Champion Anish Giri. Former BL Champion Vidit Gujrathi. Olympiad Individual Gold Medalist Divya Deshmukh. Former Cans Cup champion Hampi Koneeru, former World Rapid champion Volodar Morzin, and their coach, the first Indian to get a GM nom, Praveen Deep Singh. And now the Ganges Grandmasters will be playing with the black pieces. World Blitz co-champion Ian Nepomniachtchi. 2 times Chess 960 champion Levon Aronian. 5 times Cuban champion Lenier Dominguez. I am not a GM winner on Chess.com Polina Shuvalova. The Greek goddess of Rula Solakidou. The Rising Lion, Luke Mendonça! And their coach, the Beast, Adiban Bhaskaran! The stage is set. It is now time for the handshakes. And now for the first move, may I please call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Bayer, and our special guest, Mr. Anil Kumar, partnerships and sponsorship, Pocket FM.

Magnus Carlsen, the ultimate conversion machine, while Jan Nepomniachtchi will bring in the speed and form as the ceremonial moves get underway. It's 1.e4, the King's Pawn Opening, that's been played. Magnus is about to take that back.

Will he? Will he though? Yes, he does, Tanya. This is a big match. Alpine APL Pipers taking on the Ganjies Grandmasters. Both teams looking for those final spots, staring at those top 2 spots. They cannot afford to blink right now. Divya Deshmukh playing on the Superstar Women's board against Polina Shivalova, perhaps the player of the tournament so far. It's a big task for Divya Deshmukh to find her first win of the tournament.

Shivalova was the only player for the Ganjies Grandmasters in their first meeting to win 4 The team. She got a three-pointer. It was not enough. It's handshakes. It's go time on the women superstar boards. It starts with the Sicilian.

Anya, this is super exciting. We start with the Sicilian opening. Polina Shivalova knows that she is going to play for a win, even though she is playing with the black pieces. Starts off with accelerated dragon here, and that has to be a surprise that she's prepared.

I love that Divya did not take too much time. Responds with opening up the center. Gets her queen at that spot that was hitting the rook at the edge of the board. Polina continues with development. Divya continues with development. We will continue our circle around. Let's quickly take a look at the other women's superstar board. Hampi taking on Stavrula.

This is another big clash because Koneiro Hampi has been someone who has been super stable and solid for the Alpine APL Pipers. This time has a small rating differential advantage over Stavrula Solakidou from. Greece. I think that it's, uh, going to be important that Humpy keeps this board under control and doesn't take too many risks. Again, to remind everyone, 4 points if you win with the black pieces.

She got a very key victory yesterday, so she's going to be relying on that momentum today. Humpy has been a steady performer for the Pipers. Let's move over to our men's superstar boards. Harshit, we will have action in just a few seconds.

अनिश टेकिंग ऑन लेवॉन, विदित टेकिंग ऑन लेनियर। and the last time these teams faced against each other, it was actually विदित गुजराती who scored the important points against लेनियर डोमिंगuez. the game between अनिश and लेवॉन ended peacefully, but I don't think that this game is going to end peacefully.

and there विदित is. he knows exactly what he did in that first meeting with लेनियर, and लेनियर has to make sure that he doesn't allow विदित strategic control in this Vidit had aggressive suffocation strategy. He outplayed Lenny in a positional battle. That has to be stopped by Lenny. It's handshakes and we're off.

We are off. Vidit going for the move pawn to d4. Knight to f6 responded by Lenny. Generally, Vidit loves to play the Catalan Opening with white, known for its solidity and, uh, strategic play. Lenny goes for the move pawn to e6, is inviting white to play the move knight to c3, which will be met with Bishop to b4.

He goes the other way. It is going to be the Queen's Gambit Declined, as we call this opening. The bishop does come forward by Leinier all the way, and now it has moved to the Ragozin, as we call it in the chess world.

It's moving to the Ragozin. And let's move to the board of Anish Giri and Levon Aronian, board number 2, as we get the cameras as well. We have Quite a few moves on this board. Do you want to just quickly take a look at which opening these players started with? They started with d4, d5, c4, e6, knight c3, bishop e7, pawn takes d5, e takes d5, bishop to f4, knight f6, e3, castles, bishop d3. A very solid Queen's Indian Opening. Pawn to c5. This game is developing in a way where black is trying to keep some tension. Over the center. Talking about tension, we have to go on the icon board.

Let's do that. Let's move over to Magnus Carlsen taking on Jan Nepomniachtchi. It was Magnus under pressure in their first meeting. Will he be able to put on the initiative with the white pieces this time? Jan Nepomniachtchi unbeaten in the Global Chess League so far. He's got the speed, he's got the form. What can he bring on today against the world number one as the two players look at the big screens to see how their teammates are doing in the openings. Harshit, in just a few seconds we'll have our first moves on this one. What are you predicting from Magnus on move number 1?

I am predicting that he's going to go for the move pawn to e4. These guys have played against each other on the highest of stages. Well, they have played against each other in a world championship match where Magnus Carlsen was able to defend his title. We do have handshake, and Magnus Carlsen thinking for the first move goes for the king pawn move pawn to e4.

And we once again see Jan Nepomniachtchi employ what is considered the most dynamic response to that King's Pawn Opening with the Sicilian. He's going to bring out his knight next. Will Magnus strike in the center going for an Open Sicilian? Will he bring his bishop out on the next move going for the Rossolimo? Will he keep it more closed? We will find out about Magnus Carlsen's opening strategy on this next move.

You know, Tanya, it's funny to me because Magnus Carlsen himself Deploys this variation so many times with the black pieces. This time, however, he's facing it with the white pieces. I personally think that he will go for bishop to b5. He has tremendous knowledge and experience about these structures where white gives away his bishop, captures the knight on c6, giving black doubled pawns.

I think Magnus has been spending a lot of time at the golf course this morning as well. Let's just be clear, this Is the second time the teams are meeting each other. Magnus knows he's going to play with the white pieces against Jan. How is he not prepared for a response on the third move? And he does bring that bishop out. We do have the Rossolimo, an opening that was revived in the 2018 World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Yes, this opening was revived.

It was actually played yesterday between Firouzja Alireza and Jan Nepomniachtchi. Jan Nepomniachtchi had already played this opening before. I'm so I'm curious to know if Magnus Carlsen has some interest. Well, I don't have to be curious. I'm sure he has one. Will he show it though?

Magnus, the question is, how well prepared is he for this match? Has he been spending too much time swinging the clubs, or has he been watching Jan Nepomniachtchi's games? This is an opening that Jan has played earlier at the Global Chess League. The fact that Magnus isn't instantly responding Makes me question his preparation today.

You know, Danya, I think Magnus is one of the players who doesn't rely so much. I mean, yes, he does rely on preparation, but I feel he's one of those players who's someone who excels much more when he feels good. And I think playing golf and just being in a good mood really makes him play his best chess. He's thought for over two minutes here. Just wants to make sure that he gets into a position which is unfamiliar for Jan Nepomniachtchi.

But look at the clock already. Jan started with 20 minutes on the clock. He's used 5 seconds.

He needs to speed up. He needs to speed up. Magnus Carlsen, do you want to quickly take a look on the Prodigy board? We haven't had a look on that board yet. It's between Volodar Morzin, the former World Rapid Champion, and the lion of Indian chess, Leon Mendoza, playing with the black pieces.

Let's do that. Let's do a quick opening roundup. This is the Global Chess League. Every single board matters for the team result. The Prodigy board started with the Queen's Pawn Opening in this one as well, and we saw the black bishop develop, pinning that knight on c3. White stepped up with the queen. This is still opening territory, opening theory. We saw black get the king to safety. The bishop was attacked. A trade happened. Again, Leon trying to get his bishop out on an active diagonal. White continued development. Black continued development. And finally, we see A question asked at the center of the board.

Exactly. The question is whether White wants to release the tension by taking the pawn on d5 or continue with his own development by bringing out his bishop to d3, trying to put his king into the safety as well. We've seen Black has already castled short. White has a bishop pair, Tanya, but the position is closed, which makes me like Black's position slightly better here. But of course, still the opening stage of the game.

Just feels like Leon's pieces are more developed than White's side right now. Still a move away from castle is Volodar Merzin. And you know, we're talking about questions in the center. I think Leon plans to ask some more of that. We will see that C pawn move 2 steps forward. Let's go! Full face-off between those 4 central forces.

Yeah, I think that's definitely what Leon is eyeing for. Morzen hasn't made his decision yet. I'm just trying to see if there is any other game which—

Let's go around the horn, Harshit. Let's bring up our Women's Superstar Board. And as we do that, A very happy birthday to Avadh, who's in the crowd as well, watching the action. The arena, it's a packed, packed audience right now. You got the Chess.com team sitting there.

Hello, hello for everyone watching from inside the playing hall. What an exciting match you have come in for between the Alpine Pipers and the Ganges Grandmasters. Smiles on the faces of the spectators. Hampi Koneru takes on Koneru.

And that's my family sitting there up front, and I'm so happy that they get to see some of the action here in Bengaluru. And what a day they've chosen to come with the matchups that we have. Sahaj, let's dive straight into this position. It's Koneru Hampi taking on Solakiidu right now, and we've already seen an open position appear with Black having a pawn formation at the center that very often leads to structural weaknesses.

Yeah, I love these positions for the white side here because whenever you take the pawn on c5, you give your opponent an isolated pawn. The knight on e5 is currently en prise here, which, which makes it impossible for white to capture the pawn. Queen to f3 played by Koneru Hampi. She's trying to swing the queen over to h3, which will keep an eye on the pawn on h7 as both the queen and the bishop set up some sort of a battery there. I like how Stavrula has managed her clock timing here. We've mentioned how there are 16 pieces on the board for both But the 17th piece, the clock coming— comes into the picture very often.

And guess who comes into the picture right in front of us? A huge day for the Alpine Pipers, and Nidhi, of course, there with full support, rooting with all her heart for Vidit and the Pipers to get the job done against the Ganges Grandmasters. Essentially, if the Pipers win this match, they have one foot into the finals.

Absolutely. They have, uh, they have done really well so far in this event. Well, they do have a star-studded team generally. You know, it's not so easy for everyone to perform well in a star-studded team, but I like how they've maintained their team composure. Queen to f3 played by Koneeru Hampi. We'll come back to this game. Let's go back quickly to the game of Divya Deshmukh and Polina Shuvalova. We've got a lot of trades in this position, Tanya.

If Divya is able to get out of this position and make sure Polina doesn't get rolling in this one, I think the Pipers would be happy with even a draw on this board, just given the fact That Polina has won five, has had five wins and one draw. And speaking of a draw, first result comes in. Yes. Vidit Gujarati, Lenny Damenguez with an early quick handshakes there. A position that was completely imbalanced. Are you surprised with this?

I'm definitely surprised by this, Tanya. I was expecting the game to go on for a bit more. It doesn't even feel like the players have agreed to a draw as they are still sitting down on the chairs looking at the other boards. The curiosity and intensity still exist, but there are kings on the center of the board, which just confirms that this. This game has ended in a draw. Score is 1-1.

I am very surprised, especially given— and there we have the handshakes as they were waiting for the arbiters to come and confirm the results. We'll see the pieces being set, the players walking out. They will still be seated on the daggar. Now, Vidit had a massive win against Lenya in their first meeting, and before we started, in my head, I really thought that on this board, Pipers will want to push.

But this is where the team strategy comes in. I'm sure that they were sitting together, uh, and discussing their match strategy, and perhaps Decided that they want to keep the board of Leinier Dominguez under control, at bay there. By the way, coming back to the board of Magnus Carlsen and Jan Nepomniachtchi, it feels as if Jan Nepomniachtchi has managed to develop his pieces and solve his opening problems quite well here.

And I just want to point out, while Jan's position looks healthy, Magnus has the only pawn that has crossed over the halfway mark on the board. That e5 pawn implies that Magnus's play will lie on the kingside.

Well, generally I would completely agree with you, but where is the light-squared bishop?

It's not on the board. And as long as that bishop doesn't exist, the attack cannot be powerful.

Exactly. And whenever there are pawns on d4 and e5, they just blunt our own bishop, the dark-squared bishop on c1. If the queens ever get exchanged, Jan Nepomniachtchi is going to have a great endgame. Magnus Carlsen needs to do well in the middlegame.

We will stick with this one, come back to it, but we've got to rush to Anish's board. And maybe this is the reason why with it felt taking an early draw made sense, because Anish has seized an advantage. This is the first board for the Pipers where we are seeing a real tangible advantage. It's an extra pawn for Anish Giri. 5 pawns versus 4 pawns, active pieces, a queen trade being offered right now. Levon Aronian for the Ganges Grandmasters in trouble.

Just look at the intensity with which Anish Giri is calculating this position. He started off with a loss in this tournament against Pranesh, but the resurgence with which he's come back for his team of Alpine APL Pipers is just incredible to see. Can he just not chop off a pawn here, Tanya? Just chop chop here, the pawn on h6. Well, it feels like I'm giving away a piece for free, but no, the knight on f6 is unprotected, and I think this is the reason why. In this position, Anish has an advantage because he can chop off the pawn on h6.

Both players head in hands. It's the moment that calculation will be required. I love the tactics you're pointing out. And now that we have an analysis board, we have the live board, let's just show that line one more time. Bishop takes pawn, deflecting the defender of that knight. You can throw in a queen trade, but it doesn't change anything. The rook will take the place the moment you capture the bishop. You pick up the knight, and at the end of it, when the dust settles, you're not just 1 but 2 pawns up in this position. I think the reason that Anish isn't rushing with this decision is because there are a lot of attractive options in that starting position that we have. Harshit, so many tactical points here. Notice how the Black queen is overloaded. It needs to defend that rook that's undeveloped for Levon Aronian. Is the move bishop to e5, planting it at the center of the board—

Oh boy, that's an incredible spot. That is a beautiful spot there because you're just overloading the black queenside. Anish getting ready.

He's— I think he's reaching for the pawn. He's reaching for that pawn at the edge of the board. He's going to go bishop takes pawn. And— oh, he pulls back. A little hesitation. 8th coming.

Boom! He does it. Anish Giri. And look at the emphatic way with which he captured the pawn on h6. Back to his thinking posture. Job is not done yet, but he is 2 pawns up for the Alpine APL Pipers.

Huge trouble on this board for the Ganges Grandmasters. For Levon Aronian, he's going to go down 2 pawns. I'm going to make a quick case. for Levon's defensive chances in that endgame. To give a little bit of a hope to the Ganges, if you trade the queens, the rook comes in, pawn takes bishop, rook takes knight, and at this moment you see that the black rook can slide over the 2nd rank and put some pressure. What Levon will be relying on— let's also highlight the tender spot on f2 eyeballed by the bishop that's on b6 right now, and it just feels the black king will step up to g7 at the right time. The other rook will try to come to the second rank via the c8 line, and Levon Aronian will rely on piece activity for compensation. Yeah, enough or not?

He definitely has compensation here, but only for one pawn. I do think that 2 pawns is just too big of a deficit for Levon Aronian to, uh, have enough compensation for. Anish Giri for sure, for sure in the driver's seat.

All right, Vidit has drawn his game against Lanyea. Anish on advantage. Let's bring up our bird's eye view, our 6-board view, to do a quick roundup. of where the 2 teams are placed right now.

I just love this entire view here as we get to see all the 6 boards and their evaluation bars. We have Magnus Carlsen on the top left taking on Jan Nepomniachtchi, and a small advantage for Jan Nepomniachtchi, not only on the board but also on the clock. He has almost a 7-minute time advantage. Jan Nepomniachtchi seems to always get into good positions against Magnus.

All right, you know, Harshit. One second. Top row, we've got Anish Giri with a big advantage right now. Levon's last move gets a question mark. But look at the clock situation on each of the boards for the Ganges Grandmasters. They're ahead on the clock on every single of those six boards. They need to use the clock as a weapon.

And I'm sure this is a conscious decision by the Ganges Grandmasters to play fast and put pressure on the Alpine APL Pipers on the clock. The point is that if you somehow win one game with the black pieces, you get four points. That's just you know too big of a result there. By the way, knight to d five and let's go to Anish Giri because he has a beautiful tactic. He sacrificed his bishop once. Can he do it again? Well, that's the question that Anish Giri is thinking to himself. Can I chop off the pawn on g seven? Is he about to do it? Is he about to do it? Wow!

Levon Aronian is having blind spots one after another. Notice how you cannot grab that bishop. The knight will jump in with a. fork, picking up the rook. And at the end of the line, the white rook will line up on that central file. You'll see all of this being played in seconds right now. The rook will line up against the knight and the bishop, winning even more material. And this is what Levon was relying on. This is where Anish will take a pause, because you can't automatically pick up that bishop. There is a fork at the end of this line. Knight to e2 after rook takes bishop will actually mean Levon will be up a piece.

But what is it that Levon missed? I think this is what Anish missed, to be honest. Maybe we were wrong to, uh, to think that Levon Aronian missed the combination of bishop takes g7. But this entire sequence with knight to f4 in the end, huge advantage for Anish.

So there is a move, and that's what I'm wondering. What is it that Levon has missed at the end of this line? Is it just the evaluation that white has rook and 3 pawns?

I think we've just had a change in the character of the position. White was up 2 pawns for nothing, and now at least Black has these 2 minor pieces. Even though White has 3 pawns and a rook for the 2 minor pieces, the material advantage is the same, but we have transformed that advantage where Black has 2 minor pieces. I think this is a good practical try by Levon to hold this position.

I love how you break that down. 2 pawns equal to 2 points. Rook and 3 pawns versus 2 minor pieces also equal to 2 points in The math advantage right there, but a different kind of a dynamic advantage here. And who do you think that favors? Does that give more hope to Levon from where he's coming from? I think so.

I do think so because once the bishop goes back to b6 and we get the rook on the seventh rank, as you were highlighting, putting pressure on the tender f2 spot, that will be really, really something that Levon Aronian will rely on to to hold this game. Can I please take you to the game of Koneu Hampian? सवरूला सोलाकिडू, because on the fifth board, the superstar women's board, so far कोनेरु हंपी has been super stable. सवरूला सोलाकिडू, on the other hand, has been finding some momentum for the Ganges Grandmasters, and this board is going to be essential for कोनेरु हंपी to keep under control. If सोलाकिडू wins this game, I think if सोलाकिडू wins this, Ganges take this match.

The women's superstar board could be a decisive factor in this matchup. हंपी did beat Sola Kidu in their first meeting. She was one of the 2 scorers getting Alpine Pipers their 11-6 victory against the Ganges Grandmasters. The GGs looking to turn the tide in their favor in this one. I do like the position that Sola Kidu has with the black pieces here. It just feels that c4 pawn that's advanced again into enemy camp is really clamping down Humpy's pieces, taking away some key squares from the white knight, from the white bishop. And meanwhile, it's just easier to get to that a3 pawn for black than it is for white to target a weakness.

Tanya, I'm feeling very generous today. Can I just give you as white my d4 pawn? Because this d4 pawn is really annoying for me because I cannot, you know, put pressure on the knight on f6, and the bishop on c3 is like a big pawn, as you like to say.

So what you're saying is that Hampi needs to pull an Anish, just reach out for that pawn and chuck it out of the board or pocket it, because the best move for her here is To not have that pawn on the board.

Exactly, Stavroula.

You want that bishop to be a sniper.

And, uh, you know, Black does have the space advantage, and I think it's very important in this position for Black that he has— that she has the pawn on c4. Knight to e4 at some point is going to be an idea and possibility for Stavroula. Man, I just love how completely zoned in Stavroula is. She's not even cared about the other board. She's like, if I win this board and this match for my team, that's all I can do. Whereas Koneeru Humpy is also keeping an eye on the other boards, trying to decide whether she needs to, you know, at some point go for something super solid or go for all-in with some sort of an attack towards the black king.

You know what this last move of Starula does is that she's saying there's only one open file in the position. Only the b-line is accessible to the rooks, and Solakidu wants to fight for that file. She's moved the bishop. Humpy stops that bishop from coming forward, pushes her pawn. And I'm expecting Solakidu to challenge Hampi's rook at the right moment. Harshit, we'll come back to this. I want to go back to our icon board right now. Let's go. Anish Giri still with a big advantage, but what's happening in this matchup as we've got the fans watching there enjoying themselves in the arena? What a treat it is for them, Harshit, to be able to see the absolute legends of the game live in action in Bengaluru.

Oh, I Absolutely. I'm sure that after a few years, when they look back on this experience, they're going to be like, "Wow! I was so happy that I made the decision to come to Bangalore, to come to this playing hall, to watch these players." मजा आ गया स्थानिया। और और मजा आने वाला है because so much chess action.

This is the first of our four matches. Let's deep dive into the action on the Magnus Carlsen board. We'll have that in front of you, and that last move by the world number one has gotten a question mark. Harshit, can we just backtrack and do a quick action replay of this?

Yes, I think we were around this position when we last saw it, where Black had these 2 bishops, uh, and we discussed how it's important for White to put some pressure towards the Black king, not exchange the queens. Oopsie doopsie, did not want to go there so quickly. Knight to c3, Queen to d7, protecting the bishop on b5. You cannot take the bishop here as you lose your rook on e1. Pawn to h4 played by Magnus. Trying to create some sort of a weakness in black's territory here. Rook f to c eight, pawn to h five played by Magnus. Pawn to h six played by Jan. Notice how Magnus had decided to sacrifice a pawn for some initiative here. It could have been possible for Jan Nepomniachtchi to capture a pawn.

Too terrifying. You push that h pawn. It's going to be a steamroller creating the Swiss cheese around the black king. You'll be forced to go g six, Harshit. And then all the dark squares will start falling apart with the queen and the bishop finding inroads towards the black king.

Yeah, and I think it was a nice practical decision by Jan Nepomniachtchi to not accept that pawn sacrifice. Go pawn to h6, bishop d2, bishop goes back to a6, knight to h4. The engine gives this as a mistake, but I don't think the engine can calculate and understand positions as well as Magnus Carlsen.

That's true. Magnus is the human Stockfish if there ever was. It's almost like he's got an inbuilt ability, superpower, But my question is, and this is what Magnus had done. My question was, where was the knight headed? The answer is, it wasn't headed anywhere. He wanted to open the pathway for the white queen to come in, and it lands with a pin on the g-file right now. Once the knight has gotten out of the way, the queen arrives, and now watch out, Jan Nepomniachtchi. The bishop sneakily threatening the pawn on h6. Bishop takes pawn is an idea you need to take care of. I'm expecting Jan to sidestep with his king, unpin himself. Defend the kingside. Jan is saying, "I've taken care of your attack there," but that d4 pawn, if we just highlight, Jan is going to double down, triple down, quadruple down on that pawn. Knight coming there, bishop hitting it. Will Magnus have enough defenses?

I think you know Magnus Carlsen needs to make a decision here, Tanya, because he can either go something like rook to e3, which would just declare that he's going for war. He doesn't want to back down. He doesn't care about the pawn on d4. All he cares about is the king because he needs to. Conquer the empire. He needs to go the move Rook to g3, hitting checkmate here.

I think he just did it.

He did it. Let's go!

On point there, Harshit. Rook to e3 on the board, a rook lift done to transfer the rook to the other side like you said. Notice how all of Jan's army is on the left flank. The king is left alone on the right side, and for Magnus, that's sort of the radar, his Spidey senses hitting in. That he needs to attack where there are no pieces for Jan. He's going to get the rook. We can expect some sacrificial attack coming in right now. Rook g3 is a threat. It might force Jan to use his own rook, get it next to the king, and keep things under control via the g8 square.

And you know, even though practically— even though objectively Black can just defend his king completely with, uh, the move rook to g8, somehow it feels a little dangerous as White brings 4 of his pieces towards The attack and towards the black king. I'm personally thinking that Jan might consider the move knight to f5.

I want to make a case in this point that while it looks scary, that Magnus's knight on h4— the knight on the rim, they say, are dim— it's not really doing anything. Do I want to trade it off instantly? It's not an easy decision to make.

Well, I think that we just want to get rid of one of the attackers because as we are defending towards our king on h7, Just trading one of the attackers for the defenders, I think, should help Black in this position.

Yeah, Nepomniachtchi with some big decisions, but look at the clock. Wow, he's up almost 7 minutes on the clock, and this is something that Nepomniachtchi does over and over again. He uses the clock as his biggest weapon.

I have been super impressed by how Jan Nepomniachtchi has played against Magnus Carlsen in both of these matches so far. In the first game, he had a winning advantage, was unable to convert it. But the relentless pressure which, which he was playing and putting on the clock was just impressive.

And he brings the rook into the defense, as we had discussed, Harshit. I think he wants to keep his minor pieces as long as possible to target that d4 pawn. If Magnus's attack on the kingside comes to naught, if there's no progress to be made on that right flank by Magnus Carlsen, his center will fall apart. The bishop ready to slide back. The knight ready to jump forward. Hit that central pawn with all that you've got.

Yeah, and he does go for the move rook to g3. And I do think that we've reached some sort of a standstill here as white has brought all of his pieces towards the black kingside. But how does he proceed from here? How does he bring more, you know, troops into the battle here? It's not so easy. Well, all the squares on the g-line have been occupied already. You know, this is another scenario where you would love to give the g2 pawn to your opponent so that you can bring The rook via a1 to g1. But of course, with the g2 pawn, no more pieces that can put pressure on the g7 pawn. I think Black's king is super safe now.

That's the feeling that you get. And I will point out again, Magnus Carlsen hitting that 5-minute mark with big questions ahead for him. It's not a simplified position. This is not a Magnus Carlsen endgame. It is a Jan Nepomniachtchi middle game is what we have. Chaos on the board, complexities on the board, that forest of complications where 2+ 2= 5. And the path out is wide enough for one is what Yann Nepomniachtchi has created.

Oof, we are really entering a wild territory here as you talk about some forest here, Tanya. I want to take you to board number 5 because Stavrula Solakirou— and maybe we can just have the live board here because I think this game is completely going towards Stavrula's direction here, going in the favor of Ganji's grandmaster. The last move Pawn to e4, a small inaccuracy by Koneru Hampi.

And will Star Ruler punish this moment right now? e4 has been played, and the question on my mind here is, why is this so bad? Why is there such a big advantage? I see that Black controls the open file, you have beautifully placed bishops at the center, but Hampi is threatening— she's threatening that e-pawn moving forward to e5 on the next move.

Well, if It's the combination of the 2 things that you just mentioned, Tanya. We have the open line on the b-line, but the b2 square is controlled. e5 is a threat. Bishop to b4, getting away from the threat of pawn to e5 and trying to get another— oh wow— set of connected passed pawns here is the way with which Savrula can get her winning advantage. She has 5 minutes and 20 seconds to find this.

If Savrula finds the bishop move at this moment, she seizes big initiative in the position. Let's bring up our bird's-eye view right now. We've got the evaluation bars with us, but let's do a quick roundup. Where are the chances coming in if Stavrula is better on this one? Ganji's Grandmaster is potentially looking at a 4-pointer on our bottom center board. Where are you making the case for the Pipers?

Just look on the, on board number 2, Tanya. We're mentioning how transforming the advantage, giving Black the 2 minor pieces in the favor, is in the favor of Black, and it's completely, uh, showing Here in the current position, as Black has managed to get the pawn to a3. If Levon can ever capture the pawn on a2, he's just 2 squares away from promoting that pawn.

I, I— Levon Aronian in trouble with the Black pieces, top center. But those top 2 boards also— take a look at the timer. Magnus Carlsen touching 4 minutes, Anish Giri just under 4 minutes. So both players for the Ganges Grandmasters are putting pressure on the clock there. We've already had a draw. The result is peaceful at 1-1, but all the other boards, anything but peaceful. The Prodigy board, I want to just highlight quickly. White putting pressure. Volodymyr Zin for the Pipers has got his queen to the edge of the board attacking some key pawns.

Yeah, and if I were to, you know, predict the live, uh, positions of all the matches that we have in front of us, I would give a small edge for the Ganges Grandmasters right now. And that's because on board number 5, I feel that Stavrula has a huge advantage. Also on board number four, even though Divya Deshmukh is a pawn up currently in the live position, as Stavrula Solakidou finds the move bishop to b four. What a clutch move by the Greek number one there, finding the key trade of pieces by playing the move bishop to b four.

Absolutely, that's the bottom center board. We see her pawn structure changing. Those two black pawns are about to move forward. Speaking of pawns, Divya Deshmukh. Has an extra pawn. Five versus four. Bottom left is where I want everyone to look at. But also notice Polina's rook is so incredibly active. It's hitting two pawns at the same time. There's a pawn on E three, a pawn on C two, and one of them is about to fall. Very likely to end in a draw. If we look at the bars across the six boards, it's on Solakidu's board—the only one where we see a sizable advantage—and it's for the Ganges Grandmasters.

Yeah, it's still complicated, but definitely an advantage for Savrula there. I want to go back to the icon board as Magnus dips below two minutes and thirty seconds on. His clock. Yan Nepomniachtchi has a seven-minute advantage on the clock. He has the best chance.

Wait, something's happening. Why is the arbiter on the table? Let's go full screen and try to figure this out. Wait, what? Did that just end in a draw? Was there a draw offer that just and it did? Harshit, Yan Nepomniachtchi has just agreed for a draw where there was everything to play for and extra time on the clock. Yeah. Will this be a decision? That the Ganji's Grandmasters will live to regret today.

I'm very surprised by this. I felt like Yan Nepomniachtchi should keep the game going, especially with such a lead on the clock. As you can see, both the players who have played against each other several times having a moment for themselves.

It was a repetition. Let's just show that before we move over. Harshit, it wasn't a draw offer, but let's go back to the point where a knight trade happened on the board, and then we had a back and forth going on. And this is how the game between Magnus and Jan came to an end. Wow!

Yeah, no, I think that was a huge result, uh, actually in a, in a positive way for the Alpine APL Pipers. I was a bit worried on Magnus's board. Let's go to the board of Anish Giri and Levon Aronian as Levon Aronian is about to defend this position.

I think this is another good result for the Ganges Grandmasters because he was much worse He has survived the worst, and that gamble that you were talking about, changing the imbalance in the position, has worked to his favor. If you do the math right now, Anish still has a rook and 2 pawns for 2 minor pieces. But that a2 pawn, if that falls, Levon Aronian will be completely winning. So White, Anish Giri, will be forced to keep an eye on this. Meanwhile, what Anish is trying to do is put pressure on the lone remaining pawn that Levon has on the left side of the board. He wants to double down, but Black's rook will be ready to take care of any attack on that flank. The knight will start jumping around. Let's do a path: knight e2, c1, c3— 2 squares that you will be looking at to get to the a2 pawn. If anything, I think Anish with 3 minutes has to be careful on this board.

He absolutely needs to be careful. I mean, if he somehow manages to lose this game with the white pieces, that's just going to be too big of a turnaround for the Alpine APL Pipers. To handle. By the way, good news for the Alpine APL Pipers because on the board of Koneiro, Hampian, Solakidou, the game has now equalized.

Wow!

So that has turned around as well. I just want to make a point: Jan Magnus ending soon, I think, was part of Jan's strategy, Ganji's Grandmaster strategy that on the icon board, we are not going to take big chances against Magnus Carlsen. A draw is a good result for us. The pressure will be on the other boards to try to get the scoring in.

Easy to connect the dots looking backwards, but I do think that with the with the information Jan Nepomniachtchi had, I would perhaps think that he should have kept the game going with such a lead on the clock.

But well, do you feel against anyone else Jan Nepomniachtchi plays? But because he has Magnus Carlsen sitting opposite him, a draw is what you want. Get it out of the way. As we see the dugout, the players can't get out of the way. They have to stay till the matches end. And Magnus and Vidit in discussion there.

And you know, this is one of the reasons why I would love to be on Magnus's side. Because after you finish your game quickly, you have the chance, uh, to analyze the games. And look at Magnus, he has a smile on his face. I think he's very happy with the result that he had, with the draw that he made against Jan Nepomniachtchi.

Is he happy with that, or is he happy with the way his teammates are doing right now? Let's bring up our bird's-eye view and do a full overlook. With 4 remaining boards, where are the chances coming from?

I think, uh, you know, let's just quickly take a look. We've had 2 results so far. The score currently is 2-2. 2 for the Alpine APL Pipers, 2 for the Ganges Grandmasters. 4 remaining boards, uh, still. And you know, for me personally, I think that Polina Shualova's game is going to get super interesting because, uh, Black has those pawns on— White is actually a pawn up currently, but I have a feeling that Polina Shualova will get some chances in this position to play for a win. She has a 30-second advantage on the clock.

Wow, that one brewing up excitingly, even though bottom left such few pieces remain. A complex middlegame in that, but in the balance right now. Humpy has managed to survive the board. The board right next to that also in the balance, but a big blunder by Humpy means that now it is Solakidu who's on the push one more time. She strikes with her e-pawn, but it's a pawn sacrifice. What is on Solakidu's cards?

Let's just quickly get that, that camera very quickly. What a beautiful find by Stavrula here. The bishop on e8 is going to come into g6, helping— unbelievable— control the b1 square. And look at her, she finally breathes a sigh of relief. She This is the moment, this is the moment which will clinch the match potentially for the Ganges Grandmasters.

And it was right here, just a move ago, when Humpy could have saved it by already taking advantage of that spot of getting her rook into a defensive position. She missed this opportunity. Instead, for that time, jumped in with her knight. This would have kept the balance, would have saved it for the Pipers. She missed that one window, and sometimes it's just one blunder that decides the game. Finding it on the spot, gets the exclaim. The bishop will now not allow Humpty's rook into a key defensive square. Divya Deshmukh defends on her board, ends in a draw. That's 3 peaceful results so far.

And can we quickly go to the board of Anish Giri and Levon Aronian? Because Anish is going passive, and look at him, he's shaking his leg. Well, he has many reasons to do that because knight to c3 and he's losing the pawn on a2.

And this is the idea we were earlier discussing, that Levon will get to that a pawn. Let's highlight that in red. That pawn falls. It's red alert for white right after that. Levon Aronian looking confident. Anish Giri has got 39 seconds on the clock.

And I am really scared for Anish's position right now. And the position is only one of the reasons why he should be scared, because he only has 40 seconds on his clock. Levon Aronian, on the other hand, completely focused, completely calm, because he's got a huge golden opportunity here.

And it was a very difficult endgame for Anish to handle with a massive weakness on a2. Gets the double question mark, gets the red blunder right there. Humpy is about to go down. Levon has turned tables around. Can these grandmasters take the initiative? The knight jumps there. The a2 pawn is dead.

Yeah, you know, it just takes two two moves or two seconds of you know just make a move, Anish.

You have 25 seconds, but no easy moves to be found. He's forced to give up material. To save that pawn, and now Levon Aronian has an extra knight, and that one lone pawn remaining is a key factor. That f7 pawn—if Levon can keep that on the board, he will take the win.

And look at Levon Aronian there, just exercising his muscles, just feeling confident about his position right now. But it feels like we are just very close to getting a result on the board of Conero Humpy. Well, actually, we have the bird's eye view, so I'll go back to the board of Anish Giri and Levon as we. Both the boards and their cameras.

And Humpy with 24 seconds, Anish Giri with 13 seconds. Huge pressure on the Alpine Pipers who've been unstoppable in this league so far. Ganges Grandmasters are about to take the lead if they can get a 4-pointer on these boards. And, and a result! Humpy resigns. It's Tavrula who gets the first win for the Ganges Grandmasters, a 4-pointer win nonetheless. And right now all eyes on Anish Giri. Can he save it? And we've got 2 matches remaining. Let's have both of them on the screen. Now, that means that for the Pipers, they need 2 white wins to win the match.

I mean, the point— the problem for Anish Giri is that a draw is not enough. We only have 2 boards remaining. If Anish Giri, uh, doesn't win this game, the match is over. All Levon Aronian needs is a draw, Tanya, to clinch this match.

And this is the kind of position which is called playing for 2 results in chess. Levon Aronian has an extra piece. That knight does not have a challenger. On the right side of our screen, we have the Prodigy board. If Levon finishes his game off in a draw, it doesn't even matter what happens on the Prodigy board. Exactly. Where actually Volodymyr Zin for the Pipers is pushing. He has a chance. And Anish was winning.

Anish was winning. He messed it up. And now let's just quickly take a look at what's happening on the board of Levon Aronian because only 9 seconds for Anish Giri and he has made some sort of a mistake here by placing his king to h4. Perhaps something like rook to d2 followed by rook Rook to d3, exchanging a pair of rooks would be over. Finito.

The rooks are off the board. That's handshakes on the spot. Levon Aronian, worst-case scenario, gets a draw in that position. You absolutely cannot lose. And Anish Giri is desperate right now. He's got 6 seconds on the clock. The king is checked, comes back. Volodymyr Morozin is getting it done on the Prodigy board, but it's too little too late for the Pipers, man.

And this is exactly where this format and the rule of getting 4 points with black comes into the picture, as I think the score is going to be level in terms of the points, like in terms of the wins that they scored. But because Black gets those extra 4 points, I think that's going to be the key factor in deciding this match.

And the problem for Anish is that how do you even create tricks in this position? There's nothing remaining. You only have a rook and 2 pawns if you're Anish. And he was in complete control. Beautiful opening play, dominating in the middle game. In that endgame, he messed it up, allowing Levon in. And Levon's knight gets in, the rook is in. Aronian needs only a draw for the Ganges Grandmasters.

Beautiful maneuver there by Levon because you cannot play the move.

It is Anish Giri resigns. The position falls apart, his clock falls apart, and that is game over. Levon Aronian with that last brilliancy wraps it up on the spot. The Ganges Grandmasters take down the Alpine Pipers.

Yeah, and Anish Giri knew it was his board that cost him the match. As soon as the match was over, Over, he looked at the results of the other boards, and he knew that he had to strike on his board for the Alpine APL Pipers to win. We have one more board remaining, but the result is going to be inconsequential as the scorecard is updated 11 to 3 for the Ganges Grandmasters.

A three-point is maximum that Volodar Mursin can score with a win in this position, where he does have a big advantage. He has currently an extra pawn on the left side of the board. But it has to be heartbreaking for the Alpine Pipers. It just means that Ganges will be in pole position. They'll be at the peak right now after this round. For Mirzaan, game points is what he's fighting for. Oh, for sure.

He still needs to be focused. I mean, we are getting closer and closer to the finish line here, and the game points are going to come into the picture here. 3 points is what he can give the Alpine APL Pipers. He shouldn't look at the scorecard right now.

Now, Leon's had many a turnaround in Global Chess League, so you can't write him off just yet. You know, he's made miracles happen at the end of it. Right now, with 2 rooks still remaining for Black, there are chances to create complications. He is trying to get his rook more active currently, bring it behind those pawns on the left side to put pressure. 11 seconds for Mendonsa. 11 seconds on the clock.

Yeah, he, he's somehow trying to hold this position. He has brought his rook to a4, trying to get it to a6 to just pin down the pawn on b6. Rook to c7 seems like a very strong move here for Volodar Morzin. Will he play it? 4 seconds for Leon Mendonsa. Rook to b4. Oh, I love this maneuver by Morzin. Placing his rook on the sixth rank, putting pressure on the e6 pawn.

Ooh!

It's like Leon wasn't even giving Morzin enough time to complete his move. He's ready with his response. The king comes back. Positionally, it's completely busted for black. White is winning with that extra pawn on the b-file. But Mendonça is looking for tricks on the clock, trying to drive Morzin down to his final few seconds where we've seen anything can happen. Anything can happen. I love.

Well, the match is over for the team of Alpine APL Pipers, but I'm sure this is a positive sign for the team that even though the match is over, there are players who are still fighting, trying to get those important board points for their team. Rook to b1 threatening rook to c1 check. Morzin doesn't fall for that trap, goes the move king to c4, e5. Leon trying to be trickier, advances with his pawn to e5, and a mistake by Morzin allowing black to recapture on e5 with the rook.

It doesn't matter. Mistakes will happen with both players playing on their final seconds. More twists and turns ahead. The question is, will the Alpine Pipers go down 3-15, or will it be 11-6 at the end of this match? Will the Pipers be able to get critical game points? Mendonça with 1 second on the clock.

And he just barely managed to make a move, and he captures the pawn on e3. And look at Murzin there, he's unhappy. He's allowed Black to capture the pawn on e3, but that was a mistake.

What is this game? It's a crazy rook and pawn endgame, and Mendonsa realizes it. But I don't think Murzin knows that he was winning in that moment. And this is what happens when you have seconds on the clock with all the pawns out of the board, traded off. Murzin, head in hands for the Alpan Pipers. They go down. Ganji's Grandmasters, led by Jan Nepomniachtchi, get it done. And an applause, a well-deserving one, taking down the mighty Pipers.

I simply cannot believe, Tanya, that the Alpine APL Pipers could not even score a win on a single board.

Not a single win for the Pipers. 4 draws, 2 black wins. Stavrula, Levon Aronian. Levon turning a difficult position around, and just when we were talking about what a struggle of a tournament it's been, he shows up for his team. It is these 2 players right in front who got Got the job done for the Ganjis Grandmasters. They go on to take pole position.

You know, we were thinking about this tournament is going to be all about youth and the energy and the speed with which the players can play in this quicker format, but the experience and the wisdom that this team has shown in this tournament has just been amazing. And look at that, you know, emphatic handshake between Levon and Leon.

Wow! And we started the day with the Pipers being 3 points ahead, 3 game points ahead of the Ganges Grandmasters. With this win, all of that has turned around. A match point lead, game point lead, and right now we are going to go to Arohi to see who is the match of the player. Arohi, take it away.

Match number 21, the Alpine APL Pipers versus the Ganges Grandmasters, and we have the result. The Ganges Grandmasters win this face-off.

12 for 4.

Calling the chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Geier, as well as the coaches of the 2 teams, Adiban Bhaskaran for the Grandmasters, Praveen Deepse for the Vipers, to sign on the final result.

The player. Fine, great. I'm gonna make it.

And the match of the player was.

Well, the match of the player will come later. It was such an exciting moment, Harshit. I think I'm eating my own words right now, but oh my God, I think it has to be in my head between Stavrula and Levon Aronian, the 2 big wins that came in for the Ganges Grandmasters. I think it's going to be one of them. 2 very different stories where Stavrula had full control from the start, but Hampi was able to find those difficult moves and get right back into the game. But that final e3 was stunning. Meanwhile, Levon, a roller coaster of a fight, on the back foot for the most part, and then finding that courage to turn it all around.

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, to have the ability to just keep yourself calm under such a difficult position and even, you know, wait for the perfect opportunity to strike back— Levon Aronian is known to be one of the legends of the chess history for a reason there. And you can see Stavrula had smiles before the game with the, with a nice little, uh, you know, wave. And she kept that smile even after the match as she was the reason why the Ganges Grandmasters won.

And few would have predicted that the Alpine Pipers, who've become the team to beat in GCL Season 4, would go down in this epic battle. Jan Nepomniachtchi came with a strategy: hold off Magnus Carlsen no matter what, do not give him the initiative. And that's exactly what he did. He got his job done with the black pieces. He was able to get a very playable middle game. If anything, we felt it would be Jan who would be taking the advantage, as the fans loved the match right there. I think watching it from the commentary box was an absolute treat.

And you know, this result perhaps by Vidit Gujrathi might be something that they would be, uh, you know, looking back on. Maybe that was not the best decision with the white pieces by Vidit to just agree on a draw 2 minutes into The match Magnus Carlsen versus Jan Nepomniachtchi's game, on the other hand, a very classy decision by Jan Nepomniachtchi to you know agree for a draw even with such a big lead on the clock.

I completely agree with you. I think for Vidit knowing that he showed utter domination against Lenya in their first meetup, to so quickly let that fizzle out is something that you start rethinking. But again, in hindsight, everything makes sense right now. Jan Nepomniachtchi is the only one. Looking back and feeling happy about his decision. Meanwhile, Divya was able to keep the Polina engine from going in this round, but it wasn't enough for the Pipers.

Yeah, Divya needs to find her form in this tournament, Tanya. She hasn't had a single win yet, and that's for sure been one of the storylines for the Alpine APL Pipers. This was the turnaround of the complete match here. Rook to b3 by Levon Aronian, attacking the pawn on f3. Lost on the clock there, lost on the board there. Anish Giri, a tough handshake. And a big win for the Ganges Grandmasters.

You know, Harshad, they say that attacks win games, defense wins championship. And to save those, uh, uh, those key points, those key moments is what Levon Aronian showed today. And he's been having a struggling tournament so far. So to come back against Anish in such a difficult position, finding those key ideas where he sacrificed pieces, that long line that he had to calculate, the sequence of moves going into this endgame Targeting Anish's lone pawn on the left flank. Everything done beautifully, and for the first time, the Alpine Pipers know today what's what it's like to not have a single win across the boards.

Yeah, I mean, it's just completely unexpected, right? We say that it's the Global Chess League where you can expect the unexpected. That's the match summary here, Tanya. Four for the Alpine APL Pipers and twelve for the Ganges Grandmasters, and those two superstars with the Pictures on the match summary are the reason why Ganji's Grandmasters have smiles on their faces. Who's it going to be?

Who is going to be the player of the match is the question in my mind. Levon Aronian or Stavrula? I'd want chat to get involved. In just a few seconds, we will reveal that. Chat, who do you think has been the MVP for the Ganji's Grandmasters? And while I say that, in my heart, I feel that every player did their job on the board.

Yeah, you know, somehow you would just love to share that trophy with your teammates. Well, The Ganges Grandmasters are sharing trophies with their teammates because Travrula has already gotten the Man of the Match award. Paulina has already gotten that award. Jan has got that award.

And now it's Levon, I think. We'll find out in just a few, chat. Who do you think? And once again, this was what Global Chess League stands for— a full, complete team performance. You know, you make sure that Magnus Carlsen, as an icon, does not get what he wants with the white pieces. Lenier, who suffered earlier, stops that suffering against Vidit. You make sure that Divya isn't able to bounce back from her form. Hampi also had to see, taste what it's like to go down. You know, Stavrula getting her revenge right there. The day started with the Pipers and the Ganjis arriving, and only one team leaves with the points.

Yeah, and I think this is, uh, this is after potentially that the match was over. Where they are heading towards the— we're heading towards the players' lounge. Of course, disappointing faces on the APL Pipers team. Magnus Carlsen still finding some time to sign some score sheets there, sign some autographs there. That's a nice gesture by him.

And the reason they're not going to be leaving the Lalit is because they have one more match today in the arena. They will be facing Vishy Anand's PBG Alaskan Knights. That's later on today, starts at 6 PM. But right now it's all about recovery and reset for the Alpine Pipers, for Ganji's Grandmasters. It's been a fantastic day. But Harshit, even for them, it's a doubleheader today. They go up against the Fire's American Gambits, but they've got to be feeling good after everything that just happened.

They've already established themselves on the top of the leaderboard. We were talking about who's going to win the player of the match. Let's go to Arohi to find out what— who's that going to be.

Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony of match number 21, the first match of today. We expected a lot of drama, we expected a lot of action, and I'm sure the audience wasn't disappointed. Please give it up for the winners, the Ganges Grandmasters! Congratulations, Grandmasters. Ian, starting with you, there's a lot of history on that board. The Aikin board, the opponent today. At the introduction, uh, you did give a smile, and then when you got into it, with the kind of face-off that y'all had had in the last fixture against each other, we expected a lot from that board.

Um, thank you, first of all. Uh, well, I started playing this line recently, and I thought like, uh, maybe I like play Petrov because normally draw is fine against Magnus, but then And because of Magnus himself, he always plays c5, knight c6, like, so often. I felt like it's such an opportunity to learn from him. And he played bishop takes c6, which was, like, a bit disappointing. Like, it didn't seem like a great move.

But all in all, it was, I think, like, you know, a close game.

But, you know, I thought, like, I had an easy game. But at some point, I checked, like, what did Leinier do with black? And yeah, Leinier played the flawless game, I think, against Vidit.

Always a delight to watch the two of y'all on the board. Stavi, got your revenge, huh?

Yeah, it feels good.

Talk us through your game because one of the crucial moments came from your board. You won the game for the team, 4 points. Now that adds to whatever the total would have been.

Yeah, I guess I feel like the position was easier for me than for her, and with being low on time, it was hard How are you going to celebrate this win today? Okay, well, we have another game for today, so I wanna just stay focused and, you know, but yeah, they're a super strong team and I'm very happy we won.

So very great start of the day, carrying that momentum in the second game of the day. All the best for that one.

Thank you so much.

And now to give away the Player of the Match award, may I please call upon Miss Shreya Dev, Legal Pocket FM. And the Player of the Match award goes to Levon Aronian! Nivon, congratulations. Uh, wasn't an easy game at all. You came back from a, a slightly more advantageous position that he had, but with that kind of experience, was it more difficult or easier?

Yes.

Um, yeah, of course I got lucky, very lucky, but, uh, I always believed and tried to find best moves despite the playing very badly in the start. So, uh, in a way, uh, I think, uh, it was kind of deserved. Maybe not, not losing the game was deserved, but winning, of course, it's a huge luck.

Well, any special prep you had done for Anish, playing Anish today with the black pieces?

Yes, I was checking all the lines where you can lose 2 pawns early on.

All's well that ends well. Well, you got that one, and hoping to see you more— hoping to see more of that from you in the upcoming few games left.

Thank you very much.

That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We will be back with another exciting game. Y'all stay tuned.

Thanks, Arohi. I couldn't agree more. You know, you make your own luck on the chessboard. While Levon feels he got a bit lucky, but again, being so resourceful Because in those positions, Harshit, you're not only fighting the position, you're also fighting your own mind to stay alive.

And one thing that I really take from that interview is how Levon said, I always believed. You have to believe that you can win before you actually win the match. And that was a beautiful match by the Ganges Grandmasters to put them on pole position with 15 match points.

And this is a critical juncture. All the teams have played equal number of matches so far at 7. No more. 6-7.

Opa!

Should not have started that, but it's every team with 7 matches. Each team remains 3 matches to go. 15 match points for the Ganges Grandmasters. 2 teams right behind, a match behind Alpine Pipers, Gambits with 12 match points. We've got Chakmamba Masters, Alaskan Knights with 9 apiece, and then the Kings at 6. We'll have all these teams in action coming up. Harshit, we've just had 1 match, we still have 3 to go. So are we expecting more shakeups in the standings today?

Well, I think the next matchup that's coming up, that's going to be between the team on the 4th spot, the Czech Momo Masters, and the Triveni Continental Kings. I think the Triveni Continental Kings almost have no chance to make it to the finals right now, as we see one team already going into the 15 points. For Czech Momo Masters though, this is also a must-win situation. If they don't win this game, they're out of, uh, qualification spots.

Completely agree. For the Triveni Continental Kings, they definitely need to win. 6 match points, we write them off. They can only play spot spoilers after that. I just want to highlight one thing on this table before we come back, and that is that we started the day with the Alpine Pipers having a 3-game point lead over the Ganges Grandmasters. Now everything equal on the scoreboard, it's the Ganges Grandmasters who are 5 points on the game scoring ahead of the Alpine Pipers. So the true leaders for the first time in the league. And the next match coming up will be the Triveni Continental Kings fighting for survival. Barely holding on. They are taking on the Czech Mumba Masters. What do you think goes down in this one, man?

I think for the Czech Mumba Masters, this is a big, big match as we see some of the players of Ganji's Grandmasters signing a lot of chessboards there. Such a nice moment here in Bengaluru in the playing hall as so many people, spectators, get their dreams, wishes come true, getting signs and autographs from all of these top players. Yan Nepomniachtchi also taking some time after his game to signing some of the boards there.

मजा आ गया ये देखके। And Yan looks like a man who's in a good mood right now in India and Bengaluru. He's enjoying himself. His team is performing. He's happy with what he's done. He remains undefeated, unbeaten at the Global Chess League, and that's saying something when you played two matches against the world number one Magnus Carlsen.

We have stand the man in ten. We have Yan, the man in chess, and we have the man, the myth, the legend, Sahaj Grover, with us in the commentary booth. Let's go, Sahaj bhai!

Let's go! What a match it was. Can— I mean, I can't believe my eyes. Did Alpine not win a single game?

Alpine were winless top to bottom, not a single board. And not just that, it was only on the Anish board where you felt they were pushing. Everywhere else, Ganji's Grandmasters had it controlled. And in that, Levon fought like a lion. Levon's game was just a pure masterclass.

It was. What was that?

A masterclass in what?

In every single—

I mean, it felt like Levon. I mean, I mean, okay, Levon the Lion. Levon the Lion. Wow, this is why you are the GOAT.

I think that, you know, this is why she's the GOAT. The tenacity that Levon showed in that match, I think, was, uh, something that stood out for me. Also on the last board, Leon— we're talking about lions— Leon the Lion also defending that worst position. Is going to become quite important as we reach towards the qualification spots, saving those important game points. And you know what color a lion is?

Yellow! Let's go!

The man of the match, Levon Aronian, comes out to sign some of the chessboards there. Such a happy, happy person there, Levon Aronian. I love, I love his energy.

And really, I completely agree, uh, Sahaj, what you said. A master masterclass in resourcefulness, in not giving up a position, striking when you get that opportunity. He had one and he took it. He's the man who got it done along with Stavrula. It really felt, Sahaj, the Ganji's Grandmasters came with a match plan, a match strategy, and stuck to it and made it work to the tee.

100%, because it is— at the end of the day, this is a team, uh, you know, event. And Levon being Levon, But someone had to stop Polina. So you know props to you know Divya for stopping you know Polina there. The Polina engine, Tanya, like I was hearing the commentary as well. The Polina engine was stopped finally. So props to Divya there as well.

But Shivalova still remains undefeated, just like Yan Nepomniachtchi for the Ganges Grandmasters. And suddenly there's this feeling that Pipers were the team that needed to be targeted, the team to beat. That's just totally turned around. It's the Ganges Grandmasters now.

That is insane to think. You know, there is something with Adiban. You know, you have to give it to the captain as well. Because guys, that's a very tough job, you know, to keep the morale of the team up. And I feel just Adiban deserves so much credit for what he's doing. And huge, huge props to him as well.

Cannot agree more. I think keeping the spirit alive. And speaking of spirit, what happened in the match right now, Levon Stavrula scoring those big wins. And they had a lot of big moments, Harshit. But there was this one highlight that we had, and I want you to break it down for us.

Yeah, we were— and that highlight came between the game of Koneru Hampi playing with the white pieces against Stavrula Solakidou with the black pieces. In this position, Koneru Hampi erred, erred big time with the move knight to b6 here. And I want everyone watching to just pause for a few seconds here. We'll give you about 10 seconds to find out the best move in the position, the move that Stavrula Solakidou played in this position.

And your time starts now. Oh, I see it! I see it, Harshit. What a move this is! Yeah, beach kichal. Let's go. Beach kichal, guys.

Did you find the move that Stavrula played in this position? It is the move pawn to e three. Wow. And the reason why this is such a beautiful move is that it allows the black bishop from e eight to come into g six to control the b one square. Pawn to a five. Was played by Koneiro Humpy, and after e2, she just threw in the towel after black played the move rook to d8, as the move rook to d1 is unavoidable. By the way, just so that I show this variation, if Koneiro Humpy took the pawn on e3, that was going to be met by with bishop to g6, and now the move pawn to b2 is going to be unavoidable once again, and this is the reason why. This was the move of the match between the Alpine APL Pipers and the Ganges Grandmasters.

Clutch move, hi! E3 at the right time, a pawn sacrifice to open up the pathway for that bishop to land there. And it was essential for Humpy to actually get her rook on the b1 square at the right time. She missed it. Stavrula grabbed it, and there she is grabbing the pens for all the autographs. A clutch performance. By Solakidu getting playing a key role. You know, it was the Pipers with two wins from Vidit and Humpy in their first meeting, and this time it was Levon and Stavrula who got it done for the Ganges Grandmasters. Hundred percent.

But I think the the credit deserves. I mean, the credit goes to the entire team for you know keeping their holding their own with the black pieces alongside all the boards. I mean, this is incredible. I think you know from the Ganges Grandmasters and and for the first time Alpine is not leading.

It's not leading, and it's very unclear whether they're going to make— be in the top 2 positions after today, Tanya.

That is the big question. They will be back in action later today. We've still got 3 blockbuster matches lined up, and we'll be taking you through all the action in just a few. You stay with us. जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, वो एक कामयाब भी कैप्टन बन जाता है। सोचो जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, इंडिया और कितना कामयाब हो जाएगा। इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो power to every Indian.

Come on guys hurry up.

हर सुनना एक ब्रेक ले लेते हैं। Guys, I'm telling you, तुमलोगों को सही से trekking नहीं आता। But that's okay, you can learn.

Bro, इसका ढक्कन देना। हम्म। Bro, ये red वाला है, सही वाला देना। Wait, ढक्कन?

पहले तो सही पानी पीना। हम्म। Manikchand Oxygen, proudly Indian। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि APL Polo Steel Pipes, airport से लेकर आपके घर कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल अपोलो बनाता है, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। एपीएल अपोलो, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। The chief guests have arrived.

Salute!

Salute करो, salute करो। सलूट हटाओ, ये पीलाओ। लॉन्ग नॉनस्टिकी फुल ऑफ़ वेजीज़। फॉर्मालिटी हटाओ, ये पी खाओ। आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूडेट मैं सोच चुकी है। जिसकी वजह से पेनल्टी चार्जेस की सीटी बजने वाली है और क्रेडिट स्कोर के गिरने की वजह से आपके होश होश होश उड़ने वाली है यानि कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है क्रेडिट पेमेंट्स की चिंता हमेशा सर पे आओ चेक पे सारे क्रेडिट कार्ड्स की बिल एक क्लिक में पे करो और वन परसेंट वापस पाओ रिडीम करो फॉर वाउचर्स या सीधा At 50 orders a day, ₹5 becomes ₹60,000 annually. With Fyers Prime, every order costs you ₹15.

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पर हम भी जिद्दी हैं। तीस से ज़्यादा क्वालिटी चेक्स, विटामिन ए और विटामिन डी से युक्त और खाना भी बने स्वादिष्ट। खाने में समझौता नहीं, अच्छा खाना शुरुआत से ही इंडिपेंडेंस। जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा?

इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian. Hello and welcome to day 6 of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. We are here for the color swap as one of the league's oldest rivalries take center stage in this reverse fixture. What is going to happen is not a toss, but the colors are already decided as they will be playing the colors they did not play with in the first time that they faced each other. And for that, may I now please call upon the match official, Deputy Chief Arbiter, Mr. Alan Atkinson. And now may I call upon the coaches of the two teams. For the Triveni Continental Kings, Luke Van Veli. And for the Czech Mumba Masters, Surya Shekhar Ganguly. Can we have the color swap? Thank you. Luke, you play white. How do you approach today's game?

Well, first of all, you know, it's all about the mindset, you know.

And, um, somebody told me today, okay, look, 3 more days And I told him, no, four more days, you know.

And you know, I don't like to play for third place, so you can you can do the math. So but okay, it starts with every marathon starts with the first step, and we have to get back.

And well, Mumbai Masters is today our opponent, so it's also for Alireza.

It's an opportunity to.

to take revenge on MVL. So we have a lot of bills to settle with those guys.

You know, as they say, it's never over till it's actually over. Love the spirit and all the best for today's game.

Thank you very much.

Surya, black. Last time y'all played white, 3 players came through for you. Although they were playing black, they did have 2 wins, 4 points for those wins. But because 3 wins is what you had in your kitty, y'all won Today, how do you approach this game?

Just like every other game. We are in good spirit and we play the game not caring about who is moving first.

Well, you are on the leaderboard where you can reach the number 1, number 2 spot, but every game is crucial. Now, does that put extra pressure on the team?

Well, not really.

I mean, there are some unfortunate things like yesterday we were completely winning, but that's already yesterday. And today we are starting fresh from 0-0, so we'll see how it goes.

Keep that confidence going and all the best for today's game.

Thanks, Arohi.

That is it from the color swap. Triveni Continental Kings will be playing white while the Czech Mumba Masters will be playing black.

And that is our second match coming up in just a few moments right there. Now, the last time these 2 teams faced each other They won by the smallest of margins. Check Mumbai Masters, a 10-9 victory. What's so funny, Harshit Raja?

I'm just so happy to be here, Tanya. Just look behind us, we have so many people here watching, uh, chess. They're here to enjoy this atmosphere. I think the Global Chess League should be renamed to the Global Chess Festival.

Oh, it does feel like a festival, like a celebration of the game. And right now, only one of these 2 teams will be celebrating for Triveni Continental King. This is survival. This is go big or go home. Whatever chances they have, it starts with a win, a smashing win over the Czech Mumbai Masters, as they will need those game points to match.

And these will be the pairings for the 2 clashes that we have right now in front of us. I think already for the Triveni Continental Kings, they can just think of this tournament to enjoy. I think it's going to be very difficult for them to qualify even if they win all of their matches. But for the Czech Mumba Masters, they do have a real chance to qualify. They have to win this match though, and it all will— it will all start on the Icon Board where they have a clash between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja.

Now I just want to highlight one player here, Sahaj, who's been the steady scorer for the Czech Mumba Masters, and it's Harika Dronavilli. While MVL has been super solid on the Icon Board, he did take down Alireza Firouzja in their first meet right here. He's done it before. But Harika has been consistently getting her points, and today she faces a player who is winless in the tournament, Zhu Jun'er.

I think that's— firstly, that's a huge surprise to me that I believe she is number 3 in the world, Zhu Jun'er, and still despite that she's winless. Yeah, that is incredible. So not the best tournament for Zhu Jun'er there, but of course wishing the best for Harika. And on the icon board there, MVL versus Firouzja, what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, मजा आने वाला है and I'll just say one thing. You know, we sure hope you got all your popcorn ready and some coffee ready because you know this is the Global Chess League in Bengaluru where great chess meets great coffee. We've got Roastery here with us on site currently, the Roastery Coffee House, and I see every time we go on a break, आपकी कॉफ़ी रिफ़िल्स आती रहती हैं। I mean, I mean, I mean to commentate well, you need really good coffee, and I have to say that this coffee is what's making me commentate. What are you having?

I'm having espresso. That's real coffee. Come on. That's espresso is the best.

How many coffees did they give you to say that this is the best coffee you've had?

I'm on. I'm on my fourth coffee already.

So no, but guys, do check this out. They have twenty locations across India, so you can just go get some coffee in Coffee Roastery in your own city.

Right now, Alireza is walking in. He's not happy, and he has no team to be. And I will tell you one thing: I've been to the Roastery Coffee House.

No way.

Yeah, it's beautiful, by the way. The one thing I absolutely love about it is the way the place is done up. You go there, you chill. It's been some chill nights. This team is feeling zero chills currently. They are struggling at the Global Chess League, and how. Something that the Triveni Continental Kings are not used to. Alireza Firouzja was unstoppable last season. We've been calling them the royalty of the league, and currently they are at bottom position. The team fighting them, the Czech Mumba Masters arrived middle of the leaderboard, middle of the standings. A very crucial round for them as well.

It's a crucial round, but I think the the royalty has already lost their kingdom. The kings have lost their kingdom, and I think right now the Czech Mumba Masters need to make sure that they don't get anywhere close to their kingdom again. As we see the Czech Mumba Masters making their way inside the playing hall, that person on the front row, Harika Drona.

वेली हैज़ बीन देर स्टार प्लेयर फॉर द चेक मुंबा मास्टर्स लुक एट हर इंटेंसिटी बिफोर द गेम। आई वाज़ अबाउट टू से शी लुक्स सो लॉक्ड इन एंड एट द सेम टाइम शो लाइक सो पीसफुल एस वेल एट द सेम टाइम दैट्स अ वेरी डेंजरस प्लेयर यू नो टू फेस ओवरऑल। आई एम एक्सPECTING व्हेन शी व Are the two players who stayed with this team from the start of Global Chess League.

For Harikashi, knows exactly what this moment means. Currently, they need those match points to make a claim at the top spots. If they win, they join the Alpine Pipers on the leaderboard.

Oh wow! That is that that is incredible. And I mean, big shoes to fill as well. But at the same time, I feel even though Triveni is not performing the best this season, they are still. Every single time you play that, you play against them. You see Firouzja. You see Wei Yi. You see Arvind. You see Zhu Jin'er. And you're thinking to yourself, how am I supposed to win with the black pieces? Let's do some math on that.

Can we have the standings up one more time? Because I just want to ask you, Trivani Continental Kings are on six match points currently. Three matches remain for each of the team. What is their practical chances of actually making it to the top two spot? Right now, as we do see, and this is what I was talking about: Harika maximum distance from any distraction.

Maximum distance from any distractions and from any of the players who are trying to catch up to her performance. As we see, maximum washer लग रहा है। You mean maximum washer लग रहा है? By the way, the player who is with Shakriyar Mehmedyarov, I love him. Prani is definitely someone to watch out for on both. Number two, but he takes on the Chinese grandmaster, the Chinese warrior Wei Yi on his board.

Absolutely, the Chinese number one. And of course, I think many would know the he is the player who who basically holds the title for match for for for game of the century. If you haven't checked it out, do check it out. It's a beautiful game with that queen sacrifice. But there we see the standings. The Ganges grandmasters are leading currently, and Alpine APL pipers are right behind. So Tanya, you were asking how you know mathematically how check Mumbai Masters can kind of you know you know well Mumbai Masters have nine match points, so they are definitely in the race like you say, Sahaj.

My question to you is about the Kings. I think they're out. What is at stake here?

They're out. Kings, I think, are not gonna be able to make it.

Okay, so three matches remaining. The maximum number of match points that they can have is nine.

Is yeah, so they can move up to fifteen. They can move up to 15, the Triveni Continental Kings, even if they win all of their matches. But you can already see that the Ganges and potentially the Alpine Pipers are going to come to 15 match points very hard. I don't think there is any chance for them to qualify.

And you know, in a situation like this, you know, the team, the players should not even think about, you know, such things because it only adds on to the pressure. But I think realistically speaking, maybe 2nd place could be possible if like the other matches go their way. It looks incredibly difficult to me.

I think this is where the Triveni Continental Kings become extremely scary. They have absolutely nothing to lose, and when you have nothing to lose, that's when you play the most dangerous chess. I am actually a bit scared for the Czech Masters here.

Oh, that'll be a turnaround story if the Kings get it done. I've always felt over the last few matches, you know, when you see Leok Wan Veli, when you see Alireza, that the team is feeling a bit of a downer right now. They're not used to this spot. They've been dominating the Global Chess League from season 1. And this is a very new, unfamiliar territory from them. It looks like from the way we have our standings currently that they can only play spoilers to the other team. At least their destiny is not in their own hands. They'll have to win everything, probably expect the world to turn the other way, the sun to rise from the west, and all of those things to happen to make it to top 2. But right now, Alireza Firouzja on the icon board, his task is clear: to try to go all out against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with 2 wins, 4 draws, clearly ahead in form of what we have with Alireza. Absolutely.

But it seems almost unreal to see 0 wins and Alireza next to each other. This is something that we have never seen, I think, in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League before. Um, for me, I'm gonna actually back Harshit here, and I'm gonna say that Alireza is, is looking quite dangerous, especially because he's winless. And, you know, also playing without fear because I think qualification is not really in the cards anymore. And when that happens, you play absolutely fearless.

Look at that, Harshit. At the bottom of Alireza's stats, we have started with a loss, 3 back-to-back draws, another loss.

Yeah, no, that's not a statistic that Firouzja is going to be happy with. On the other hand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave does have a win rate of 29%. Firouzja still needs He needs to find his first win. Uh, my prediction is that he finds it here in this match against the French number 1, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

And that'll be a revenge arc for Alireza Firouzja, having gone down to Maxime. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had the white pieces and scored a 3-pointer against Firouzja in their previous meetup. Now, one of the players who's been a big scorer and also scored in that match was Harika Dronavalli. I think we've been talking about her throughout this league. She's been steady on her Women's Superstar board. She takes on another player who is absolutely struggling. 3 wins for Harika, 0 for Zhu Jin'er. How does Jin'er turn this around?

And one of the wins was against Zhu Jin'er as well with the white pieces. So I mean, I, I, I'm with Zhu Jin'er. I'm not really sure how you are able to turn it around, but I think it's the same argument as, you know, Firoza. If, if, if we could say why Triveni Continental Kings are at the bottom, I think it's probably because 2 of their main players You know, number three in the world and well, the Prince of Chess are currently winless. So they have to win games. That's it.

Absolutely. And Harika has been that one player that every captain would love to have on their team. Harika has done super well for the Czech Muma Masters here. I think Tanya that Harika might be a favorite on this board.

The numbers say that all over the place right now, Harshit. Now I will say one thing that despite. Whatever we've spoken, it was a razor-thin margin with which the Mumbai Masters took down the Kings. It was a 10-9, a one-point win, and it only happened because the Czech Mumbai Masters had 3 three-pointers. But for the Kings, Alexander Kostyunyuk and Pranav won 2 four-pointers on the bottom 2 boards. Now it's the Mumbai Masters who are going to play with the black pieces, which means given their form, they could potentially have a high ceiling. Or will we see once again a turnaround from the Kings?

You know, in the previous match, I was believing that Alpine APL Pipers are looking invincible because they have the white pieces, but I was completely wrong. And I, and I'm gonna admit that because I think having white pieces is an advantage, I think, in chess. But in this event, I think maybe not so much. Maybe I, maybe I'm a bit ahead of myself. With black, I think you have to just be solid and you, you should, you know, try to, uh, get your chances. And of course, you get that extra point. So it is possible. It is possible.

Let's have the matchups on our screen one more time as we are actually we won't have the matchups on our screen, but we will have the players on our screen very soon. Final predictions. Let's go. Trivani Continental Kings make a comeback, get a win, play spoiler, or Czech Mumba Masters keep their form?

You know my heart says that the Czech Mumba Masters will win, but I just feel that Trivani Continental Kings having nothing to lose is going to win.

So who are you going with? The Kings. The Kings it is for Harshit Sahaj Grover. The Kings, I think.

It has to be the Kings, yeah. Because it's Firouzja. I mean, I'm looking at them, looking at the players, I can't— it just doesn't make sense, yeah? Let's go.

Well, 2 teams that are desperate for a win for 2 very different reasons. Only one walks away with the points at the end of it. They are ready to enter the arena and fight it out. Arohi, take it away.

An age-old rivalry of the Global Chess League takes center stage for the second time this season. Give it up for the 2 teams who are hungry for those points, Trivedi Continental Kings and Czech Mumba Masters. Let's start the introductions from the team playing white, the Triveni Continental Kings. 2 times Grand Chess Tour winner, Firouzja Alireza.

Hello.

Former Waikensea champion Wei Yi. Former Prague Chess Festival champion Arvind Chidambaram. Olympiad individual gold medalist Zhu Jina. Former women's rapid champion Alexandra Kostya Nui. Winner of Chennai Grandmasters Challengers, Pranav. And their coach, 8 times Dutch Chess Champion, Luc van Wely. And now to the team playing black, the Czech Mumba Masters, former Sinquefield Cup winner, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Former Chennai Grandmasters Challengers winner Pranesh. Olympiad individual gold medalist Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Highest placed woman in Grand Prix freestyle chess Harika Dronovalli. The birthday girl Carissa Yip. Former Asian champion Bardiya Dhaneshwar. And their coach, 6-time Indian national champion, Surya Shekhar Ganguly. Stage is set. It's now time for the handshakes. And now for the first move, may I please call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Bayer, and our guest for today, Shri Rudrapa Manappa Lamani, Honorable Minister of Sugar and Textiles, Government of Karnataka, along with Miss Kanta Naik, Chairman, Karnataka State's KILDEP.

And we're all set on the icon board. We have the ceremonial moves coming in as Alireza says, this is what I want on the board, sir. Oh, please push the queen's pawn.

He pushes the pawn, I think, a little bit too ahead, but again, I think he puts it back now. But I think this is reverse psychology. I don't think he's gonna play d4. I think he's gonna play e4.

Very possible. What do you think? We might see. I'm with you. I think we're going to see E4, and I say Maxime goes for the Sicilian Defense, and we might even see a night of two players who play that opening over and over again battling it out in each other's turfs as the move gets taken back with a bang on the board. Alireza Firouzja for the Trevini Continental Kings currently at the bottom of the board. They've only had two match wins, five losses. For the Czech Mumba Masters. Three wins and four losses. Mumbai Masters with a win can go into the race for the final two, or will the Kings play spoiler? It's our women's superstar board. Sahaj, the first to kick off.

Absolutely. We've we've got the King's Pawn opening the four knights by the Zoo by Zoo Jenner over here. I think generally आप ये तब खेलते हो जब आपको solid रखना होता है position. So I think she might be just looking to stop. Harika from winning all of her matches, and that could be the strategy behind you know going for such an opening by Zujner. And she goes for Bishop B four, and now I think Knight takes Knight, and यहीं पे draw पूछ लेते हैं भाई.

I don't think Harika is going to agree to that draw just too quickly. You know, I I think you've hit the nail on the head. For for the kings, this board is crucial. You have to deny Harika a four-pointer win right now. Hundred percent. That would put so much pressure across the board for the kings.

Let's quickly jump over to our other.

Women's Superstar Board. It's the birthday girl, Carissa Yip, with the black pieces in action against Alexandra Kosteniuk. And we've got another king's pawn opening in this one—an Italian.

Absolutely, and a very interesting Italian at at that. You know because she's played this a three and h three by Kachal Raya. Because I think what Kosteniuk wants is that if Carissa goes for short castle, she can go for some ideas with g four. And G4 and G5 has been the theme, you know, for for the global chess league. Every player is playing so aggressively, especially on the king side. We also remember what happened with that game of Anish and Pranesh, जहाँ पे Anish ने भी G4 खेला था and Pranesh ने भी G5 खेला था. And Carissa, of course, goes for A5 in this position. Tanya, do you think that जब भी आपका birthday होता है, do you think that You have this birthday charm, and like you won't generally speaking that okay. Have you ever played a game on your birthday?

Many times, and it's never been pleasant. Really? I I there is always this feeling that it's my birthday. I want to perform well. The pressure adds up. I've never enjoyed it. But Carissa Yip looks like she is going to be enjoying that position right now, playing against a struggling Zhu Jin'er. Meanwhile, Wei Yi versus Pranish Pranish Pranish as we call him in the chess world. That lifts off. Now, Wei Yi is such a dangerous opponent. Pranesh, you know he's had his big moments in the league so far, but has also had those very critical misses. What can we expect from this one?

I I think looking at the opening choice of Wei Yi, I'm already a bit surprised because generally Wei Yi e4 से start करता है and I think Pranesh is maybe not as experienced as Wei Yi in this scenario and I think he's trying to get him in some kind of a weird. Opening battle, and I think he's gonna try to play for a win. Wei Yi looks quite dangerous to me. What is G3, bhai? What is G3 in this position?

That looks incredible. And let me just set this for our audience watching. Wei Yi has had one win in the league so far. Pranesh has had two big wins, taking down Anish Giri, taking down Levon Aronian. But he also then suffered two back-to-back defeats with Nihal and Anish before drawing his match yesterday. He's been such a star key player in some of those matches for Czech Mumba Masters, making his debut as a late replacement for Fedoseev. I think he's been sort of that key player getting in those match wins, but also what happened against Nihal—a one-move blunder walking into a checkmate.

That was actually extremely sad. But let's see what happens in this one. एक डबल फियांचेटो आ चुका है बोर्ड पे, and as Pranesh thinks, let's switch to. The other superstar board, Arvind versus the shark attack as we call it. Arvind also having that fianchetto bishop on g2 and looks like a very stable kind of a comfortable position for Arvind there. But I am— the more the game progresses, the more I look at the openings, the more I think Triveni is looking quite strong to me today.

Now while Pranesh and Wei Yi ended with a draw in their last meetup, and we'll talk more about that because it's handshakes and it is Go time on the board of Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the 2 icons going head-to-head in this one. One of them in blue right now, the Czech Mumba Masters. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has managed to rake up so many great points, especially one against Alireza, while Alireza Firouzja remains winless. Moves are coming in fast and quick, and we see it's a Grunfeld, Grunfeld Defense, and Queen b3.

I think this is the variation that is the sharpest in, uh, you know, in Against the Grunfeld that you can play with the white pieces and Firouzja. Generally, you know when you go for such openings, you wanna you wanna have your prep on the board. And I think MVL, you were talking about you know this E4 C5 some Sicilian Najdorf. MVL is the one guy who black say Najdorf का एकदम expert, the best player I think in against E4 for Najdorf. And the same can be said for Grunfeld as well. MVL only played Grunfeld for a very very long time and I think. Amongst the top players, one of the best players. So अगर उसको आपको opening में हराना है, वो भी Grunfeld में you need some really really deep idea. Let's see if Firouzja can actually show it on the board.

And it looks like he's managed to conjure something interesting up with the white pieces, Alireza, in the Grunfeld right now. You know that knight has jumped forward, the queen on b3. You're eyeballing that pawn on f7, coming in with the idea of the e pawn moving forward at the right time as well. And I think it's a threat that you need to take care of at this moment. For example, if black just takes the eye off the ball, and I believe he's reaching for his knight towards the center of the board right now. I'm guessing he wants to land on C six, putting pressure on that D four pawn, which is currently undefended. Now that white का knight दूसरी side चला गया है, queen दूसरी side चली गई है. Absolutely.

Knight C six or oh knight C six is already on the board. And I mean, if we look at the clock itself, looks like. Like Firouzja is trying to you know out prepare, and maybe he is successful already. I mean, we can't safely say that MVL is completely out of prep yet, but for soch raya, that is that that is essentially I think the good thing for Firouzja over here. And by the way, while he thinks after bishop e three, knight b six is a logical move here, Tanya. What about h six? Is h six possible?

Oh no no no, Tanya!

If I go h six, there's knight e six.

Let's have that on the board. What a beautiful line that is. Now that the pawn at the center is defended, knight jumps in with a fork. You're forced to take that knight, I believe, but then the queen will pounce over. Pawn takes knight, queen takes pawn coming in with a check, and I win the knight back, and I've won the house on the right side as well, up a pawn.

Absolutely. And but I, but I don't think it's gonna happen. I think he has already played a move, knight to b6, and after which Firouzja responds with rook to d1. And there it is. This is the current position, and MVL currently thinking, can I go h6 here now?

And that's what needs to be thought over as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave— will he now kick the knight out with no possibility of the knight jumping in? And while he thinks about those positions, let's go over— let's do a quick roundup, wrap-up of the openings on the other boards.

Absolutely. So let's start with the Prodigy board. You know, Pranav versus Bardia Dhaneshwar. We've got a Sicilian, I believe, in this position. जहाँ पर white ने a4, a5 का एक clamp लगा दिया है. This could be important in the in the future of the game because you do have some pressure over the b6 pawn. And of course, the pawn on d6 is also slightly weak. In Sicilian or in any type of position जहाँ पे white का center काफी strong होता है, what you're looking for is a breakthrough. So black wants to play d5 at the right moment. Of course, you remove the Weakness from the d6 pawn as well. Whereas if you are not able to accomplish this, I think white's gonna have a good advantage. What are your thoughts on this, Tanya?

I think that's wonderfully broken down. It's going to be a play along the dark squares and against that pawn that you so rightly highlighted. What white has set up is if that pawn goes forward, my central pawn will also advance. We don't need to show it. Let's just have the arrows on the board. d5 can be met by e5. So that's something that you constantly need to need to be on the lookout for. It's still not exploded the position, but remains a complex one. Especially I want to highlight the pawns on the left flank as well. That a5 one pawn clamping down on two of black's pawns gives white more space on that left flank. Let's continue our circle around with Alexandra Kostinik against Carissa, the birthday girl.

You know, playing playing her match. And Tanya, you know why I asked you that question earlier was because I have never lost on my birthday, and and I I always thought. I always thought that playing a match on your birthday was almost like a gift because, you know, it tends to go well. But maybe, you know, it goes for people differently.

But I feel—

You performed well on your birthday every time?

I have never lost on my birthday.

So your opponents were giving you all the birthday gifts?

Yeah, I mean, they tried to beat me, but, you know—

I feel in my case, I was only giving the return gifts.

Oh, you are? That makes you a very nice person. Let's go. But let's see what happens in this game. I think it's quite simple, this position. There is a trade of bishops that is offered. By Costanuic, and black can go for bishop takes c4. जिसके बाद white के double pawns हो जाएंगे, तो देखके तो अच्छा लग रहा है position black के लिए. But I am not so sure because if you do kind of take this pawn on c4, you can maybe jump in with the rook on d5 and attack the e5 pawn. Maybe have have some pressure on the b5 square as well. Of course, you have you have pressure on the d square d file as well. बहुत सारे pressures I think this position में हैं black के लिए, white के लिए. Looks like a tough position.

You know, the one idea that I would be looking on from Carissa's side is to keep the tension between the bishops like you pointed out. And I see it's an opposite side castle, right, Sahaj? And that just means that it needs to be a race to each other's king. White का plan simple है g pawn को आगे बढ़ाओ two steps then one step and open up the files, open up the lines towards the black king. Black needs to do the same on the left flank. So I'm trying to get my b pawn to roll up the board. So I'm looking at ideas like put the rook behind the pawn. Defend it. B5, B4. I'm coming for your king.

Oh, actually she plays it. Nice find there, Tanya. Rook B8 and B5. One tempo, then another tempo incoming with B4 as well.

Looks scary. And let's just make for everyone watching, you know, the concept of a hook in an attack so clear, because I think this position beautifully demonstrates that. And a hook is usually a pawn close to your king that has moved forward that becomes the hook for an attack for your opponent. For White, that a-pawn is where you want to start targeting. That's why you go ahead with your b-pawn steamroll. Meanwhile, for Black, that h-pawn is the hook in the position, which is why White needs to get quickly with the g-pawn ahead.

Absolutely. So this becomes a race at the end of the day, and it basically— the one who's gonna break the position faster, whether it's the kingside or the queenside, is the one that's gonna have this attack. But I think there are just way too little pieces here, Tanya, just to have an attack.

Like generally speaking, it just feels to me that Carissa, the birthday girl, is knowing her style and how aggressive she is, should be happy that at least it's opposite side castle. Few pieces, but potential for attack. Hundred percent potential to get aggressive. All right, let's continue our tour, Sahaj. Where are you taking us next?

Oh, we have Zujinor versus Harika over here. Another woman's you know superstar board. But I think we already took a look at this. This was the four night Scotch. जहाँ पे you know white is trying to stay extremely solid. But looks like firstly. Look at Zujinur's time. She has 18 minutes on the clock, and Harika has 10 minutes. What? So कुछ preparation आई है यहाँ पे Zujinur की for sure. But the bar says that the position is is still more or less equal. So with maybe some pressure for the white side, you do have a rook on the seventh rank. You've got some pressure on the f7 pawn, and knight d5 जैसी चालें looks they do look practically quite scary. And let's not forget she has an extra pawn.

I think that's the key point. That White has 5 pawns, Black has only 4, and in compensation, Harika has a bishop pair in an open position. But we'll have to be careful with defense. All the things that you just highlighted right now, colored in red, is what makes it slightly more unpleasant for Harika. But what's truly unpleasant is the 9-minute disadvantage that she has currently on the clock. That's going to be quite the story here. Harika, who's been a big scorer Zhu Jiner, who hasn't won a single game. Will that storyline change today? Let's move over to our men's superstar board.

Absolutely. Let's take a look at Arvind versus Shaq. And okay, this position looks very, very scary to me. I am not really sure for who, but it looks scary. I mean, if I asked you right now, Tanya, are you choosing white here or black here? I think no one can answer.

Yeah, I feel I need at least 20 minutes just to understand what's going on, and to be able to do that, we have to backtrack. Let's start this from the us from the beginning. White is uncastled. We've got our live board bottom right there, but take us through the moves. It started with White fianchettoing the bishop. We saw the development happen. It was Shakhriyar who got control of the center. Almost feels like a reverse Sicilian setup, a break at the center. The bishops got traded off. The other bishop was developed. The White knight came out. Black gets the king to safety. White says, I'm going to put pressure on those central lines. More space gained. More trades happen on the board. But for white, that king remains in the center, and Shakriar is a player who goes for the king every time. And that's exactly what he did. It just feels like Arvind kept delaying his development of the right side pieces.

Yeah, I think the bigger surprise for me was that he was playing g three on move one itself. I mean, what was that? I mean, I don't think I've seen that move being played out so far, but maybe it was a surprise for you know Sha. At the end, at the end of the day. But I think you, but you're right, Arvind Ka king is still in the center of the board. He does have an extra pawn at the moment, but black can just capture this pawn at any, any point. I mean, yeah, f6 is not possible right now, but I think at some point it could be possible. Moves like rook d8. Why rook takes d1 is hanging? What if you play rook d8? I move the queen, then you can never castle here, Tanya, because white would have to go king takes d1, and that's exactly That is a great move that you're pointing out.

You don't need to go for the center pawn, but right now Shakriyar, by hitting the queen, can just make sure that Arvind's king remains in the center. And Sahaj, I don't care what the bar says, a player who has to play with the king in the center has to be feeling the pressure. I think what Arvind is relying on is manual castling to the left flank. Let's have that move on the board. Let's put our rook there. I don't think the white queen has too many places, not too many options. The only square available You trade. And now for Arjun— Arjun— for Arvind, it's going to be key to slowly and steadily get his king into safety via c1 to b1, and then develop his last remaining rook on the open line. And maybe he just has enough time to accomplish that.

Absolutely. But I think while he is kind of making his king safer, Black could use that opportunity to take the pawn on e5. So maybe this is why the position is is roughly equal. By the way, Rook d8 and Queen e4 have happened on the board, and looks like Shark has completely equalized and will be putting the pressure in this game with the black pieces. So this is some good news for the Czech Mumba Masters. Let's switch to, um—

We will, but I want to point out, I think, uh, I'm not sure if this was mentioned earlier, but white currently has an extra pawn. And I think that's why when the e-pawn falls, which will not be remaining alive for a long time, it will be put under pressure as the white king gets to safety. Which is why you're saying that the position will remain in balance.

Absolutely, Tanya. I think this is the point that the pawn on e5 is an extra pawn, but it's also exposed. Yes. So yes, let's move on to board number 2, Wei Yi versus Prani. We've got an endgame in front of us. I mean, in principle, I think Wei Yi has a slightly worse pawn structure because you've got 3 pawn islands. Pawn islands are basically broken pawns. Every broken pawn we will call an island in this scenario, and the more islands you have, the Well, the worse it is for you. But in this case, I think maybe having broken pawns might not be the worst thing because it's also giving you an open file. The c and the f lines are completely open here for the white side. But at the same time, I don't know, it feels roughly balanced, but practically I like black more.

So what you're saying is that in real life you should own as many islands as you can, but on the chessboard, the fewer the better.

Absolutely, absolutely. That's exactly what I'm trying to say, Tanya. But of course, this is an endgame. Looks, looks a very simplified version of it. I mean, the most logical result here should be a draw. But considering the fact कि किसी भी प्लेयर के पास increment नहीं है यहाँ पे, that I think a result could be very likely.

All right. So we will come back to this. The clocks are level. The position very much in the balance. Let's do a check in with our icon board. Alireza Firouzja winless. But that might change today because take a look at what we have in front of us. You know, and this is what amazes me about the ferocious Firouzja. सहज, इट डज़न मैटर व्हाट हिज़ फॉर्म इज़, इट डज़न मैटर, यू नो हीज़ बीन स्ट्रगलिंग ऑन द बोर्ड. एवरी गेम ही कम्स टू फाइट, एवरी गेम यू सी हिम गो आउट फॉर दोस क्योटिक पोजीशंस, एंड ही सेज, आईम गोइंग टू ट्राई टू गो फॉर माय चांसेस. लुक एट व्हाट वी हैव इन फ्रंट ऑफ़ One stallion on c5.

Yes, but Tanya, I think Firouzja has to make some very, very precise moves in order to prove his advantage here. So for example, like, Black has just played Bishop f5, right? He, he's attacking the queen. So there are multiple ways to defend this. One is Bishop d3, one is Queen e2, one is Queen d2. Now the weirdest move here is Queen to d2. I think we can agree on that because I think that move It feels like you're kind of jumping into the idea of knight c4.

I would never play that move.

That's the only move, Hrittanya.

What?

That's the only move that, that is better for white. Otherwise, MVL is clearly better.

Wow. I think the queen sliding over in front of the rook and queen sliding over in front of the king are the 2 moves that I would— my hand would be shaking to play.

100%. I think bishop d3 is what everybody would play in this position, but for some reason, this Is bad, and maybe the reason is the d4 pawn being tender.

Oh yes, you're right. And if you have the analysis board, it could be the process of elimination that will help Alireza realize that he needs to move the queen to one of the two squares. Hundred percent.

And if you played bishop d3, I think we can have it on the board as well. Bishop d3, queen takes d4, and this is a discovered attack. But उसके लिए check भी तो चाहिए.

And you take that bishop on f5. Black can pick up the knight on c5, and at the end of it, e5 is hanging as well with a check. It just feels like the position in the center collapses. So the most natural move, you just look a little deeper, the bishop actually cannot block the threat.

100%. And if you can't play the most natural move, that's always a sign of worry in, in any game. And of course, we were talking about Queen d2 and Queen e2. Now guys, Queen to d2 is the only move. I'm— it is highlighted for you guys. Queen to d2 is the only move in this position. If you play— if you put the queen on e2, now I mean, अगर आप board पे सोचो इसके बारे में, on on the board if you don't have the bar in front of you, you cannot really differentiate between these two moves because how will you explain it to yourself? Because you will say दोनों ये जो queen की moves हैं, ये एक bishop को block कर रही हैं, right? If you play queen e2, this this bishop gets blocked. If you play queen d2, this bishop gets blocked. So how do you justify it to yourself कि एक सही है और एक गलत है?

And you know what's even more difficult? If we just look at it a little ahead, Alireza has to make a sequence of unnatural moves. The most obvious move, kick the knight. You go b4, and now white shouldn't put the knight at the center of the board but should block his other bishop, retreating the knight to e2. And for some reason, the computer, our engine, says that this is where Alireza's advantage is. Good luck playing this on the board.

You know, Tanya, I don't think I'm seeing this move on my screen yet, but I, I'm actually very sure that the idea of Knight e2 is to play Knight g1 and Knight f3. I'm very sure. So let's actually have it on the board for one second. Let's say Knight c6. Is Knight g1 working here? Okay, f4 is also hanging, but can I play Knight g1? Okay, maybe not, not in this position. But I think that is an idea in this position, Tanya. It looks quite actually cool to put the knight artificially on the f3 square. Maybe that's the ultimate plan.

Well, if we did not have, you know, the, the luxury of the evaluation bar, the engines guiding us, I think you never put the queen in front of the one bishop and the knight in front of the other. The one human An explanation is let's highlight the two pawns that black has on b4 and f4, the over-expanded pawns, and that's what you need to target if you're Alireza Firouzja. But he has to understand all of that and understand it really quickly. Look at him on the camera; he's struggling to find these ideas just because it's difficult. And if you struggle, you feel bishop f5. Am I worse? I can't move my queen. I can't put my bishop to block the threat. Am I really going to pin my knight at the center of the board? That looks equally dangerous for white. Alireza Firouzja is going to burn a lot of clock on this position.

100%. And this is a classic case of, you know, the bar does not tell the whole story. Because on the bar we can see that white is clearly better. You can see, you know, it shoots up for the white side, but the moves are incredibly difficult, I would say, for Firouzja.

Do you think he plays Queen d2, yes or no? Does Alireza find this?

I think he plays Queen d2, yes, but I think finding the continuation is going to be very difficult.

That I don't think is possible. But that's exactly what he's thinking. This level of play, Sahaj, you're not looking at one move. He's calculating. He's thinking, what happens once I move my queen? What is my next move? He's getting ready and he puts the knight at the center. Queen d2 was such a non-human response. Alireza Firouzja does not find it, and the bar says Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will double down on that knight. And completely control the light squares, comes in with a double attack. You hit the knight, you're also eyeballing that pawn at the edge of the board.

Oh my God, this looks so scary. And on top of this, Tanya, I mean, I'm gonna keep these arrows. You also have knight c6 with the idea of hitting the pawn on d4. This looks very, very scary for Firouzja.

You know, Firouzja burnt about 5 minutes on the last move. I'm expecting another 3 to 4 minute think here. It is just such an incredibly hard position to solve for white. Your king फंसा हुआ है बीच में, bishop नहीं निकला है, knight under pressure है the center with the pin if you highlight the diagonal. A2 का pawn hanging है, सहज का knight retreat आने वाला है with multiple threats on the board.

And you know just a little bit earlier Firouzja was shaking his head. I think वो already सोच रहा है कि उसकी position खराब है, which is true now. I think his position is is a lot worse. But Tanya you were talking about the clock.

He has half Exactly.

And that is just one of the many worries in this position because he still has to navigate practical calculation problems in this. Advantage Czech Mumba Masters on the icon board.

100%, 100%, fully agreed. I think Czech Mumba Masters are looking incredible in this scenario. Tanya, I think we should switch back to Kosteniuk versus Carissa Yip because I think that's the one board where Triveni Continental Kings are having a tough time. Having some kind of an advantage, and this could be this could be you know the the boost they need to get back into the leaderboard. And look at that double pawns over there in the endgame for for Costanuoc. I think no chances for the bird digger to win this match. So you might be right about you know that that whole scenario. Okay, you know birthday pick killna might not be the might not be the best idea. It it could be possible, but doesn't look like Carissa can win this, right?

I agree, Alexandra is not feeling generous today at all. She's got full control on the position. The problem is the battle for the f-file most likely will be won by White because that rook can always be kicked with the move g-pawn moving one step forward. So you have to be careful. And if it goes into all trades, if both pairs, both sets of rooks are traded off, I want everyone watching to visualize that, and it goes into a pure knight and pawn ending. The white knight will have clear targets because of the doubled pawns at the center of the board. Your white knight will jump to c4 at the right moment. You will push your b pawn on the left flank to make an outside passer, putting a lot of pressure on the pawn structure. It's not close to winning, but just super pleasant endgame play for white ahead. And Kostyuk did beat Carissa for a four-pointer in their previous meetup. Wow! Wow!

So Kostyuk, of course, looking. being quite good in this scenario. And, and Tanya, one more thing over here. I think that besides b4, I'm gonna show you one more idea here. Okay. You can also go knight a3 and knight b5 and hit this pawn on c7. And because this is another classic case of having 3 pawn islands, right? Because Black— White has 2 pawn islands in this scenario, so 2 broken connected pawns. And, and, and Black, on the other hand, has 3 broken connected pawns. And, and of course, the culprit in this position is, uh, are these You know, central doubled pawns that, you know, she has. And I think this could be something for Kosteniuk.

For the Czech Mumba Masters, this is a pressure position for sure, and Kosteniuk has immense experience in these kind of endgames. I just want to draw everyone's attention, you know, in chess it's traditionally believed that you draw the young players into endgames, that's anti-young player chess. You don't give them the complication tactics of the middlegame, that's where you can get the get those points. For Kosteniuk, it feels like that strategy today might work. She's going to try to trade off the rooks, try to get her knight to attack Carissa's weak pawns. And we see that knight is rerouting itself to greener pastures right now on this board. Kosteniuk with the advantage. So we've seen that Alireza in big trouble against Maxime. Maxime for the Czech Mumba Masters there. with a better position. We've seen TCK with a better position with Costanuic against Carissa. Let's bring up our bird's-eye view and take a look at how the other 4 boards are performing.

Absolutely. I think one of the boards that I really want to focus on is, uh, perhaps the game of ZuJinR versus Hareka, because again, this is another classic case of the board not telling the whole story. And that is the bottom left board, game number 4. We can see, I mean, the bar says it's completely equal. However, it's not the full story. White is an extra pawn up. You've got the double, you know, uh, uh, rooks on the open file over there. Black has a double bishop. It looks like an extremely imbalanced position. And generally, the faster player or the stronger player, or let's say the player who's more awake, is, is, is gonna have the better, uh, you You know, outcome in this scenario. So that's one game where I think a result could be possible. Now what that result is, I'm not really sure. And Tanya, look at the bottom right. Pranav versus Bardiya Dhaneshwar. Does that look anything— it looks anything but equal to me.

Anything but balanced. That is spicy hot action with those 2 pawns steamrolling. Bottom right board, we will jump to that, but I first want to just do an overview. Top row, all 3 boards in the balance, but look at the position. Got top left where I'm expecting a result. Alireza Firouzja's king is still in the center. He's managed to consolidate this. Oh, and as I say that, that's all three boards playing without a queen now. We've gone into endgame territory on our top three boards, but it's going to be Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with full control on the light squares. The knights jumping in, still behind in development is Alireza Firouzja. It's advantage check Mumba Masters on our icon board. The next two boards in the balance. We go down to the bottom row. So Zhu Jin'er versus Harika, still an endgame for all 3 results, where we do see that Zhu Jin'er for the Triveni Continental Kings has 2 extra pawns, but Harika has a lot of piece activity, beautiful bishops, 2 centralized rooks. I still think Harika needs to be careful to fight to balance this game out. Next to that, Alexandra Kosteniuk also with a better, slightly better endgame against Carissa Advantage to Rainy Continental Kings. Prana versus Bardia looks incredibly scary for the Kings. I think with Czech Mumba Masters, that's a game that they've got to have their attention on. Let's do a deep dive. How dangerous is that attack, Sahaj?

Uh, yep, absolutely. Let's, let's do it. But Tanya, just before we do that, look at Alireza's clock. He has 2 minutes and 40 seconds, and, and his opponent has 12 minutes, and they have 20 more moves to make.

So we will jump straight into that, but first let's do a quick wrap-up of our Prodigy Bowl. And then stick with Alireza for the rest of it. I don't think we can move from there after that. Absolutely, absolutely.

So we, uh, if we can have the full screen of that Pranav versus Bardia. I think looks like, uh, uh, Dhaneshwar for the Czech Mumba Masters is launching an attack with the black pieces with this e4 and f4. And, uh, looks like the white king is, is in some kind of a danger. Ideas like e3 could be quite dangerous, you know, in, in the near future. And you know why I say it's dangerous is because जब भी ब्लैक के पास ऐसा अटैक होता है, आप यू नीड सम काइंड ऑफ़ काउंटरप्ले, यू नीड सम मोमेंटम इन द गेम, विच विच यूजुअली हैप्पेंस ऑन द अदर साइड ऑफ़ द बोर्ड। सो ब्लैक अगर किंग साइड पे अटैक कर रहा है, तो व्हाइट को क्वीन साइड पे कुछ करना चाहिए, एंड दैट कैन ओनली हैप्पेंस व asks questions.

He has to keep the position blocked. Does Pranav? He pushes the pawn. No trades for you, no open lines towards the king. And I think right now Bardiya will try to activate his bishop. He's going to hit the white rook. And for Pranav, he needs to be on the defense. Your idea of the e-pawn moving forward looks incredibly scary. The Czech Mumbai Masters, are they going to cash in on the— on this board will be the big question. But putting on massive pressure. Let's go back to our icon board and see if Alireza Firouzja has managed To stop maximum advantage in the endgame here.

I think I think the problem here is that he just needs to play really really quickly because he has to make eighteen moves in two minutes. I mean, that doesn't matter what your position is like; you just cannot make that physically. I think it happened to Firouzja yesterday as well, where he was trying to you know compensate for the clock, but he wasn't able to make it. If I remember correctly, I think it was against Sindarov where he was caught in preparation. But yeah, this this this this looks extremely difficult. Let's go back to see what actually happened here. White goes for knight e four. I think this is where we left it. Black goes for queen d five. You told me that this is you know where MVL was sort of hitting the a two and the e four points here. White goes for f three pushing the golden pawn. Black goes knight c six maybe threatening knight b four and attacking the d four pawn there as well. And this is where Firuja says, "Bye, मेरे पास time बहुत कम है।" Let's try to exchange the queens. You know. From the board, he plays queen b3, a very sensible decision. Black goes rook d8, but now this is where he made a huge error and he took the queen on d5. He should have played something like bishop e2, went for short castle, you know, king safety first. But he takes the queen on d5, black takes back, and now he takes the pawn on a6. Another inaccuracy on the board. I think this is mostly happening because of, you know, less time for Firouzja there, and this is where he loses his central— both of his central pawns. White goes short castle and knight c6. I think he's just dead lost here.

He's down a whole pawn in the position. It's six pawns for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, five for Alireza Firouzja. And also compare the pieces. That knight on a6 looks almost trapped right now. It's got no way home currently. You're struggling to find that back. You've got to be Spider-Man right now if you want to look for those. And I don't see a way in Bengaluru for that to happen. For Alireza Firouzja, big trouble on the icon. 10 and a half minutes for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, under 2 minutes for Alireza Firouzja. The position is collapsing. Sahaj, where is that knight going?

This knight on a6 has no future. It literally has no way home, and it looks like a brand new day for MVL, uh, you know, judging by how the game is going for him.

And especially, uh, he's going to come for it. He's about to come for it. He plants his rook there, hits the knight, hits the pawn. Exhaling that a2 pawn as well. Maxime, but be careful, Tanya.

If you take the pawn on a2, it's a it's a poison pawn. Let's show it. This bishop b3 check. So if white goes knight c5, black takes on a2. You have bishop b3 check, and that would take the rook away in this scenario. So of course, you have to plan this correctly. And in this sense, maybe something like king g7 is simple enough, and then you can try to target this pawn in the later stage of the game.

Or jump with your knight to the center of the board is another way to solve that problem. And we see he's coming in with the knight controlling that square, hitting the bishop, hitting the pawn. Maximum pressure by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, not giving Alireza any time to breathe. Let's go full screen on the players. Look at Alireza Firouzja, he hates his position. He absolutely cannot understand how to solve all the problems that he's got ahead of him right now. He's actually laughing. This is over. You give a check, the king moves, you're going to pick up the bishop, you're going to lose that pawn on the edge of the board. That is not a laughter of a happy man. Yeah, he actually—

I think this is Firouzja in disbelief that this could actually happen, because of course if MVL wins this match, he would have a 2-0 score against Firouzja in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. And that's something that not many people can say, or anyone can say for that matter.

Alireza Firouzja, after 7 matches, remains winless, and I think that story carries forward after this one as well. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will have to blunder this one To lose his advantage. If he just plays all the natural moves, which he just does, puts the bishop at the center of the board. He'll now either on passant or trade that knight. You're up two pawns. You've got the better pieces. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave for the Mumbai Masters getting it done on the icon board. Sehaj, where are you making a case for the Trivani Continental Kings? Let's have our two board view up.

Absolutely. So Firouzja is looks completely dead loss to me. But let's take a look. At Pranav in this scenario, you know, on the Prodigy board there, because that is another board where it looks like the Czech Mumba Masters are doing quite well. Prani— sorry, Dhaneshwar in this sense has sacrificed that pawn with e3 like we were talking about earlier, but White has put up some kind of a blockade with King f2. If we can have the camera of Buddy versus Dhaneshwar there. King f2 looks extremely bad for white there. Maybe let's switch back to Firouzja, Jay. Let's switch back to Firouzja's board. Because looks like Firouzja also is having very little time on the clock and he's on the verge of resignation because he has 47 seconds and basically no pawns. I think this game is just over.

Jumps in Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with his knight to the center of the board, defends everything. It looks like a nightmare all across the board. For the Trevini Continental Kings, they might be left only with a king at the end of it. Sahaj, look at the two knights that Pranesh has, which are reinforcing each other. Complete control right there. That position remains in the balance though. Wei Yi has managed to find a way back into the game, but it's all eyes on Alireza Firouzja. Barely any time, 39 seconds on the clock. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will be the first to score for the Czech Mumba Masters.

Hundred percent. And Tanya, this is the same story as yesterday. Sindarov won in this exact same fashion against Firouzja. While having like nine minutes on the clock, and Firouzja was playing on seconds, and then he ended up making a blunder. And same situation is happening again for Firouzja. Very, very unreal actually to believe overall.

I'm going to draw us for a double board view where I want to make a point for the Trivani Continental Kings. Alexandra Kostunovic versus Karissa Yip. Let's have that on our screen as we see Wei Yi and Pranesh are in the middle, are in the balance.

Alireza's board and कॉस्टिन्यूक्स बोर्ड। Absolutely, and Tanya, how good does King f5 look to you in this position? Because there is Rook g5 checkmate. It was a little, you know, tactic that Costinyuk had, you know, planted for the birthday girl. But of course, she does not fall for it, and looks like she is technically a pawn up in the rook ending. But a great man once said that all rook endings are drawn. But the question is, can Carissa actually defend? This while having 42 seconds, um, in the process. White gives a check on h7, Black plays King to g6, and keeping some pressure on the h4 pawn and also threatening maybe Rook b4.

Alireza Firouzja is down to 28 seconds as Kosteniuk's position comes back into the balance now. Sahaj, unbelievable scenes happening here. I have never seen Firouzja so out of form. He's struggling, he needs a miracle to save this He gives a check. Black's king is about to go up the board. All the pawns are defended. That a last remaining pawn that Firouzja has is about to be gobbled up.

Absolutely. So we go rook to a7, and black is going to go rook to h4. Um, let's switch back to, uh, Firouzja's board. Um, there we have it. Knight e5 check was played. Black plays king to g7, and now Firouzja has Having less than 20 seconds, and of course he's also two pawns down. This game is about to be over. There's no way that I think Firouzja can save this anymore.

It's three pawns to five pawns. He's trying to jump around with the knights. Knights are tricky pieces. What you want to do is keep your king and your rook as far away from each other as possible, so you don't walk into any forks if you're Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Maximum distance between those 2 pieces. A beautiful centralized knight that can never be kicked out. 5 seconds for Alireza Firouzja. Make a move. He makes it with 2 seconds on the clock.

Wow, so he has made the 40-move mark here, so the 2 seconds do add up in this scenario, but that's definitely not gonna be enough. We have Knight e5 being played. He played the move with just 1 second, but okay, it hardly matters in this scenario. He's absolutely lost anyways. Black goes Knight to b4, defending his pawn on c6 and hitting the pawn on a2 as well.

And he's about to pick that pawn up with a check if Maxime Vachier-Lagrave so wishes in this position. He takes a pause. He's got five and a half minutes to complete this. He reaches for the rook. Alireza Firouzja has to go up on the board.

Absolutely. And now rook to a four. Now he's three pawns up in this scenario, and of course he has extra an extra five minute cushion as well. And while this happens, let's take a look at Kostyanuk versus Karisa.

Let's have them on a double screen if we can. I think both games will end simultaneously for sure.

Um, uh, so we have this, uh, okay, Firouzja, I think he did just lose on time.

He's got 2 seconds ahead. Not yet.

Wow, look at that! Looks like Karissa Yip made a blunder, uh, somewhere in the rook pawn ending, and now she— now he's completely winning. Maybe there's Rook c4 check and Rook f4, right?

Oh wow!

Yeah, that should be winning. That should be winning.

And I think she's going for it.

Wow, beautiful. And by the way, there is a result on the, on, on the Women's Superstar Board. Zhu Jin'er has drawn her match against Harika. So that's the first solid result for both teams. And now it's up to Alexandra Kosteniuk and of course MVL to score for this, uh, for their teams. Let's see what happens there.

Harika's Kateryna did not work on that board. Zhu Jin'er stops the scoring. Board for the Czech Mumba Masters. Your idea on the right side of the screen: Can you just plant the rook, disconnect Black's rook, and queen the pawn? If you're Alexandra Kostyuk, that would be a four-pointer for the Treveni Continental Kings. Alireza Firouzja still hanging on, hasn't thrown in the towel. He's stopping the b pawn from moving forward, but the c pawn's about to come up the board.

Wow! C four. I mean, he's he's doing everything in his power to you know to you know try and fight, but he has. Just way too little time, and well, no pawns on the board as well. Black can just take his time. Yeah, just bring the king in and just try to push the c pawn whenever you know the knight, or maybe just move the knight away and then push c four. That looks winning as well. And by the way, we'd have another result on the on on the male superstar board. Board two between Wei Yi and Pranesh have drawn their match as well. So now the score is two two. And once again, the boards that are in front of us are the only ones that could end in a result. So this is looking extremely exciting for both the teams here.

And Maxime Vachier-Lagrave slowly but steadily gets that job done. It is a big win for the Czech Mumba Masters on the Icon board. That's a 2 out of 2 against Alireza in Season 4 of the Global Chess League. He takes a 4-pointer, does Maxime.

Wow, wow! And that that that result was extremely important for the Czech Mumbai Masters. And we have another result on the Women's Superstar Board. Alexandra Kostinuk takes down the birthday girl Tanya. You were you had you at some point there, you know earlier. Let's let's let's switch to the Prodigy Board between Pranav and Dhaneshwar because looks like this is another board where the Triveni Continental Kings could technically strike if Buddy is able to convert his advantage in this scenario.

But Sahaj, look at Arvind with 13 seconds on the clock. I want to have a double board. Win because anything can happen in this moment. Arvind is down to 6 seconds. Let's do it fast and quick as we bring you action from all around right now. This is where we are. Alexandra Kosteniuk has a 3-pointer win. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has a 1-pointer win. 2 draws, 2 boards remaining.

Looks like there is a slight— I mean, technically I like, you know, Shark's position way more. And wait, is he like much better now? Because that protected pawn on f Looks amazing. Wow, he just made a blunder, and Shakh is now completely winning. Arvind with time pressure, he has 1 second on the clock.

And there, this is the live position we have right now. Shakh bangs it down, barely any time for Arvind, and that's it, he resigns as Shakh is about to make a new queen on the board. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leapfrogs the scoreboard with a second win coming in for the Czech Mumba Masters. Absolutely.

And Tanya, the way it looks like, it could be another very close win for the Czech Mumba Masters because in their previous encounter also they won 10-9. And even if Pranesh wins now, once again the score is going to be 10-9.

So that means Triveni Continental Kings are about to lose their 6th match of Season 4.

Who would have thought? Yeah, no way. Who would have thought that this is possible? And, and who would have thought that Firouzja would be winless. That is incredible. I mean, still unbelievable to me.

And Sahaj, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave today felt like completely outclassed Firouzja on that top board. Firouzja really struggling to find his rhythm in this tournament for the Kings.

100%, I think. And the fact that Firouzja was laughing during the game, having, you know, 8 or 9 minutes less than his opponent while having no increment, I mean, seems so unlike Firouzja.

It's the smile of not hope or happiness, but of giving up in that moment right now, of hopelessness. And right now for Bardiya, he's got 18 seconds on the clock, but he's happy to see the scoreboard, 5-10. The maximum the Kings can do is 8-10. It looks like Pranav's getting his job done for the Kings on the Prodigy board, but it's too little too late.

Oh, oh, oh, not so quickly, not so quickly, because b4 he plays, and now he very smartly trades the bishop and puts the knight back to e5. And now this knight is is an absolute monster. It's an outpost on the center of the board and it protects a passed pawn on f3. And I think it's Dineshwar who's maybe trying to play for a win now, even though it's technically winning for Pranav in this scenario. Black goes for Rook a8, putting some pressure on the a5 pawn. And maybe now Rook a2. Rooks do belong behind passed pawns. Maybe Black can take on c4 as well. Black plays h6. He pushes the pawn on a6. Both players playing under seconds. Oh, that's a blunder, and it turns around, and he misses—

he finds it! He goes in with the queen, hits the rook right now, but there's no time to find a follow-up in this position. Both players now under 10 seconds.

Absolutely. It was Knight d3 check which was completely winning for Black, by the way. It would have been a checkmate very, very soon, but he does not find it. He takes the pawn on c5.

He's still putting pressure. He's stopping that a-pawn from moving up the board. And for Pranav, he's about to lose a key pawn in the position. Gives a check. The king captures the pawn. The king is being chased all across, but is there a knockout blow? The king remains in the center. Huge blunder! Get the rook in! He lines up the queen against the king. No, knight b4 check, and that's the queen!

That's a queen, and Buddy resigns! And that gives the Czech Mumba Master another 4 points against the Triveni Continental Kings. And now the score is 5 to 10.

An absolute relief right Right there, 5-14, I believe.

Sorry, my bad, 14.

5-14. Wei He there, absolutely in shock with what is happening with the team. The Triveni Continental Kings have gone down, and how, in Season 4 of the Global Chess League. For the Czech Mumba Masters, you can see the relief on captain coach Suryashaker Ganguly that we are back in the fight now.

100%. And one But so sad for the Triveni Continental Kings having lost another match with that too with the white pieces. Who would have thought?

And you don't even need to look at the scoreline. Look at the faces of the players right now. 2 very different camps, 2 very different stories coming in. Harika, who walked in all somber, all staunch at the start of the match, has got the biggest smile. She knows that her team has A dominating performance there, 14 points and game points, so essential currently.

Absolutely, absolutely. All smiles here for the Czech Mumba Masters. And now we'll go to Arohi for the player announcement.

Match number 22, the Triveni Continental Kings versus Czech Mumba Masters, and the winners are the Czech Mumba Masters, leading 14 to 5. Calling upon the chief arbiter, Mr. Gert Bayer, and the coaches of the 2 teams, Luke Van Veli for the Triveni Continental Kings and Surya Ganguly for the Czech Mumba Masters, to sign on the result. That is it from match number 22. Casters, back to you.

And we are back with all the action here. Sagar Shah joining us as well as the Czech Mumba Masters join the party at the top. What a performance, Sagar Shah!

Amazing. You know, I was just having a small protein bar right now and I was like, oh, it will take some time, but no, we are here. I was inside the playing hall and the Czech Mumba Masters played so Absolutely.

That too. I mean, winning with the black pieces in this position. क्या आदमी है भाई?

जीतते ही जा रहा है सब कुछ.

Crazy, भाई. Crazy.

Is there anyone who can stop MVL? Not.

I mean, clearly not Firouzja in this sense. I mean, he has lost two zero against MVL. Yeah. What a result and what a game actually by MVL as well.

Insane. I think the Czech Mumbai Masters team team is looking quite strong. Yeah. Now they are on twelve points, I believe.

Yeah, it is going to be about the match points right now, and this was an absolute critical win for the Czech Mumba Masters to cash in on those match points to make a case for the top 2 spots. But can we just talk about what has happened to the Kings? They've had only 2 match wins and 6 losses now.

Yeah, I think, uh, somehow when the first half of the tournament doesn't go your way, it's tremendously difficult to turn things around. So I'm not very surprised. I did feel when they won two games that they would come back really strongly, but the moment they won lost again, I was like, "Why? अब नहीं होगा, अब ना हो पाएगा।" अब तो I think they're pretty much out of the contention.

Yeah, even if they win totally out. Even if they win all of their matches, it's just it's just mathematically impossible for them to make it to the top two. Very very sad actually for the I mean and the first season that they're not gonna make it to.

The finals. True, and their team is so strong, right? It's not like someone was missing this time, it's just that the good form was missing.

And not on one board, on all boards seemed to be that story as the team walked in for a match that felt decisive for their chances in Season 4. When it started, the conversation was whether the Kings can make a comeback or Czech Mumba Masters join the party at the top. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave holding it on, on that icon board. Takes down Farooja for a second time in the league. A crucial win. Pranish versus Wei ended peacefully. I just think everyone from the Chak Mumba Masters performed beautifully in this one, right?

And I think Surya Ganguly is that, uh, glue to the team which is working out really well. He makes those, uh, important calls. He tells the players what they ought to be And I think you really need a captain like that. Absolutely, absolutely.

And there we see Harika, you know, having her match against Zujina. I think it was more or less, I think, kind of equal-ish. I think neither side having those chances. Zujina did play that Four Knights Scotch, which doesn't really have, you know, that much venom. But speaking of, you know, having that much venom, this game was absolutely incredible. From Maxime Bashir Lagrave, and I'm feeling a bit sad for Firuja here, Nagarbhai.

I think Firuja will make a comeback. But where's the time?

They have two matches left to play. They're not the only comeback that can happen is trying to score. Next tournament. अच्छा next tournament. Next season five is when Firuja will make a comeback. I mean, this is just unbelievable scenes. Alireza Firuja scored seven and a half out of ten in season three. And currently remains winless. Triveni Continental Kings have a total of zero chances of making it to the finals, which means we are left with a race between five teams. Hmm.

Yeah, and that race is quite intense, right, Sahaj bhai?

What do you think? Absolutely. I mean, it's between Ganges, Grandmasters, Sheikh Mubarak Masters, Alpine. Of course, we've got the Fires. We've got the PBJ Alaska Knights. But TCK is out, I think, pretty much from the equation. Do you have a favorite now?

Do you think next match जो होने वाला उसमें PBG Alaskan Knights should win against the Alpine APL Pipers. Then we'll have one team on fifteen and four teams on twelve.

We don't know who is going to make it to the top two. And what about Vishy versus Magnus? What are your thoughts on that?

What if what if Vishy, who has not won a single game, suddenly starts to win and your first game against Magnus crazy हो जाएगा? But right now we have the score of the previous match. Check Mumbai Masters 14-5.

Unbelievable margin this is at this point in the tournament. Not only getting the very important 3 match points, but scoring up on the game points as well. Triveni Continental Kings got that one win on game 5, Alexandra Kosteniuk with a 3-pointer, but it was not enough with the icon and the prodigy board on 2 ends there getting the job done with 4-pointer victories. And Shakriyar Mamedyarov in the Three massive wins with black, two draws is what got it done for the Czech Mumba Masters. Fourteen to five, a dominating, crushing performance.

Yeah, and by Shakriyar Mamedyarov के बारे में क्या कहना है?

Crazy आदमी है. I I'm I mean the shark attack is real. Yeah, I mean I mean he's he's just been phenomenal. He took down Yaz as well. I mean in this tournament, I mean the fact that he can play so well. वो भी faster formats में ताने is kind of very very impressive, yeah.

Shakriyar made for speed, made for attack. He's showing up for his team right now and for our next teams. Well, a lot of players have to show up and the reason I say that is you guys touched upon this Alpine Pipers will be taking on the PBG Alaskan Knights. We'll break all of that down for you. Pipers have already lost a match today. Vishy Anand also remains winless. But right now the question on my mind before we go to that match How difficult is it to choose a player of the match from the previous one?

It's quite difficult, I think, because all of the players, I think, very much deserved, you know, because I think all of the wins that the Czech Mumba Masters had was quite smooth. But yeah, which player would you go for, Sagar bhai?

If I had to choose, I would have chosen MVL, but I feel like MVL already has got many player of the match awards. I think they should give it to one of either Shaq or Baldia.

Well, we are going to find out very soon, but it was on the icon board that MVL scored a win. The other two clutching it as well. Arohi, tell us who was the MVP.

Oh, it was as difficult as y'all thought it was. The player of the match award could have gone to anybody from this team because of the sheer grit and resilience that the players have shown in this game. But we had to pick one name. But before we get to that one, let's call upon the team who won at Hole in Soul. Give it up for the Czech Mumbai Masters! Maxime, you look very happy. Crucial points at the crucial stage, and this is where that launch pad probably That Czech Muma Masters needed to finish in the top two has come.

Yeah, we needed the win badly, and so you know we just fought for it.

We got it, and we're in great mood.

How great does it feel to win today on your board?

It's good. It helps the team. But you know the most important is always the team team win. All right.

May I speak with Shakriar? Can we now say that the shark attack has finally happened?

Again, not today. Not today. Again, it was some nice strategical game, but I am very happy for my team. Team win is more important.

So how long do you think we're gonna have to wait for that shark attack?

But you missed this because in round 2 I played very nice.

Yeah, yeah, because I played a very nice game in, I think, against Against Aram and with white, with white it was a very good attack game. You can check later.

I did, I did. But tell us about today's game. Did you feel the pressure coming into this game? Because you know every game is just as important from here on.

Normally when team play with black, normally when we play with black, it's normal some pressure. But I mean I see after I don't know, ten minutes is maxim positions very well, and I think like team we do very well today.

The team did do very well, and the result is that they won this important clash against the Triveni Continental Kings. And now to give away the player of the match award, may I please call upon Mr. Gaurav Rakshit, League Commissioner. So let's Let me tell you something, the player of the match according to the team was actually somebody else from the team, but they insisted that no, we have to give it to a player that stood out today and did it for the team. Please give it up for Dhaneshwar Badiya!

Dhanyavad!

You cannot escape giving answers today. So, by the time you were on your board, the rest of the team had finished off. Was your attention towards them or were you just focused on your board?

Actually, it was quite intense. an insane game, but when I saw the team already won, it really felt good.

So team had already won, but what motivated you to keep playing that game and win it, win those crucial points for the team, add into whatever total the team had come to?

I mean, I also lost 2 games in a row, so it was important for my— to be in better shape to win this game as well.

Do you think you won today's game because you prepped well, or were you just good on the I slept well. Well, hope you sleep more well in the next couple of days because now every match is going to be super important and you've got to win it.

Thank you.

That is it from the player of the match, the post-match presentation ceremony. We'll be back with another thriller in the next game. As of now, let's head back to the casters.

A huge congratulations to The Czech Mumba Masters and to Dhaneshwar Bardia. What a moment this is, Sagar Shahaj, at the Global Chess League, where initially it was going to be one player of the match, but it was finally decided to the one who clutched it.

Right. I think that's a very smart team decision by the Czech Mumba Masters because MVL was the one who was going to get it. But somehow the team said, "Give it to Dhaneshwar. We want him to feel more confident," and that's so cool.

And that's so cool for the Chakmama Masters because, Saj, look what's happened. They have gone leapfrogged all all the way up to second place, just behind Ganji's Grandmasters, having completed eight matches with now twelve match points.

Wow! And now they're on second place. ऐसा I mean it it feels like you know you win one game and you just leapfrog all the way to the top of the leaderboard. This just completely You know, when we started the day, Alpine was leading. But look at the story now. I mean, they are on 3rd place. And, well, technically, they are not qualifying anymore. But of course, there's a lot of games left. And they have an extra game as well. But it looks like one game is what decides everything. Yeah?

And we love to see that happen, where you have to expect the unexpected right now. There's going to be so much topsy-turvy shakeup of the leaderboard, as we also notice that Czech Mumba Masters have played one extra game. All the other teams in contention for the top 2 spots have a match in hand, Sagar. Yes.

So the next game will be PBG Alaskan Knights and Alpine APL Pipers, and then we will have the Fires American Gambits taking on Ganji's Grandmasters. Now imagine everyone ends up in this twelve or fifteen mark zone. क्या ही tournament है? This is one of the best tournament stories I have ever seen. Wow! Absolutely. दो दिन अब बचे हैं दोस्तों. Actually तीन दिन, two days of the group stages after today. And I have a feeling that any team can make it except the Triveni Continental Kings.

My paach team, too much. And usually, you know, we at least have one team that feels like it's running away with it. Right now, it's not even a guarantee for Ganji's Grandmasters who sit atop. I want to just come back to what we saw with Dhaneshwar winning the player of the match. And I think one of the reasons was, Sahaj, he had a massive highlight moment in his game. Absolutely.

And we see that in front of us. He has this attack on the kingside With the E four and F four points now, this is the AMD move of the match.

Yes. Wow! Oh, this is a new introduction we've had from today. क्या बात है? बिल्कुल, बिल्कुल सागर भाई.

And look at I mean I think ये move of the match के के के साथ साथ I think ये it's more about the idea of of of of this position as well. Okay. उस पहले तो वो F three फैक्टा है. Then he goes G three. But it's all connected. Yeah, he goes bishop to G five. And now look at this move E three. Nice. एकदम completely opening the kingside and and and white कोई फोर्स हो गया गोल्डन पॉन मूव करना एंड दिस पॉन ऑन एफ थ्री इज़ बेसिकली द रीज़न व्हाई ही एंडेड अप विनिंग द गेम क्या बात है आई थिंक दानेश्वर बाड़िया जस्ट डिन प्ले द मूव ऑफ़ द मैच ही प्ले द मूव्स ऑफ़ द मैच ही गोट द मूव्स मल्टीपल में ही ही गोट ऑल द मूव्स यार लेट्स those up and down shaky moments, but will do wonders for his confidence.

This moment, this game, turning it around against Pranav, getting a 4-pointer with the black pieces. But now, guys, it's time to talk about our upcoming match. You know, we've had the Pipers with a win— with a loss earlier on today against the Ganji's Grandmasters. Magnus Carlsen will enter one more time. What are we expecting when he takes on Vishy Anand?

That's such a tough one. I'll tell you who will win.

Please, please go ahead. The whole match or that board? Whole match. Tell us.

I think PBG Alaskan Knights will win. Why? Because they are on 9 points and I want them to reach 12. So that is simple.

So you think that Alpine will lose 2 games with white pieces on this, like on the same day?

I also love the Alpine team, but not today. Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be their day.

Okay, so एक और एक और क्वेश्चन सागर भाई। Magnus vs Vishy what happens?

So draw.

Well, I think that would be a great result for Vishy. Again, Vishy hasn't had a win in this tournament so far. I saw Arjun's interview talking about the legend where I think he made some really good points. He said that, you know, it's inspiring to watch Vishy compete and play at this level, at the stage that he is, at 56, with the opposition that he is. And again, it's not been the quality of play that's a question. He gets those good positions, he's fighting it out. But it's always been those final few moments.

Absolutely. What time pressure वाले मोमेंट पे when he has less than one minute on the clock, I think you just need to play a lot of chess over the board chess to be able to deal with those kind of you know emotions, those kind of situations. So I mean maybe it's not happening as much with Vishy sir, you know. But hopefully you know these these past like seven rounds have been like some kind of a warm up and we'll see like some exciting chess against the goat of chess. Let's go.

कल करे सो आज कर आज करे सो अब has to do today we will come back after a short break दोस्तों please be here कहीं जाना मत rhyme नहीं हो रहा यार जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, दस हजार रन का माइलस्टोन पार हो जाता है। सोचो जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, इंडिया कितने और माइलस्टोन पार करेगा? इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian.

अरे बेटा क्या कर रही हो?

पापा, हमारे यहाँ प्लास्टिक रिसाइकलिंग का प्रॉब्लम नहीं है, प्लास्टिक कलेक्शन का प्रॉब्लम है। और हम सब मिलके नहीं करेंगे, तो फर्क कैसे पड़ेगा?

मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल बोलो स्टील कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएलपोलो बनाता है, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। एपीएलपोलो, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। अचीव गेस्ट्स हैव अराइव। सैल्यूट। सैल्यूट करो, सैल्यूट करो। सलूट हटाओ, ये पीलाओ। किस भी खाओ ना जो मस्ती की भीड़ जगाओ रे, किस भी का पाइंट लेके किस भी का प्लास्टिक हरे, इतने से मन न भरे, दिल का है थोड़ा और मिले। Long non-sticky full of veggies. Formality हटाओ, ये पी खाओ। आशीष, आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूडेट?

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पर हम भी जिद्दी हैं। तीस से ज़्यादा क्वालिटी चेक्स, विटामिन ए और विटामिन डी से युक्त और खाना भी बने स्वादिष्ट। खाने में समझौता नहीं, अच्छा खाना शुरुआत से ही independence। जब 11 इंडियन के हाथ में power आता है, इंडिया क्रिकेट के मैदान में world champion बन जाता है। सोचो, जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में power आएगा, इंडिया और कितने मैदानों में world champion बन जाएगा? इसलिए yono देता है, हर इंडियन के हाथ में power, the all new yono, power to every Indian। We are back and we are hyped with the action that's coming up. It is Magnus Carlsen versus Vishy Anand as the Alpine Pipers take on the PBG Alaskan Knights. Now, the last time these 2 teams Faced each other. Sahaj, Magnus beat Anand, but the Pipers lost the overall overall match.

What happens today?

Ah, it's a very no no I am not doing any more push-ups for you. It was very easy for you. Yes. Yeah, very easy. Let me see.

जान जा रही थी इसकी last two push-ups में। It was not.

No, that's not true. It was easy. Everyone here. It was easy. Unlike someone said that my biceps were shaking. That's but that wasn't true.

We have we have a crowd here in front of. Them as witness, we are saying by which team will win according to you.

यार आप तो फंसा रहे हो बिल्कुल अगर भाई. I will choose Alpine APL Pipers to win.

Done. I am choosing PBG Alaskan Knights.

But I I will not put push-ups vibe. How about this? How about this? I'll choose Alpine APL Pipers. You choose PBG PBG Alaskan Knights. But I have I have I have someone who will do the push-ups. Push-ups for me. अच्छा? Yeah, it is Mr. Raja who's going to be.

You are choosing Harshit Raja as your to do the push-ups for me as your fighter. I'm choosing Tanya Sachdev. Oh, let's go!

I am so down. Yes, let's go.

I never signed up for this fight. I am going to be. Why did I high five you right now? I have no idea. But guys, we'll get to that. We'll have push-ups one way or the other. This is the matchup that is coming on. Also talk to me about the Pipers' mindset. Serge, you were calling the action in that first round. Alpine Pipers tasting their defeat against the Ganges Grandmasters, barely any time to recover. How are they feeling on the boards?

I think they would be a bit disappointed with how their morning round was, that is for sure. But I think they would be overall quite confident, uh, against the PBJ Alaskan Knights simply because they are playing with the white pieces and And of course, on the icon board, I think Vishy sir has not won a single game so far. And well, Magnus has not lost any. Magnus has not lost any game. Exactly. And of course, and there is that color advantage as well. So I think they would be comfortable, um, on, on, on that board. What are your thoughts on this, Sagar bhai?

I think there is one big issue with the Alpine APL Pipers. Whenever Vidit Gujarati makes a quick draw, that is the time when Alpine APL Pipers gets into trouble. trouble. Vidit has to continue playing. He drew quickly with Dominguez, team lost. Yes, he drew one more game, I remember, against someone, their team was in trouble. So very important for Vidit not to take a quick draw.

I really feel that was a very questionable decision that we saw earlier, and Alpine Pipers went down to Ganji's Grandmasters winless in that match. It was a 4-12 victory with 4-pointers coming in. And right now, for the Pipers, essential to fight every single board. I don't think they can rely on any one player. And of course, the colors will get swapped. Now, in their last meetings, it was the PBG Alaskan Knights who won the entire match. Is that slightly surprising looking at the way the tournament has progressed so far?

I think it's always surprising in that sense because Alpine, to me, is, uh, as well, they are the favorites because they have the GOAT and they have Have white pieces as well. But it's a bit surprising. But I think now I'm gonna choose Alpine over.

Well, the storylines have changed. The tides might have turned, and the colors have swapped. And our Rohi is with the captains asking all the big questions.

The race is to the top of the table. Alpine APL Pipers have already played a game this morning, but it is a PBG Alaskan. Knights who join this race today. Well, let's give it up for the 2 teams, the Alpine APL Pipers versus the PBG Alaskan Knights. The coaches of the 2 teams, Praveen Thipse for the Pipers, Abhijit Kunte for the Knights. And now the match official, Deputy Chief Arbiter Vasanth BH, international arbiter. May we now have the colors exchange? White for the Pipers, black for the Knights. Thank you. White again. Well, in the morning, had a tough day, uh, at office, but now you come Very little time to recover, but what is it that's going to change in this game if you want the result to change?

So I think the important thing is to forget what happened in the earlier game because every game is different. And yes, we did expect a great result with white, but somehow it didn't work. I think sometimes 2 pawns up and you end up losing, and sort of, yeah, unexpected things happened. And a game which probably we should We should have won at least with a margin of one extra game. We ended up losing that match, and we expected to win 2 games and lose only one. But as the things happened, we lost 2 games. So, well, I think it's— that game is over, and we are going to think of a new game. It's completely different game.

What would you do differently in this game, given that the color is the same? Probably the approach changes, the tactics change. tactics change, strategy changes?

Uh, I think the choice of openings or something, that is something we could be—

which could be discussed. And the play of style can be modified, uh, suiting to new circumstances.

All right, all the best to the team.

Thank you.

With the black pieces the first time, uh, well, you had them. What about this one?

I think they have a strong team and we are in a situation where we have to give our best each and every round. So I hope that the team continues from the victory yesterday.

Well, what's the strategy like? Do you absorb the pressure early on, or do you go all out right from the start trying to take control of the game?

See, this is a team tournament and the players are playing first time in one team, so it's always— each player has a different style and different thinking. Patterns. So no, like each game is handled completely separately according to the player and his opponent.

So basically strategizing as per the board and not as a complete team strategy as well. But all the best for the game today.

Thank you, thank you very much.

That is it from the color exchange. The Alpine APL Pipers will be playing white while the PBG Alaskan Knights will be playing black.

Thanks, Arohi. What a heavyweight clash you set ourselves up for. Again, a reminder, it was 9-7 for the PBG Alaskan Knights With Yagis Khan and Nino Batsia Shively scoring for them on their boards. Only Magnus got the win against Vishy. But before we deep dive into that, Sagar, you had a very interesting stat for the captains of the team.

Yes, we had India number three GM Praveen Thipsaji and number fourth GM of India Abhijit Kunte together on the stage. That's so amazing. And here you see the trio. The trio. And look at that! Never in my life did I imagine these three walking together.

I think this is a scene nobody could see or predict to happen, where Vidit, Magnus in the center, Anish entering together, and Magnus stops for the autograph.

Magnus बोला मैं भी नहीं ये predict करना चाहता मैं जाता हूँ भाई.

I think he just he was like मेरे को नहीं आना यहाँ पे and he just left. Oh my god! Look at that! Wow! That's a lot of autographs. Let's go! You know what?

Magnus. Yeah, and Magnus says that it's just too many people, too many boards. I'll be back later. And Magnus goes into the arena. Sahaj, what scenes, man!

Amazing, amazing scenes. तो भी आएंगे तानिया when it when it's gonna be Magnus versus Vishy. Obviously, I think that's going to be an incredible. And of course, here we see the PBG Alaskan Knights with I mean someone who who who was Age-wise a prodigy, but is actually a superstar. Yaz Khan, and then of course the youngest grandmaster in the world alongside Arjun Erigaisi, India number one, and of course Vishy sir. Nino, who's been I think the dominant player in their team, who's been winning all of their matches, and of course Katrina Lagnu. What a team! Tiger Bhai, do you think this team is a favorite?

Hi, you see yesterday night I was just in the dinner table. I had a long dinner. It got over at eleven o'clock or so, eleven thirty. Then I came outside. I saw Abhimanyu Mishra. He was like clueless, like he was looking in. I said, "What do you want?" He said, "I wanted water." So I thought, "Bhaiya must have come for water." Then I went ahead. I saw Yas Khan Erdogmus sitting there with a chessboard and clock. They both, I think, had a long session of blitz the entire night. I don't know how long they played. I went to my room. But just to say, these two players, I feel today will. अभी मन्यू मिश्रा एंड यास का नेडोगमस, because the younger you are, the more ambitious you are. Nothing is impossible for you.

So what you are actually saying is यास is gonna defeat विदित and मिश्रा is gonna beat वोलोदार मुर्जी। I didn't even think about their opponents.

I just thought I just thought these youngsters have it in them. Of course, विदित is in tremendous form. He's playing super well. So we'll be tough, but I think the youngsters— yeah.

Well, it's not only going to be a tough match on the Prodigy Board because look at the stats coming in for our Icon Board there. Magnus Carlsen undefeated with 2 wins and 5 draws. For Vishy Anand, it's a completely different story— only 2 draws and he's had 5 losses. He's yet to win his first individual game. How can Vishy turn this around today? What will be key in this matchup for Vishy?

I think I think it's very important to keep it solid, especially when you have a streak of losses, because I think it puts you in a, like, a tilt of sorts, and it's important to get out of that. So be solid. And of course, Magnus is gonna try to push with the, with the white pieces, and that's perhaps where you can strike.

My, my thought is that the team has to deliver without worrying about Vishy's board. Like, if he gets a draw, great. If he wins, amazing. But the remaining five boards are capable. You know, Arjun, Nino, Abhimanyu. You know, these youngsters have it. Yaskar, Nardogmus, Katrina Lagnu. I think the team is tremendously capable of doing it on the remaining five boards and just saying, Vishy, we are going to fire for you.

So you're not counting on the icon board just yet. You say, Vishy, you do your best, but it's the other five boards. No pressure there, but full pressure, as a legend once said. And I am going to talk about those other boards that you're talking about. Let's bring up the stats for our men's superstar board as we have a massive clash with Arjun taking on Anish Giri of the Pipers. And what a, what a tough—

I mean, a complete clash of styles between Anish and Arjun. Arjun, of course, an extremely chaotic player, and Anish I mean, mostly tries to keep it solid. But Sagar bhai, who do you think?

Hi, मैं एक बात बोलूँगा। बोलो भाई। Anish को जब भी भी मुझे लगता है form में है, like today he was just winning against Levon. He lost that game. I can't believe that he lost that one where he was totally winning. So my feeling in this match is that Arjun is the more stable player in this tournament, although he hasn't really be very stable over here. So, but still, I would give a small edge to Arjun. What do you, what do you think, Tanya?

For me, this is a really big pressure board, and I, I do think that for the PBG Alaskan Knights, I agree with your point that on the Icon board, just given everything that has happened, you want to try to strike on the other boards. And I think Arjun will go all out against Anish. He's a very fast player, he's extremely combative, he'll try to push, pull Anish out into the Those complex battles, forcing Anish to think early on, burn the clock. I'm saying advantage PBG Alaskan Knights on that board. Anish has scored some big wins but has also had his shaky moments. I'll give the edge to Arjun in this one.

Makes sense, makes sense. We have a Prodigy board also stats here because I think that will be super interesting to see what happens.

Ahaj, that is absolutely— no, no, I'm just looking at the Prodigy board and I, and I got lost in like some train of thought, but Like this is this this board. You think Mishra has a much better chance because the youngsters, right? But but I but I have but I have a counterpoint.

Hi, Mishra is coming in form right now. मतलब वो जो U.S. से jet lag लेके आया था, वो अभी तक he was little bit not in form. Now it seems like he's in his element.

But I feel that Murzin is I mean but but initially you you were saying the youngsters are gonna win in this match. But Murzin is also a youngster, no?

Yeah, for sure. I mean prodigy board है ना तो young तो होंगे ही। I'm just gonna point out one thing.

You know, Abhimanyu Mishra gave us one One of the most dramatic moments of the season four so far, the promotion that never happened. And PBG Alaskan Knights lost a very critical match in that one against the Ganesh Grandmasters. You know, he said later on in an interview that that had nothing to do with the chess skill. It was just a moment that was happens one once in ten thousand times, and it happened to him that day. I think he's feeling the confidence despite that heartbreak because he beat Dhaneshwar Bardi.

He beat him in the last game, which means that he got the crucial four points which helped the PBG Alaskan Knights beat Czech Mumba Masters.

Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

But you know, Volodar only convincing you, by the way.

Volodar also defeated Bardia though. Ha! That's also true. So both of them have that in have have that in.

Volodar is also getting back in shape, right?

I mean, I mean, I think it's in this match it's kind of like a toss. Up for me, and I don't really think there is a favorite necessarily for on on the prodigy board. But yeah, I'm still choosing Alpine APL Pipers. What about you?

Well, he's been choosing PBG Alaska Knights, and he's been trying to convert all of us into that stream of thought. But right now, these two teams are ready to enter the arena. A big matchup for the Pipers to reclaim their spot, or will we have the PBG Alaska Knights striking back? Arro. Over to you.

Hello and welcome to the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. Now this is one face-off which is going to be really interesting as multiple times world champions will be facing off against each other on the Icon Board. Please give it up for the 2 teams, Alpine APL Pipers and the BBG Alaska Knights. And now it is time to introduce the lineup for today, starting with the Alpine APL Pipers, 9 times World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen, former Waikansi Champion Anish Giri, former BL Champion Vidit Gujarati. Olympiad individual gold medalist Divya Deshmukh. Former Candidates Cup champion Hampi Koneru. Former World Rapid champion Volodar Morzin. And their coach, the first Indian to get a GM norm, Praveen Tipsey. Let's introduce the lineup of the PBG Alaska Knights. 9 times Amber Rapid Tournament champion Vishwanathan Anand. Olympiad individual gold medalist Arjun Erigaisi. Youngest to 2700 Yagishkhan Erdogmus. 2-time Olympiad individual gold medalist, Katharina Lagno. Olympiad individual gold medalist, Nino Batsiashvili. The youngest grandmaster, Abhimanyu Mishra. And their coach, India's 4th grandmaster, Abhijit Kunde. Let the battles begin. It's now time for a handshake. And now for the first move, may I please call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat. Singh, our chief arbiter, Mr. Gurs Beyer, and the guest Kabir Nair, a Yippee fan.

The little kid who's got an opportunity, a Yippee fan here, has got the opportunity of his life. मतलब भाई यिप्पी! He's going to be shouting यिप्पी right now. What a moment for him!

Look at the smile on Kabir's It's a memory he's gonna keep with him for a very, very long time. Magnus Carlsen there also with a smile with that. I think he loves it when a youngster comes and makes a ceremonial move. मैंने ये बहुत tournaments में देखा है with Magnus Carlsen. He's always encouraging the young fans, and now it's on young Divya Deshmukh to try to strike back for the Alpine Pipers. और game शुरू हो गई है. It's going to be a four nights opening.

कितने टूर्नामेंट्स देखे हैं तुमने? Like how many tournaments have you seen where in seven rounds Divya has not won a single game? Zero. So rare.

This is the first time that I'm seeing something like this happen. She is playing the Global Chess League for the first time. She's winless so far, but I think today she's managed to at least get some decent positions. Maybe this is the moment she shows up when her team needs it the most.

Right, and the opening she has chosen is also a smart one. क्योंकि इसमें ना थोड़ा Risk free है, Tanya. I think you have played this with black often.

This one. Yes, Ansagar. It feels like you neutralize a lot of white का edge. Bishop बाहर आता है. आप center को consolidate कर देते हो with the c pawn queen आगे बढ़ती है to unpin itself. We'll see whether Katrina wants to trade her bishop for the white knight. It's a fun opening, but I quite enjoy it playing with the black pieces. Let's take a look at Humpy versus Nino. Nino is one One of the top top scorers for the PBG Alaskan Knights.

And look at what Nino has done. She goes P five. It's like an extended fianchetto. थोड़ा सा pawn एक कदम आगे बढ़ गया दोस्तों। हाँ ये online होता तो मैं तो पक्का सोचती ये mouse slip है। But I think Nino के आजकल कोई slips नहीं हो रहे हैं तानिया। She's playing really well and well it's a fun interesting opening.

Actually I want to tell everyone that she's not only a top scorer for the PBG Alaskan Knights, she's a top scorer of the league so far. Wow! She's Had eighteen game points just on her board, Sagar.

That's insane, Tanya. That's too good. Let's head over to the male superstar board. Anish Giri and Arjun Erigaisi. देखो, Tanya. Just see the scene. I have a feeling Anish looks a bit under pressure. Yes. है ना? क्योंकि previous game में you are winning and then you lose. You level. You don't have enough time to recover and then you face Arjun Erigaisi.

And you suddenly know that Pipers की position ऐसे consolidated नहीं है. For the Alpine Pipers, they may or may not be at the top.

At the end of the day, भाई देखा अर्जुन D4 खेला, D4 E6 and Tanya he was giving him an invitation भाई French defense में आना है। He said ले लेता हूँ invitation.

Anish says मैंने शुरू किया Queen's pawn opening के साथ but अब King's pawn opening खेलते हैं। The French is on the board पर अर्जुन का ये काफी important weapon रह चुका है for the openings to play the French.

You know remember the World Cup where he was facing Wei Yi and then he played the French and he lost it? I think Arjun जून थोड़ा सा ध्यान से खेलना होगा उन्हें यहाँ पर he has to play this carefully and we have विदित गुजराती वर्सेस याज कान एलडॉगवस and look at that याज is showing his confidence against विदित he's saying I'm going to play an inferior opening विदित भाई take the center whatever you want take it I'm going to fight one thing that's been विदित's problem in the league has been the clock management इतनी जल्दी सोचना इन non-critical moments comes To bite you later on with it in the morning with an early quick draw.

You have to be feeling the nerves if you're Gujarati right now. But let's go over to the icon board where Vishy Anand has been feeling the nerves on the clock in several games.

Hi, if I was Vishy Anand right now, how would I spend my morning today is a question to me. Would I practice something? Would I go for a walk? Would I try it? What would I do?

I'll tell you what Magnus is doing right now. He's making up his mind on the first move. This is usually him when he's looking at the board like this. वरना वो हमेशा बाकी boards देख रहे होते हैं। Correct. He is figuring out and my feeling is he's going to play something off syllabus. I b three केलने वाला हूँ। कुछ crazy करने वाला है first या second move में। b three. Magnus looks a bit mischievous to me right now.

Guys, guys in the chat and in the auditorium guys what do you think will be the first move यहाँ पर? Do you think? Do you agree with me? b three. Okay the arbiter starts.

Oh let's find out. I'm expecting a surprise on the very first or the second move by Magnus Carlsen. And she threw out a side.

Oh yeah, oh, दूसरे side कर दिया। But close, Sagar, close. And Tanya, you also sensed his mood absolutely right.

कि कुछ तो अलग करने वाले हैं। कुछ तो अलग and he doesn't take out his knight. He doesn't go for those central pawns. But finally, it transposes into a Reti opening, Sagar.

Right. And Vishy is like, I don't need to do anything silly or something. I'll Just get my bishop out. I will castle. That's the thing about Vishy with all his experience. He knows कि भाई opening में मस्ती करने का नहीं, just play the normal chess, normal moves.

You know one of the not so normal things has been of commentating with you for so many years, Sagar कि आपकी शायरी काफी on point होती है। तो मैं चाहती हूँ इस बारी जो भी team जीतेगी, उन पे आप एक शायरी करोगे at the end of the match.

Definitely Tanya, बहुत सारे शायरी होने वाले हैं यहाँ पर। We will definitely make it happen.

पूरे क्राउड में सब चिल्लाने लगे, बेटा या बेटी, क्योंकि मैग्नस कालसन ने खेला है रेटी। ओहो क्या बात है, क्या बात है। होपफुली इससे थोड़ी बेटर शायरी आप कर पाएंगे सागरशाह इन द कमेंट्री, इन द कमिंग मोमेंट्स। but it's a start guys, it's a start and this one has started with a रेटी सागरशाह अगर ऐसी शायरी तो मैं नहीं सहती। Okay, knight to c three played here by Magnus.

He wants to push the pawn in the center. And Vishy Anand is thinking now कि भाई should I play my pawn to c five, Tanya? Should I bring my knight out? He's thinking right now.

Central control or development, Sagar. Let's do a quick opening round up of the other boards. हमने ये बात की थी कि for the P B G Alaskan They just want Vishy to do his best, but it is a struggle. This format is very demanding on him. Yes. Let's do a roundup of the other boards. Did you see his move?

He pushed the pawn and kicked the knight here, and now if he takes it, pawn takes, and bishop थोड़ा बंद हो जाएगा यार. Oh wow! Hmm. Bangalore में लग रही है ठंड. Bishop on G two हो जाएगा बंद. Sorry sorry.

उस knight को है भगाया. Hmm. Vishy ने मैच में जोश हिलाया। अरे, thank you. But let's go on to the next board, Sagar. Let's go. We've got and you're going to take us through the Prodigy board next and we'll work our way up.

Okay, let's go to the Prodigy board. Volodar Murzin versus Abhimanyu Mishra and they are playing Rui Lopez here. Abhimanyu has taken some time. Volodar ने फटाफट फटाफट move कर दिया है। So it's a very well-known opening. Arc hangels कहते हैं इसको and all of this is well known. So दोनों ने बिल्कुल ज़्यादा सोचा नहीं यहाँ पर and this is the live board position.

And right now there is a tiny threat on the board. लगता है कि black वो pawn मारके will open up the rook and the knight lines. Let's have the arrows. Let's highlight some of the points. But Sagar, if we can have the analysis board because there's a little trap why you immediately cannot capture that central Pawn on the position right now. Let's show them. Pawn takes pawn, pawn takes pawn, and agar aap knight into pawn marteh hain. Crazy question.

Let's do it. Take and take. White to play. Ho jaye doston. Kya kheloge? What is the move that you will play here?

And lots of interesting options. So be careful, chat. There are tempting, tempting moves, but one clearly better than the other.

And two moves are winning here, Tanya. One is bishop here with a double attack. Both pieces are loose.

मैं तो यही खेलना चाहती थी, भाई.

The second is queen c two with taking the same advantage. पर फिर भी ये आ जाएगा तो कभी ना कभी हमको ये खेलना ही होगा.

But the concept is clear that you cannot instantly go for that central pawn if you're Abhimanyu Mishra. तो उन्होंने अभी दूसरी decision ली है. उन्होंने g five square को control कर दिया. That Murzin's knight does not get access to that point.

Right. So as of now, very calm, very stable early days in this game. मतलब वो लोग normal opening खेल रहे हैं। Let's head over to the second women superstar board, which is Humpy versus Nino. अब ये जो game है तानिया, right now we see that it's very early days in this one. But black's king is in the center. If Humpy can do something in that meantime, like you know bishop niklega, castle karenge, do move lagenge. If you can strike right now, she might have something, or else black is doing fine.

So again, ऐसा लग रहा है कि पहले ten moves में Nino has forgotten about her pieces and just pushed all her pawns. Can we do a quick action replay and see how we got here? It started with another reti setup taken by Humpy, something she employs many times, and again pawn move के बाद pawn move. We see the trade of pure kingside के बारे में भूल चुकी है नीनो। She's saying मेरे पास काफी time होएगा, मेरा knight ready है center पे आने के लिए knight to e four is an idea you have to watch out for and I think that's the reason Hampi trades on the spot.

Wow! But why did she take?

I mean she didn't like that knight coming onto e four. That's the point.

Okay, got it, got it. She thought that this bishop is not fitting in उनके जो camp में तो बोला दे देते हैं। हम्म, तो दे दिया जाए, नाइट से मारेंगे। but why is Nino thinking? I mean, Nino come on, you take with oh she's thinking to take with the pawn.

Tanya that would be wow just incredible to see happen. Too much risk will be taken अगर वो पॉन से मारती हैं taking a structure you can't go back on. सोच तो रहे हैं वो। सोच रहे हैं because it's a hand move otherwise. हम्म and आपको क्या लगता है? Will Nino take the battle to Hampi by capturing with a pawn?

For all the youngsters there in the crowd, this is a very good lesson. Sometimes we just rush with the Move. Top GM हमेशा सोच समझ के खेल रहे हैं। She took with the knight. That's okay. Let's go to the next board. Divya Deshmukh versus Katrina Lagnu. Now this one, Tanya, one can easily say कि भाई draw हो जाएगी। Already so many things have been traded. But my feeling is both are fighters. They will continue वो लोग खेलते रहेंगे and something or the other could happen.

Very likely कि फिर भी draw ही होएगी। Even if they continue to play सागर, yes Katrina के पास bishop pair है, पर उनका pawn formation थोड़ा fractured है, double pawns है on the f line as well. So Divya very difficult to create chances and actual counterplay against it. I think very much in the balance this one. Right. I will not be surprised if Divya का knight f5 पे land करता है, which will be then traded off and at the end of it we might even get some kind of an opposite color bishop.

Endgame could be, could be. And I think for Divya draw would be a mixed result. Nahin suk nahin duk. A draw will be fine for Divya Deshmukh, I think.

No? Well done with Sagar Shah. आप हो best. Can I please take back my shairi ka request? Oh, for sure, Tanya.

I will give my shairi some rest. Knight to f5. And the thing Is if Katrina wants to play for maybe equality, she can take this knight and then have opposite colored bishop. But Q करना है. Like let's keep the bishop pair. Let's try to push our pawns here. क्या पता? कुछ chance मिल जाए. नहीं नहीं नहीं no.

थोड़ा सा तो डर लग रहा था chat. All right, so she decides to keep her bishop pair. So maybe Katrina Lagnu does want to play for a little more. I'll just highlight one idea जो black के पास हो सकता है. वो A pawn marching up the board trying to create some weaknesses on the left flank.

Absolutely, A pawn march is going to be quite interesting if it happens in this game. No Shairi, let's go to Vidit. आपने तो दिल पे ले लिया। भाई Vidit Gujarati, Vidit Gujarati ने दिल पे ले लिया। जो सुबह हुआ था, he said I didn't fight that match as I probably should have against Lenya.

I will show you what's Fight. Each pawn आगे बढ़ चुका है off Vidit, which just means he's feeling quite ambitious in his battle against Adogmus.

Can I see the moves? क्या हुए? So after c4 b6, Vidit went a3. छोटा सा move stopping bishop from coming here. Bishop came out knight to c3, knight f6, knight f3. We have transposed into a very well-known Petrosian system or Petrosian Carpo system in the Queen's Indian. Knight e4 takes takes. Whoa! Knight jumped. Bishop piché d5. Bishop came up h4. Everything forward.

Knight forward, pawn forward, pawn forward.

और अब वापस। And he's come back. I think Vidit is playing very bravely. I I think he's unhappy with the draw that he made against Dominguez quickly, and he's like, "अब तो हम करेंगे fight." जो सुबह को हमने किया, that was not right. Now I have to fight.

And Vidit will have to fight on this board. Now he does look back on the other boards. Look here on camera. He's seeing कि भाई मेरे teammates कैसा कर रहे हैं? How are they playing? He'll take those decisions. So अगर one big decision will be where do you want your bishop as Vidit? You're pointing out one plan. I'll show you another one where you can fianchetto this bishop. So for Vidit, will he push the g pawn, put the bishop on this diagonal? Or will he play for center attack? Very rich position. Vidit has captured early space against Erdogmus by pushing his pawns forward.

Right, and this is interesting. Let's head over to the board number two between Arjun and Anish. Anish, I think, made a smart choice by going into the French defense e four खेल के क्योंकि his position is slightly better.

I'm trying to take everything in because there's so much tension on this diagonal जहाँ पे queen and bishop and bishop की battery लगी हुई है. With the white king behind it as well. That's again, I think you have to be a little careful with your next move choices. If you're both colors right now, that last move has been the knight landing on f six, eyeing the squares that have been left behind by that f four pawn. वो f pawn आगे बढ़ा है. That has invited Arjun's knight into the game. Maximum tension bishop पे moves आ रही हैं. Trade हो चुका है.

Endgame endgame जा रहा है भाई. Will he trade the queens?

Do you take here, Sagar, or do you put the queen on the C-file, playing for more in the middle game?

I think Tanya, ये गेम भी is maybe moving towards equality and could very well end in a draw. Takes the queen, takes here. He'll bring back the knight. I think white has small edge, but it won't be sufficient to play for a win. ऐसे मुझे लग रहा है, but you never know. Anish is very good at such technical positions.

तो देखते हैं। सागर, also notice our bars evaluation bars across the six boards at the bottom of the screen right there. And it's that center game of Vidit जहाँ पे advantage लग रहा है सिर्फ बाकी सब balance में है. But let's check in with our icons.

Let's go. Time to check Magnus versus Vishy. The game you all have come for. पूरा auditorium full है. When I was coming in to the you know through the entry gate. Everyone was like, "Aaj Vishy and Magnus will be able to see." They are so excited about this matchup.

Both with ten classical world championships between them, both icons and legends of the game. And Sagar, I think regardless of anything that's happening, form, tournament situation, this is always an iconic clash to watch. Magnus versus Vishy are two generations colliding. trading for maximum impact.

And Vishy already has a nice position, Tanya. His last move, slightly dubious, to trade the bishops. He could have just brought his queen up, but it's a great position. He is already equal. And Tanya, I want to just put one small thing here. You know, when we began ChessBase India in 2016, Vishy was like one of the best in the world at that point, and everyone was like talking to him saying retirement, you know, at that phase already, because he was at that time 46 years old, and somehow he would always make a comeback. Everyone would be like, time to retire Vishy, and he would be like, I'll let my moves do the talking, I don't want to say anything.

And he always responded to that criticism or those comments in the strongest way possible, with a comeback on the board, correct, with a dominating performance, winning the World Rapid Championship in 2017. In 2017. Just every time when he's played the Grand Chess Tour as well, the performances he's had against the players. And now हम दस साल बाद twenty twenty six में बैठे हैं and this is our icon board for Vishy Anand. This year at Global Chess League, it's new colors. He's not in his yellow usual jersey of the Ganges Grandmasters. He's come on the board. He's playing Magnus. But Vishy with a very solid position right now.

Great position. Great position he has. I can't say how Magnus In fact, Magnus has somehow his last move C3 का मतलब क्या है? I don't know. Maybe he wants to hit in the center with D4, but already it feels like Vishy has a great position and he can press here. Also two minutes ahead on the clock.

And I think that's essential for Anand. He has to make sure that Sagar उनके पास at least at any given point दो मिनट से ज़्यादा है. Because we've seen that his games always turn around when he's playing on second. Somehow that is the difficult part. For him, absolutely. At 56, to handle that time scramble is where the struggle lies. I agree, I agree.

Baki, he is playing really well. Can he make that small change in his game? You know, some things you can change, but sometimes to make certain changes is not even possible, Tanya. Let's see what happens today. If Vishy is able to bring this change in himself, I'll be super impressed. Like you know, I've been inspired by. Him all my life, maybe one more time.

I couldn't agree more with those words, Sagar. I think he's inspired all of us and continues to do so as he does make a move fast enough there. And what he's saying is, "I want to kick that knight, Magnus Carlsen." I want B5 to come in, dislodge Magnus's most active piece, and hopefully get some open lines as well.

Also, Tanya, the thing is that he's provoking Magnus कि भाई two E4 खेल You play e four. I'll go back with my bishop. Then I'll bring my queen. I'll bring my rook, and I will try to pressurize here. So Magnus has decisions to make right now. Push the pawn, not push the pawn. Rook-e, नहीं करे क्या करे?

करे तो क्या करे? Magnus Carlsen सोच रहे हैं। खाना और शायरी मेरे agenda में नहीं है, ना ही मेरा forte है सागरशाह। But you are most welcome to China. क्या करे क्या ना करे ये कैसी मुश्किल है ना ना ना ना ना ना ना मैग्नस को बताए all right he didn't go for it he played a five he clamped down Vishy struck b five has been denied that pawn push that Vishy had set up अब वो नहीं आने वाला है सागर I still think that Vishy can trade those light squared bishop continue with your plan वो bishop को हटाओ queen को आगे लाओ bring the rook behind the queen set up that Highlight that deep pawn that Magnus has. Yes, it needs to be targeted.

कर दिया, कर दिया, कर दिया। He's done it. Takes, king takes, and now queen. He went queen d five check. No, he played b five. What a beautiful move, Tanya! He didn't even think about doubling. He's like, "I don't want your pawn to clamp down my pawns. I will take the space and now kick you away." Crazy!

You gotta love it. He's taken towards the side of the board, but he has big ideas right now. वो knight को भगाना चाहते हैं no matter what happens. सागर, I think Magnus is truly struggling to find his play in this game. Correct. Look at and जो भी सब ये game देख रहे हैं focus on Magnus's pawn structure. White का king is feeling a bit empty. It's feeling कि भाई मेरा जो pawn wall था वो diagonal खुला हुआ है वहाँ से check आ सकती है। चारों pawns जो हैं उनपे pressure आ सकता है। विशी की C फाइल खुल चुकी है, D फाइल खुली हुई है, clear targets on those ranks.

Yes, absolutely well said, Tanya. And by the way, director sahab, can we have a shot of the people in the audience? Because I want to talk to them. I want to tell them what they are witnessing. See, many of you might be chess fans in the recent times, correct? Some of them I'm sure are from years. But in 2030 The World Championship match between these two players on your screen or in front of you happened in Chennai, in India itself. And so if you have missed that, and you might be thinking, "अरे यार कब देखने मिलेगा?" Today you are witnessing it live. These two legends in front of you just soak it in. मजा करो दोस्तों.

And what a match that was! A defining moment in the history of chess. Magnus Carlsen became world champion for the first time and went on to win it another four. Times. Absolutely.

And Tanya, pawn to e4. He's trying to swivel his knight to e3 and then put it on the d5 square or f5 square.

And the question is, so he'll have to take care of that point, the outpost that you have so highlighted. Exactly. We'll come back to this. Should we do— and there you have your audience.

Brilliant packed house है सब आ चुके हैं sold out match है ये guys if you if you are enjoying Tanya's शायरी एक thumbs up हो जाए भाई आपकी शायरी थी oh किसी ने thumbs up अरे यार किया किया किया oh they are doing it thank you thank you guys thank you oh man Tanya this is exactly the plan I was thinking pawn to b five knight e three b four b weakening all the dark squares. Very smart.

That is actually a beautiful move by Anand. And I want to say that even if it's not the top computer move, the most difficult one to respond to. And again, the point is that once that pawn is captured or Magnus is forced to push it, Vishy's knight taking an outpost of its own. But I think Magnus has made a decision.

Magnus played c4 and the pawn, you know, question mark. And guys, the Is it's a positional error, but Magnus does not make generally positional errors, and he's done it this time, Sagar.

And the reason it's a strategic mistake is because it gives so many dark squares for Vishy's bishop and his knight to jump on. And Vishy कह रहा है भाई clock पे I will not let you. You shall not pass Magnus Carlsen. A pawn आगे बढ़ाते हुए all the fight now everyone watching focus on those central squares d five Magnus के लिए d For Vishy के लिए.

And Tanya, the thing is, this is always confusing for me such positions. मुझे समझ में ही नहीं आता कि is my opponent having an advantage or will I have an advantage? How do we break it down?

And I think Magnus is trying to figure it out himself. There's only one player on the camera with head in hands right now.

H four खेल दिया है Magnus ने यहाँ पर he's totally focused. वहाँ पर if you see you can't see his face. पूरा chess players pose में बैठे हैं. And Vishy now, Tanya, can play around this knight. It's not easy because this knight is such an intimidating force. Pura center mein like an octopus it is sitting here, but it's not doing much. Exactly.

It's one of those superfluous knights that looks really beautiful but doesn't have a target. It doesn't have a plan. So Vishy can play around this knight. You know, looks are deceptive. Do not judge a book by its cover. ये knight वो cover है रा. Right now. Correct. And for Vishy, I think one of the standout points is कि Magnus के second rank पे एक single pawn नहीं है। You want to you know what Vishy wants to do? F five. Sagar, वो कह रहे हैं कि I want to play around this knight. Wow!

Always watch out for an idea of a simple idea, Tanya. F five. But Magnus goes one step ahead. He's trying to go at six. ये देखो, if you play at six, I go g six. I lose my f six. That is his plan. Very smart, Magnus. So big moment for Vishy.

Is he going to get? रोक दे क्या? रोक दे? वो ही question है. Will he get tempted to stop it or will he find a counterplay? What happens, Hagar?

If this is played, by the way, can we get analysis board? क्योंकि ये खेला नहीं गया. Yes, thank you so much. If H6 is played, on your right is the live board. Find a tactic here. जो भी लोग देख रहे हैं यहाँ पर, find white to play. What is a small little tactic? छोटा-छोटा, not too big.

छोटा tactics but मोटा outcome सागर. I see what you want right now and I and it's on the board. Has Vishy just look at our live board सागर eight six kills. Yeah Magnus Carlsen head in hands there but will he find Sagar's idea? Oh my god! Bishop takes pawn Sagar दिखाया जाए. I see the chat is on top of the game. Let us show the problem with this move. Has Vishy underestimated a bishop sacrifice by Magnus?

Magnus. Oh my God! Magnus can play for tricks. He has to find bishop takes h six. Mar सकते हैं यहाँ पर. Boom! But he hasn't taken. Right board पे ध्यान रखना दोस्तों. That's the live board. If you take, not knight takes Tanya. That is the tough part for Magnus to calculate. He has to find rook takes because if you take with the rook, knight takes and queen मर रहा है. Otherwise, the rook will slide over.

Sagar, I think Magnus spots it. It's the first time his hand is not on his head. Does he smell that he is getting the initiative here? This sacrifice exists. Looking a bit worried. He's also looking— he's looking at that direction. Look at Vishy's eyes. They are around his king because that's where the tactics are. Magnus Carlsen not stressed anymore. He's trying to calculate. Under 7 minutes.

That's an easy move for Magnus. That's what everyone in the chat is saying. But guys, the move is easy. He has to kind of evaluate the ensuing position well. So bishop takes at six. यहाँ पर अगर मारते हैं वो pawn takes and now if imagine Magnus goes for this then after Vishy takes takes this is not clear anymore. Rook f eight and black is fine.

And for Magnus this is such a critical moment because it's not a very direct line if you can't take it with the Knight. You have to say कि भाई मेरा piece. Oh! Magnus Carlsen.

Let's go, boys.

Gives up the bishop. Takes it. He does it, Sagar. And will he pick? He takes it with the knight. The wrong way. The second move is a mistake by Magnus. She takes it. She instantly takes it. वरना उनकी queen under attack थी। Magnus will pick up the rook. Oh my God! And let's take this position in right now. Magnus Carlsen has a rook and pawn against Two minor pieces, right? But Tanya, look at these minor pieces.

They are amazing.

But look at Vishika King. It's in the open Sagar. बात तो सही बताई यार.

Tanya, that is true. The king is weak, but white के पास pieces हैं to attack. Maybe the rook on A1 is too far away.

You know, I agree with you that Vishy's minor pieces very strong. Yes, rook f8. Good move. Good move. भाई attack को कैसे counter करते हैं pieces को exchange कर दो। Remove that. If it goes into an endgame, Vishy Anand is better. Magnus said it himself. If you come at the king, you best not miss it. He cannot miss the attack on Vishy's king right now. He will be worse in the endgame. बिल्कुल.

And the rook on f6, जो guest थे unwanted guest, उनको मस्त ऐसे थोड़ा सा खाना वाना देके बोल रहे हैं भाई अब निकलो तुम. Now you are not welcome here. If Magnus takes, king takes his Fine, but Magnus could try and keep his rook in the game. But guys, believe it or not, this is a very good position for black.

Yes, Tanya. Again, it is going to be a big firefight this one. Sagar, let's do a quick roundup of the other board. Other boards भी हैं ओ मैं भूल गया यार. It is the Pipers against the PBG Alaskan Knights playing with black and hump.

Oh, let's have our six boards for the pipers. From there we can know on the board number five मतलब बीच में जो central board है on bottom row bottom row में central board there white is better which means कोनेरू हंपी उसके साथ वाला भी सागर look at our entire bottom row it is currently on two boards dominated by white उर्जिन and हंपी are better so pipers का advantage है bottom row में but blunder by विशी What Vishy's blundered? Let's go back to the icon board. Let's go to the icon board.

Icon board पे कुछ crazy हो गया है. The white bar has climbed all the way up. Magnus Carlsen has a knockout move in this position. सागर queen बाहर आई, knight आगे आया. You can give a check, but I don't see the follow-up after the check. Why is this lost for Vishy?

Let's ask our viewers. Check king here and he gives a check.

Magnus will answer this question before the viewers. Vishy Anand has made a huge blunder. Is he about to get checkmated?

Yes, he is, Tanya, he is. He has blundered. So Rook g6 check has been played, King h7 is forced. And now for everyone in the chat, in the auditorium, everywhere, think about a good move for white. What is the best move? This is a key moment.

And Vishy hasn't made the only move in the position, which means he has seen it. अगर किंग के पास एक ही घर है तू नॉट लूज ऑन द स्पॉट पर उन्होंने नहीं चलाया। मैग्नस का बॉडी लैंग्वेज ही ऑलरेडी सीन इट, ही नोज इट्स ओवर। अगर वन मूव ब्लंडर देविद द नाइट जंपिंग इन, इट वाज़ द स्टोरी अगेंस्ट यान नेपाम निश्चि एस वेल। मैग्नस हैज़ फाउंड द विनिंग मूव, Right?

I mean, King H8 you can play, Tanya, but then you lose the pawn with a check. So you have to go to H7, and the winning move, just to show to everyone, is Queen E3, and there's just no way to save the pawn. It's it was simple actually.

It's gone. There's nothing that can defend that move. There's nothing that can defend that pawn. Vishy Anand might just resign on the spot. I think so, Tanya. And if he doesn't, he'll resign on the next move. He'll bring his king. He says, "I saw the check." I'll go the other way. Magnus picks up that pawn with a check. Sagar, I don't see Vishy surviving this for too long.

This is not going to be, uh, not going in the favor of the PBG Alaskan Knights.

And you can still bring the queen for the pipers. Magnus Carlsen about to score the first win on the Icon board. वो queen move जो आपने earlier highlight करी थी Magnus doesn't miss anything.

He's in good shape here. He plays it and Vishy Anand's king that you were talking about, Tanya, is in trouble. The right way for Vishy to actually hold this position was not to jump with the knight, but to bring the queen here, which was a tough move because now you can't pick up the knight. Your queen is hanging.

That is amazing geometry, basically forcing Magnus to trade pieces. We spoke about this, the endgame, it will be much For Vishy Anand, he had to get rid of that attacking rook, which is creating havoc for the black king now. Sagar, let's get our live position up. Magnus Carlsen के पास checkmating ideas आ चुके हैं। PBG Alaskan Knights, yeah, about to go down on the icon board.

So this is the live board position right now. Magnus Carlsen will score here, which means that the team of PBG Alaskan Knights is searching for which board to strike. But Tanya, as we did in our six board view, it's not so easy. But there's one board that is giving them some hope, which is the third board. Vidit Gujarati versus Yas Khan Erdogmus. Should we go over there for a bit, or let's stay here? क्योंकि दोनों को ये गेम में सो इंटरेस्ट चला गया भाई। दोनों ने पता है कि भाई हम तो खत्म हैं यहाँ। Yes, Vishy knows this is lost.

Magnus knows this is won. So Vishy, the feeling is if he gets up and leaves right now, it puts so much psychological pressure on the remaining five. Very often in team, you kind of take that heartbreak. You absorb it, but you keep sitting and try to fight it out for the last moment.

Psychologically, thank you for bringing the double view. Yes, go on.

Sagar, absolutely right. I think we know the result. We'll keep our icons on the board, but you wanted to take us to the Ed Dogmas board, जहाँ पे PPG Alaska Knights are trying to get the initiative against Vidit.

थोड़ा सा if you see Tanya, the rook of Yagiskan, Yazkan is on the open file. His knight is well placed. It's not like Vidit is worse, too much worse, but he's under pressure and clock situation भी थोड़ा सा देखना होगा विदित को because right now he's at two minutes forty seconds and Yaz has five minutes fifty seconds.

And again on the left side, I think Vishy he isn't frozen. He just doesn't want to leave the arena. He doesn't want to leave the players.

That's a very good point, Tanya. Just hang in there, Vishy, because, you know, your team will not know. Many of them will not look at the screen and they will think you're still fighting. And that's brave, you know, to stand, to hang in there when you know you're losing.

Just be there.

Exactly, Sagar. You know, in team competitions, I cannot tell you the importance of just hanging in there even in a lost position. The way the ripple effect happens across boards where they don't suddenly feel like they have to take drastic decisions on the spot. Spot. So Vishy in big trouble. हमारा board है वहाँ पे। Edogmus putting massive pressure with it. Clock is always a problem for him.

Should we do this? We will keep Vishy and one board on the left and keep switching कि ये board पे क्या हो रहा है until that game end.

Let's do it. But can we give advantage PBG Alaskan Knights on the Edogmus board? I think so.

Clearly it is a better position also on the clock. I think Yas Khan Edogmus is doing well. Let's quickly check Anish Giri and Arjun and give a quick evaluation, Tanya. ये वाला क्या लगता है आपको?

बहुत सारे pieces exchange हो चुके हैं। The first feeling is that the e5 pawn will be picked up equal number of pawns. By the way, we've got a move coming in on the Vishy board.

Vishy का rook आगे किया। अब queen अंदर आएगी। And isn't rook g6 game over or am I missing something?

I think we're going to see Vishy with the handshake soon. He sets up the final trick.

Oh! क्या tricks find किया है? If king Takes knight check, and he maybe even that's losing, but it's a trick.

And what he set up is, अगर if the king goes to the edge of the board, Vishy will give a check from H two as well, and we'll see that happen. King आगे आ चुका है, rook check देंगे अगर आप वो rook को लेते हो, it would have been lost. The king comes up, he survives all the traps. Magnus Carlsen wins the game. Vishy with one mover there.

Yeah, and Vishy is like, you know, I shouldn't have made that move. And Magnus is like, yeah. Through great position for Vishy, he messed it up with that one or two bad moves, and that means the Alpine APL Pipers are now leading the match three-nil. And we can see Humpy is also winning her game on board five for the Alpine team. But Tanya, she's facing Nino, and Nino को हराना थोड़ा मुश्किल है.

मुश्किल ही नहीं ना मुमकिन है. In GCL saga, she hasn't lost. Lost a single game so far, Nino Batser Shavili. But it feels like she's in big, big trouble here. We go back to the Viddit board.

Arjun and Anish have just drawn, Tanya.

And look at the positions, Agar. There was a repetition that happened. King and knight ka back and forth hua. If you just show the last few moves there, or all right, we'll maybe have that up later. Yeah. But Anish Arjun ends peacefully. It is the Alpine Pipers with the match. Lead and a dogmas trying to create his chances against Vidit. Vidit की clock देखो after two minutes.

Let's go full screen on the Vidit game because I think that is one of the most exciting games. I think Humpy game also very interesting. Maybe yes.

Sagar, I think Humpy is about to score a massive win.

So फिर तो Humpy में जाना चाहिए because हाँ देखो क्या हो रहा है bishop it's over done. Can we get Humpy? It's win for Humpy already. Tanya you called it at the perfect time.

ख़त्म हो चुका है गेम। That last move by Humpy crushing the streak that Nino Batsyashvili had. उनका bishop मरने वाला है क्योंकि it's pinned against the king. Nino resigned. That's two wins with the white pieces for the Pipers.

Man, which means that actually the APL Pipers. Yeah, Magnus is so zoned in. He's like, come on team. This we cannot lose. We need to win this.

One. Magnus Carlsen has gotten the job done on his board, but the job isn't over for the Pipers because the PBG Alaskan Knights are on the side of four-pointers, Sagar.

Yes, and so they need basically if one more win, Tanya, for white for the Alpine, it's over. ख़तम. Match is over.

And the Alaskan Knights need at least two wins right now.

Two wins and one draw.

And we have three boards that are going on, Sagar. Right. Can we quickly bring up our bird's eye view to see if there are chances on which board for the PBG Alaskan Knights to strike? Erdogmus advantage against Vidit. Correct. Small edge.

Erdogmus has to win. But look at Divya's board, Tanya. Divya का जो board है, rook endgame है. It looks drawish. Black is slightly active. Can Katrina Lagnor do some magic there? That is the question. Otherwise, it's drawn.

If this one is drawn, then it will all come on our protégé board.

And there, Volodar Murzin is better, which means that the Alpine APL pipers are firmly ahead in the match.

But Sagar, look at that bottom right board. Yes, the bar says you're better, and maybe positionally, but it is so full of complexities. Black and knight आगे हैं उस बोर्ड पे कुछ भी हो सकता है. It is not a given. Murzin might be better, but it's a game for three results, and that's what Mishra needs.

He's also up on the Clock, right? And let's go to Vidit's board now. That one, Vidit has made an error here. Yas Khan quickly captures a pawn, Tanya.

By step one for the Alaskan Knights is इस बोर्ड पे जीतो। Forty-five seconds है विदित के पास right now. He's gone down on the clock, Sagar. Material equal है पर white king पे काफी ज़्यादा pressure है। Too much pressure here.

Look at Vidit. He's getting in trouble. Here only forty seconds left. In fact, even thirty seconds. By Kelo with it, and you know Tanya, it's only twenty five moves.

He can't make fifteen moves. He can't make fifteen moves in twenty seconds. अरे विदेशी game is over. Increment नहीं रहेगा. And now he moves his bishop, but this allows the black knight to jump back. Queen h two checkmate के ideas लगाते हुए.

Beautiful, beautiful. That is such a good plan.

Sagar eighteen seconds में how are you making so many moves? You still have to make 14 moves. It's impossible.

It's impossible. Yes, yes. Don't even try to kind of checkmate or something. I mean, his position is better, but if he makes his moves, Vidit can physically not make so many moves.

He has to hurry with his decision. Yes, Kani is. He's willing himself to play right now. Divya also in a big time scramble currently. Oh, she's got five seconds, Sagar. No way. Five seconds to six seconds. Anything can happen. Anyone can get. Red flag. She calls the arbiter. Can we go full screen? What has happened here?

She's saying there's a repetition perhaps. Tanya, craziness happening here. She says I'm going to make this move. It would be a threefold repetition. Let's see if that holds. Let's go back to Vidit game. Knight g five played.

Let's go back. Vidit under seventeen seconds. He was ready with his response. The knight gets pushed again. Watch out on that h two square. Everyone watching highlighted. Sagar, queen वहाँ land करेगी तो checkmate हो जाएगा। Right.

And now Tanya queen h four a nice Move by speed.

It's all about the speed. With it, three seconds. With it, you'll get flagged.

कुछ तो चलो। Oh, he plays a move. But one second.

How will he make two? No way. He's flagged. He's flagged. Moves and with it, Gujarati gets flagged. Wow! Trouble on the board. Trouble on the clock. The PBG Alaskan Knights score.

Right, and let's go to Divya's board. Has the result been held up? Look at that. She's explaining to the arbiter. It's threefold repetition. It's my move, says Divya. I'm going to make rook see rook here. This is the move I'm going to play, and the arbiter is like, okay, I'll check.

And currently, Sagar, I am looking at our game, and I'm just going to backtrack quickly. This was the position a few moves ago. We had the rook swinging over one time. It was repeated twice.

मुझे तो लगता है ये लोग यही move कब के कर रहे हैं?

She's right, Sagar. She's saying once I put my rook to the central d4 square, everyone Watch it on that dark square. It's not an immediate threefold. It has come over a series of moves. But Divya, I believe, is right in her claim, and that is immense presence of mind. That's it. Arbiter ने कहा, Divya instant repetition नहीं हुई है. Divya ने कहा, कुछ move पहले ये position थी, कुछ move बाद ये हुई, और अब ये third time होने वाली है.

Crazy, crazy. So if this is a draw, the score would become eight six, and then everything will go on to the last. Board and वहाँ पर मुर्जिन ऑफ़ the team Alpine APL Pipers is winning against Abhimanyu. So अभी at this point they are firmly in the driver's seat, the team of Magnus Carlsen.

Sagar, I'm still wondering if Divya's claim holds. I have a feeling she is correct on it. The arbiter will come in with a decision. Either she'll be penalized on the clock and that's it. Divya's claim Hold incredible presence of mind here, and I want to again remind everyone: your threefold repetition came in a sequence of moves, not directly but spread out, and those are difficult ones. And right now, Abhimanyu Mishra, all pressure on him. If he wins, the PBG Alaskan Knights take the match.

Right, but Tanya, his position is not at all good. He's piece down. He's losing another pawn. Ah, the central pawn is weak. I don't see Abhimanyu holding this.

Oh, he takes on g five. Well, Sagar, it is it is three pawns. Yeah.

Well, now two pawns and also a big threat here to give a check and win the rook.

This is very difficult to imagine. It's no more a tricky position. Abhimanyu Mishra has to fight it out still, Sagar, hoping for a miracle somewhere.

Something has to you know work for him.

The pawns को बढ़ाओ आगे। Find a way to push those.

It's not working out, and this means— look at Murzin looking at the big screen. He knows he just needs a draw, Tanya. That's a big relief for him.

And I, I wonder what is the scene on the dugout for the Pipers. I'm sure they are all eyes glued in on this one, but Murzin doing everything right.

And just 2 pawns for Abhimanyu Mishra. He needs to believe in some miracles here. Keep playing, Abhimanyu, because Murzin is down to 10 seconds. Maybe there's something that can happen.

And there we've got all of the players looking at what's happening on the last remaining decisive board of the match. But the PBG Alaska Knights—they know that this is not looking good, Sagar.

Yeah, six seconds. But Tanya under such pressure, anything can happen.

Anything can happen because it's also four seconds for Volodimerzin. This has become a full-fledged time scramble. वो दो पॉन्स आगे बढ़ने वाले हैं. This is not over. Yes, this is not over. Eight to six match score here.

Watch those pawns; they're going up the board. Tanya, maybe there's some swing that could happen. I'm telling you, Sagar.

अभी ये ख़तम नहीं हुआ है.

Gives a check, drives the king back, takes the pawn.

But it's all about the two pawns on the other side. It doesn't matter what the bar says. Gives a check, comes back with the rook.

I think Murzin is so experienced. He's doing Doing it very well. Check.

He's also managed to gain a few seconds on the clock.

Playing beautifully. And now he'll start pushing his queenside pawn, perhaps.

Sagar, for Abhimanyu Mishra, he needs a miracle right now. But we've seen miracles happen on the chessboard.

Rook has to be traded and this is over.

And the pawn is of the right color at the end of it. And Abhimanyu Mishra is the one who's down on the clock.

He may resign.

Looking for a miracle, but none exist.

And that's done. That's done. It is over for the PBG Alaskan Knights. Not just in this match, even their tournament chances are going down here. And well, this, as you pointed out, Tanya, the queening square is the right square. And so he resigns here. A convincing victory for the Alpine APL Pipers.

And look at Magnus Carlsen and the entire Team, they are happy because they have responded in the strongest manner possible after going down to the Ganges Grandmasters earlier on in the day. They beat the PBG Alaskan Knights, and on every board they seem to be doing so well. Not just the scoreline that they had, Sagar, but also the quality of play, incredibly high on every single board. And it is Praveen Thipsay who's got the biggest smile of them all.

Yeah, he's like You know, I just believe in my team and I can't believe they lost in the morning. But the way they've come back, very inspiring. And leading from the front, Magnus Carlsen and Humpy, man, hats off to her. I think to beat Nino Batsyashvili, that's where I think the match completely turned around, Tanya.

11-6 was the final score. 4 decisive games with 3 wins for the Pipers, 1 win for the PBG Alaskan Knights in 2 games finally ending in a draw right there. A very happy Magnus Carlsen, he got the job done for the Icon board, but so much pressure on the Prodigy board. Volodar keeping it together. And for all the announcements on everything that we just witnessed, Arohi, what a match!

We finally have the result for this game between the Alpine APL Pipers and the PBG Alaskan Knights. The Alpine APL Pipers win this game with 11-6. May I please call upon the chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Bayer, along with the coaches of the 2 teams, Abhijit Kunte for the Knights and Praveen Tipse for the Pipers, to sign the result. That is it from this game. Another exciting matchup coming your way. As of now, back to the casters.

Sagar, what a day of chess it's been! And can you imagine, we are still not done. As Arohi said, we still have One mouthwatering clash ahead of us, but everything that we just witnessed—Pipers against the Knights. Pipers now will join the Ganges Grandmasters. PBG Alaskan Knights' chances looking bleak, and the scoreline doesn't tell the full story.

Absolutely not. I think it was a closer match than the scoreline suggests. पर जिस टीम ने किया है शाइन मैच Magnus, Vidit, Anish, Hampi, Divya, Murzin.

वो है अल्प। और इसी बात के लिए आपने मारी है क्या ही लाइन? वाह! Thank God this shairi was not mine. Magnus Carlsen is back on the line of the fans though.

In the chat people are saying Tanya's More than Sagar in Shairi. अरे यार, thank you chat.

Love you chat.

अरे यार, कुछ किसी में तो जीतता था न्यासे। ये भी नहीं। Not even in Shairi.

Magnus, he's wearing the number one jersey. He's playing like the number one player. And of course, the goat once again makes a big comeback right there. And you know, Sagar, I think that is such a champion's mindset as well. You have this really tough start to the day, but you know you have one more showing in the arena. You know how important it is for the standings to come back and get the job done against a dangerous team like the Knights. How impressive! Yeah, very impressive.

I think somehow this match could have gone in the PPG Alaskan Knights' favor if something would have gone their way. I don't know, Tanya, where, but I think they did everything. Maybe on every single board where they had chances, they took it. Maybe Vishy should have— perhaps with that advantage, he could have given a better fight to Magnus.

I'll tell you the one thing that didn't work for the Knights, which has been the story. Well, on this board, we saw an early blunder there by Vishy in a comfortable position, and Magnus Carlsen, with all the sacrifices, did come for Vishy's king and did deliver those checkmates. But Nino Batzyashvili not performing for the team. You know, she's been someone the PBG a lot have been relying on, the steady scorer. But Hampi was able to put a stop to that streak. And even though Edogmus got the job done against Vidit in crushing manner, it was not enough, right?

And here we see Volodar Murzin today showing why he was the World Rapid Champion in 2024. And guys, while you are watching these highlights and Magnus winning against Vishy, don't miss the chance to take part in many things that are happening on the GCL app. There is the app, you can scan the QR code or just go to the Play Store and write Global Chess League. The app is brilliant. And by the way, Vidit losing on time, that was, I think, quite unbelievable because he took so much time. He had just no way to reach move 40.

And there we see Vidit getting flagged The clock hasn't been a good friend to Vidit this entire campaign, and Edogmus made the most of it. Divya with a very two wins, both on the clock for Edogmus and Divya with a very strong claim. And the arbiter had to double check, but in the end she was right. And she's been a player who's been struggling. I think that was the other storyline for the Alaskan Knights. A board they were potentially aiming to strike on came to not.

I think Divya, even though she's not in her best shape, she today has done her job by holding Zhu Jin'er and Katrina Lagnaud, 2 strong players. And, uh, yeah, there you see she was like, okay, I'll give my hand. So I'm so happy when Katrina was just very upset.

And then all the pressure came on the Prodigy board. Yeah. And I don't think enough praises for Volodymyr in the way he handled that endgame knowing that the match result His team result depended on how well he performed in that endgame.

I agree. I think Volodymyr Murzin, tremendous job by him. He's playing well now, Tanya. Since the last few games, he's beaten Dhaneshwar Bardiya, he's beaten now Abhimanyu Mishra, he's beaten Mark-Andrea Morizzi. I think he's slowly becoming the MVP of the team.

Absolutely. What an asset to have is Volodymyr Murzin for the Alpine Pipe He's had three decisive wins. He's held everybody together, and I think on that prodigy board to be able to rely on that player is key for the teams. And at the end of it all, it was the Alpine Pipers taking an eleven to six victory against the PBG Alaskan Knights. And there we see four decisive games, three three-pointers for the Pipers, only a single four-pointer by Yagiz Khan on that board against Vidit. Two. and they clinch the match. Sagar, that means that they have joined the Ganges Grandmasters at the top of the leaderboard.

15 points. Yeah, and Ganges Grandmasters have to play one more game. So if they win today, which is their last game, they will go even further. But Tanya, the bad news is, because I lost the bet, you have to do push-ups.

We'll come on that because I'm being saved by Arohi right now, who's ready to reveal the player of the match. Arohi, Rohi, who won the player of the match? Tell us.

Well, that is the question that needs an answer, and we will get it in a while. But hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony. Let's call upon the winners, the Alpine APL Vipers! Magnus, congratulations on that win. But one curious question: before you were about to start, we saw you thinking. What was going on in your mind?

Uh, before, uh, before I started the match? Yes. I was looking at the other games, I guess.

Uh, yeah, I don't remember.

Uh, any— what thoughts on facing Vishwanathan? Tananand for the second time in this tournament?

No, of course he's had a tough tournament, so it was certainly a game that I was, yeah, hoping to do some damage in.

How's the golf going?

That's less important than the tournament.

All right then. I hope to see you in the finals as well because the tournament's important.

Well, of course.

Divya, great presence of mind shown by you on the board today. Uh, can you just take us through what happened there?

Well, uh, we're both extremely low on time, and in chess you can claim draw 3— like, uh, in 2 ways. Either it's a threefold, which is that the position has, uh, the moves have been repeated thrice, and one is photographic if the same position has occurred on the board 3 times, you can claim it. So threefold had not happened, but photographic had happened, so that's what I claimed.

And there was some, uh, some confusion before you went to the arbiter with that doubt here?

Yes, the arbiter thought that I was claiming a threefold, which was not the case, and then it was clarified later.

Well, a draw there and some advantage for the team. Now let's move on to the player of the match. Before that, a special mention to Volodar Morzen. Volodar, one quick question. Volodar, right?

Yeah.

And then, then you, you know, you've kind of been the silent killer in this team. We've spoken so much about Hampi, and with it they've won the POTM awards. You've been consistently doing your job throughout.

Yeah, but it should be 2 out of 2 today, so I was little bit upset because of that, but I'm happy that I won at least second game.

How's your experience this year at the GCL? I mean, you are with the Pipers. How's the team bonding? Tell us more about that.

That's good.

It's nice team.

Everyone is friendly, and I'm very excited to play in this team.

Let me rephrase that. Probably I'll get a very better answer from you. Magnus Carlsen, Divya Deshmukh, Hampi Koneru, Anish Giri within the team. Now with them, what is so special?

Special? Well, it's, uh, it's my first time to play in one team with Magnus, so probably He's special.

That's sweet. Thank you so much for talking to us.

Thank you.

Now for the Player of the Match Award, may I please call upon Mr. Atul Pujar, Vice President, Marketing Snacks, ITC Foods. And the Player of the Match Award goes to Humpy Conero. Hampi, congratulations on that win today.

Thank you so much.

You've been so consistent so far in the team. Um, how is one game different from the other? Do you approach it in a different way based on your opponents, or is it that you stick to your plan irrespective of whoever's in front of you?

Actually, not very consistent.

I had a loss in the morning, that too with white pieces, so I was very much determined to, you know, score a point. And my opponent just misplayed. She overlooked this e3 Bishop f1 plan.

Yeah, it was a convincing win after that.

Now, when I say consistent, I don't mean you win all your games, but there But then if you go to see overall when the team performs together, I think each one of the player in the team, like whenever a win is required, we are doing it on demand.

Yeah.

And this is your second award so far in this league. How many more do you plan to win?

No, I'm wishing that Murjun will get it soon.

Probably then I'll have him and get some answers from him though. But thank you so much. Congratulations on this great win. Great win.

A couple of he was waiting every round to take this award, so I'm really hoping for him soon.

Soon, Volodar, we'll have you soon. Yeah. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. The winners, ladies and gentlemen, Alpine APL Pipers. Back to the casters.

Huge congratulations to Humpy and the Pipers and Volodar Morrison getting a lot of shoutouts from his team right there. And I love Ketti what Humpy. Said that when the team has needed it, the players have delivered. Each one of them showing up, you know, trailing, somebody comes through, and all of them performing at the right time for their team. And that's what we saw happen today.

Yeah, she says we deliver on demand, and that's exactly what we saw, right?

And while we were, you know, in kind of double minds whether Volodar, Mursin, or Hampi, when you beat Nino Batsayashvili, really, who is the player of the tournament? You know, she's the highest scoring player. Well, I think you have to give it to Hampi there.

And it was a tough choice to pick a player of the match, but they were clearly the team of the match. They performed on all boards. On the Icon Board, Magnus Carlsen getting it done as he is on his way back, we see right there. And Sagar, so many highlights, so many big moves, and so many good Moves played by the players, and I think this one's not going to be easy for you. But I will put you on a spot, and then maybe we'll hear more shairi from you. But what was the AMD move of the match? जिसने किया आपकी आँखों को catch. Wow!

This was the moment, Tanya. ये जो था move of the match, जिसने मेरी आँखों को किया catch. Was Magnus's move, Bishop takes h6. Ketti, what a move this was! And Magnus's eyes lit up here at this point when Vishy pushed his pawn. He just took it.

Yeah, I love this move, and it just breaks down Black's position on the kingside completely.

And while it wasn't a winning move, it definitely imbalanced Vishy. It got him out of his comfort zone, and that, dear friends, is the AMD move of the match.

And Ketty, we saw a collapse from Vishy happen just very, very soon after this. Once again, a dominant performance here by the Alpine Pipers in a very crucial match. It's not easy to readjust and adapt and respond after the first loss of the day.

No, you cannot really do that. You just have a tough tournament. All of us have been there. And you know what is really difficult when you don't have easy opponents.

Yes.

Every single day is another day, and they are, they are getting younger and younger. You know, your opponents are, uh, tough and tough. So yeah, we have been all of us there.

But the Alpine Pipers came back with a response today. They just feel like they're built different. And Ketty, Sagar, this is where we stand currently. We see 2 teams— 4— 2 teams have played 1 match less. And guess what? They're up against each other next on our final matchup of the day. But on the leaderboard, at 15 match points are the Pipers. It doesn't tell the full story because at the end of it, Ganji's Grandmasters still have a match in hand, right?

And if the Ganji's Grandmasters manage to win that against the Fires American Gambits, they will move to 18. But imagine a scenario where the Fires American Gambits Then they will move to 15 points, and we will have 3 teams on 15 points at the top. That would be a lot of fun.

Kerry, I have a question for you. We're looking at this leaderboard right now. 10 matches are the total number of matches each of these 2 teams will play. At the end of today, only 2 matches will be left, and the aim is to get a top 2. We started the day saying that it's a race between 5 teams. Triveni Continental Kings, a very outside chance, if at all. Is it too soon, or can we also cancel out the PBG Alaskan Knights who are only on 9 match points? Has this become a race for 4 teams now?

Well, personally, I hope no because there is Nino in this team. I want to see more of her games because she has been a really good player, and we also have a special prize for the best player, and I want my girl Nino to get that bike. You know, but on the papers, that really doesn't look best for PBG.

Sure, I think technically PBG Alaskan Knights and Triveni Continental Kings are out of the tournament's top 2 spots. It looks very difficult. It's the race between the other 4 teams, and that's very interesting because, you know, if the Ganges win today, I think they've put one foot inside the finals. But if they lose Today, then I would say we have no clarity on which team will reach the final.

Well, anyway, this is win-win situation for us and the fun.

The fans are definitely having such a great time. There we see big supporters of the Alpine Pipers with a yippee t-shirt on them right now, and they've got to be feeling happy with the performance the team just produced. Sagar, क्या ही vibe है?

It's just amazing. Beautiful, beautiful. And I think guys, you know, many times you. want an evening out here in Bengaluru, you are like, oh, let's go for a movie, let's go to have some dinner and stuff like that. Don't do that. Come to Lalitha Show, come for a match. You will love the environment, you love the vibe, and at the end of the day, you can also meet Ketti and Tanya. That's just incredible.

But let's be honest, people are waiting for you, Sagar, to step out from this room. You have a crowd here waiting.

Till yesterday, yes, but today I cracked too many shairis, Ketty, and people are just like too upset with me.

Oh no. Yes. Wow, what a day we've got. And I will say one thing though, our next matchup is definitely one you can't miss. You know, def— go on BookMyShow, book your tickets, come Bengaluru. I have a feeling most of the tickets are sold out. You might be too late for that, but check it out anyway. You got a big grand finals at the end of it all. And the next matchup that we've got lined up, it will be the fires American Gambits taking on the leaders Ganji's Grandmasters, and we break all of that down to you on the other side of this break. जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, वो एक कामयाब लीग कैप्टन बन जाता है। सोचो, जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, इंडिया और कितना कामयाब हो जाएगा?

इसलिए योनो देता है, हर इंडियन के हाथ पावर, द ऑल न्यू योनो, पावर टू एवरी इंडियन। मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल बोलो स्टील पाइप्स, एयरपोर्ट से लेकर आप के घर तक कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल अपोलो बनाता है देश की बढ़ती ताकत एपीएल अपोलो देश की बढ़ती ताकत the chief guests have arrived salute salute करो salute करो सलूट हटाओ, ये पीलाओ। लॉन्ग नॉनस्टिकी फुल ऑफ़ वेजीज़। फॉर्मालिटी हटाओ, ये पी खाओ। आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूडेट मैं सोच चुकी है। जिसकी वजह से पेनल्टी चार्जेस की सीटी बजने वाली है और क्रेडिट स्कोर के गिरने की वजह से आपके होश होश होश उड़ने वाली है यानि कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है क्रेडिट पेमेंट्स की चिंता हमेशा सर पे आओ चेक पे सारे क्रेडिट कार्ड्स की बिल एक क्लिक में पे करो और 1% वापस पाओ रिडीम करो फॉर वाउचर्स या सीधा क At 50 orders a day, ₹5 becomes ₹60,000 annually. With Fyers Prime, every order costs you ₹15.

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पर हम भी जिद्दी हैं। तीस से ज़्यादा क्वालिटी चेक्स, विटामिन ए और विटामिन डी से युक्त और खाना भी बने स्वाद। खाने में समझौता नहीं, अच्छा खाना शुरुआत से ही। Independence। जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, highest centuries का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा? इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian। Hello and welcome back to the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4.

We are here for the final clash of the evening. This is gonna be super exciting because Fyers American Gambits play today for the first time. They've come with renewed energy because every game Is a must win. I mean, you would want to win, right? Because you have all those points are up for grabs, and you would want to end up in the top two. But on those points, the eyes of the Ganges Grandmasters also lie. Let's see. We have the color swap right now, and then they face each other on the boards. So for that, let me call upon the match official, fair play officer, Mr. Arasu B. And now the coaches of the 2 teams. For the Fire's American Gambits, give it up for Sreenath Narayanan. And for the Ganges Grandmasters, Adiban Bhaskaran. Let's have the color swap. Srinath White, you've played the Ganjis before. Um, approach-wise, something changes because the color's changed, or probably the kind of trajectory you're on currently on the leaderboard?

Uh, it doesn't change a lot in particular just because of the color, but, uh, the usual preparation happens. When you have time, you prepare, you look at what your opponent is playing, and you prepare against it. So that It happens regardless of the color.

You know, you now know what they bring to the board after the first clash. What insights have you gotten from that game?

How to name chess files and send to your players.

That's an insight I got.

All right, all the best for today's game. Let this be an exciting one.

Thank you.

Black, back again here for the second time today.

What's up? Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed because my white— my team wanted to win the toss and get white again, hopefully, but it's not going to happen.

Unfortunately, the toss is never going to happen anytime soon in this league, this season at least, because now we're only left with the color swaps. I'm sure you're prepared for that as well.

Yeah, yeah, in a way it's nice. So you, like Sri was mentioning, you know the color and it's like mentally you are ready for it and it's nice because previously Any, like you can get any color and mentally you have to be ready for both and it's not easy. And this way, you know, yeah, just you are going to play black, so it's nice in a way.

Against the Gambits, any particular thing you're looking forward to?

No, not really, like because it's just like an exciting date. I am because we are too, we have, we had a tough match.

So yeah, I'm just really looking forward to seeing some good chess.

Yeah. All right, the momentum is on your side. All the best for the game. Yeah, thank you. That is it from the color swap. The Fires American Gambits will be playing white while the Ganjis Grandmasters will be playing black. Back to you, casters.

And we have an amazing panel here to break down this match. We specially got Harshit bhai. We asked him to stay back so that we can get his thoughts here. Ketty, Ganjis Grandmasters versus Fires American Gambits. gambits, your favorite here?

What do you feel?

Oh, you are putting me on the spot. I think Ganges Grandmasters started so heavily this, uh, day, and they obviously want to be the sole leader. But on the other side of the board, there will be Sindarov's team, and they have not played today. They are hungry. They want to— especially Sindarov, he wants to win, uh, against Jan Nepomniachtchi. Because Sindarov has a good tournament. He has only one loss, and that loss is against Jan Nepomniachtchi. Yeah, that time time flag.

He got flagged in a drawn game. Exactly. Harshit Pai, you give a direct answer.

The fires American gambits are playing today for the first time, and I think they we are going to see more of them. I predict them to win. Whoa! And they are making their way inside the playing hall. There, you see Mark Andrea Morizzi sitting there, all alone. All alone by himself.

Ah, because he went for the color swap.

But I have to tell you guys, Mark Andrea Morizzi is definitely keeping that team together inside this whole leaderboard here. He has been performing super well for the Fires American Gambits on the Prodigy board.

Yeah, he he's been doing quite well. But I think clearly the MVP of Fires American Gambits is Nihal Sarin. Right? Yeah, he is doing incredibly well. On the other hand, Nepo and Polina Shuvalova have been amazing. But what to say about Stavrula Solakidou, man? She beat Hampi today.

I mean, I have, I have a very, uh, cool thing to share from what happened today. Stavrula lost, uh, sorry, Stavrula, after she won her match, gave an interview. And in her interview, she said that the coach Adiban Bhaskaran actually made a file for her and That file was named a file for the Greek goddess, and she has been treated like a goddess here. Yes, it was Aryaban's idea.

Aryaban had made a file that name was Greek goddess. Wow! File for the Greek goddess.

Wow! And you guys, I know Aryaban since childhood because we played the all the world youth categories together, and I believe that Aryaban is such a nice addition to GCL. We're gonna have a lot of fun having him.

Talking about addition, I love this addition of having the fans and spectators watching the players coming inside the playing hall. Javokir Sindarov just made a gesture to them that guys, thank you so much for coming, but I'll come back to you to sign your autographs and take pictures. Right now he means business. He actually does stop for a few pictures there.

And there we see Nihal Sarin, and that guy is like as if he's come here to just For a walk, you know. Is it तहल के चल रहा है? आराम से he's walking. But on the board, he is the master trickster. He's amazing. We have some stats actually with us. So on the top board, we have Javokir Sindarov and Jan Nepomniachtchi. But first, let's have a look at this team entering in. This is the Ganges Grandmasters, and they are the leaders of the tournament. Look at Leon Mendonça there sitting all alone.

You guys, I have seen this scene myself live because I was just walking there from our area to the VIP zone, and it looks like some movie scene, you know. There's security, you know, covering the roads, and there, there is this buggy coming with the players. This is, this is awesome show, and everyone should experience.

Yeah, people should come here. There are 3 more days left, 2 more days in the round robin stage. stage. And then one day in the finals, Ganji's Grandmasters have a great team. Their 2 women boards are the MVPs, I feel.

And as you mentioned, the, the weight and intensity of every single match that coming up has increased and has increased drastically. We are almost approaching a stage, as Arohi mentioned, where you're in a must-win situation. Well, the Ganji's Grandmasters in some ways do Have one extra match point in their pocket. However, for the fires American Gambits, they need to win. Hi!

If they don't win, their chances of going out increase drastically. They won't be out totally as they are on twelve points. But look at this team: Levon Aronian always smiling. I'm pretty sure he may even stop by there today, but not doesn't look like it. Yeah, today is like Levon. I have to focus on my game.

Yeah, later guys, later I'll come.

He's playing on the Superstar board but is an icon in himself. Levon Aronian playing fantastic chess, especially in the second half of the tournament. And, uh, Stavrula there also having some smiles on their face. You know guys, when you are playing chess, the most important thing is to enjoy yourself. And I feel like the Ganges Grandmasters are enjoying themselves in this tournament, right?

And I think they have a right Mix of just the people who keep a great spirit, like Levon Aronian, always happy. Adiban Baskaran, you know this guy who has jokes, so much energy.

Yes, I agree with that. Let's now take a look at the pairings and break it down board by board. Like the first board looks really, really nice.

Yes, I think Jao Kheer Sindharo for me is a small favorite, also considering that he has the white pieces, he will be a dangerous force. On the second board, Nihal Sarin already beat Levon Aronian once. He looks like a very small favorite to me as well. Guys, what are your thoughts on the top 2 boards?

Well, uh, I kind of feel that Jan Nepomniachtchi has been, uh, kind of finding his rhythm here. The way he played against Magnus Carlsen, just keeping, uh, him at bay, giving him absolutely no chances. Levon Aronian also finding and crawling his way Back to a victory against Anish Giri. I am actually going to defer from your opinion and say that on the top two boards there is a small advantage for the Ganchis. Really?

Let's go, Harshit bhai. What about you, Katie?

I agree with both of you. Both? How can you agree with both? You are saying the truth. Well, Nihal is having a great tournament. Look at the fans of American Gambits.

Can we hear these fans? Man, because they are—

let's go Gambits! Let's go!

Just again, let's go Gambits! Let's go! And they say this and they have a tune for every player, right? Moves louder than clock.

No blunders, no mercy. They are here to brutally demolish their opponent's team. It won't be easy as the Ganges Grandmasters have been saying GGs to their opponents quite often in this tournament, find themselves at the top of the leaderboard right now.

Right. And next up we have the, the 2 other boards.

Dubov and Dominguez. This is very interesting. It's very interesting.

So I think for me it actually comes down to this board. You know, we talked about the Icon board and the Superstar board. Because Dubov, as good of a player he is in this quick format, he has been struggling in this tournament. He also found himself losing two games in a row at some point, and I think well actually three games in a row. And I think if he manages to win this game, that can be the turning point for the fires American Gambits. If he doesn't, Ganji's grandmasters have a great chance of taking this match. Let's just have a take a look at the head-to-head on the prodigy board. That's also going to be an exciting thing. clash between Marc-Andrea Morizzi, uh, from France taking on Leon— or sorry, beg my pardon, Lion Luke Mendonsa from India.

Yeah, I think Marc-Andrea Morizzi has been playing quite well. Just one loss for him and 2 losses for Lion. I would give a small edge to Marc-Andrea.

Ah, in— on this board, I would agree with, uh, with your sentiment. And he is really a tough opponent of Leon Mendonca. And most likely, fires are counting on his victory.

True, true. What about the women boards? Like, I guess you might give a small edge to Ganges Grandmasters there, right? Like, both Polina and Stavrula have been firing.

Clearly, clearly. I think on the female superstars, boards. Sara Khadem for the Fires American Gambits hasn't, uh, really found, uh, her rhythm yet. She has been, uh, in some— you know, in an entire team, uh, you know, when you overall look at the entire team, it feels like obviously the team is super strong. But when you actually try to break it down, that weak— the link actually becomes a bit weaker. And in some ways, Sara Khadem, uh, has been, uh, that player that, uh, their opponent teams have been, uh, kind of targeting. She has yet to find, uh, her first win in the tournament. So advantage Advantage, in my opinion, for the Ganges Grandmasters.

Yeah, well, uh, yesterday after the match fires, Gambit said, uh, said that these female boards are not scoring the best, but they promised us, both Bibisara and also Sara, that they will do their best for the last round.

And while we talk about the players, let's just go inside the playing hall to see, uh, as they walk in to make their way to the playing hall.

Hello and welcome to day 6 of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. This is the final day of the clash, but nonetheless, this is gonna be super exciting. Let's call upon the 2 teams, Fyers American Gambits and the Ganges Grandmasters. Let's start with the gambits. We'll be playing with the white pieces. Candidates winner, Javokhi Sindaro. Two-time Star Steals Rapid winner Nihal Sarin. Former World Rapid Champion Daniel Dubov. Youngest Women's Blitz Champion Bibisara Savayeva. Former Spanish Women's Chess Champion Sara Kadem. Former French chess champion Makandria Moridze, and their coach, who's also the coach of the Indian men's Olympiad team, Shrida Narayanan. And now it's time to introduce the Ganges Grandmasters playing with the black pieces. World Blitz co-champion Ian Nepomniachtchi. 2 times Chess 960 Champion, Aronian Levon. 5 times Cuban Champion, Elinia Dominguez. The Blitz Queen, Polina Shuvalova.

Greek Goddess, Stavrula Solakidou.

The Rising Lion, Leon Luke Bendonka. And their coach, the beast, Adiban Bhaskaran. It's time for the players to take the boards, but let's start with the handshakes. And now for the first move, may I please call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Bayer, and our guest for today, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, cricketer, Indian women's team.

We have Had so many guests making the first move. To have a cricketer do that is very special. She's made the move pawn to C4, and Chawokir is like, "I don't think I will play C4 here." He will go for E4, Katie.

Yeah, he says like, "Thank you very much for suggestion, but no, not today." And here we have the handshake on the women's board, and we can. Bibi Sara Salbaeva decided to jump knight on f3 as her first move.

I think Bibi Sara is such an ambitious player. She puts so much of kind of expectations from herself that such performance from her is not something that she would like, and she would want to turn it around in this tournament, win this game against the player who has not lost a single game.

Exactly, I agree with that. Maybe this is not the performance that we are used to have from Bibisara, but you know what, if she scores the important point where it is necessary, then obviously that would make it.

You can already see from Polina's body language that she does feel very confident, and that is what happens when you start playing well. It just feels like everything is going your way. way. The food starts to taste better, you know, you feel more energy, you wake up better, you get good sleep. I think these are the tournaments which really are enjoyable, and I think Polina is having that time here.

She is having a time here, and that also shows in her Instagram videos. She's documenting her days, really, and she's already 100-something days. Watch that, and she describes whole day when she wakes up, what she does whole day. Even here? Yes, I have seen it already.

So they should go to the go to her Instagram and follow her. Yes, Polina Shualova.

She's she's just tracking down everything she's doing throughout the day. It's insane. Also, some videos she created here, and you can see how much she's focused on chess. It's all about. About chess and playing tournaments.

Okay, that's great insights there, Katie. And going to board number five, Sarah Khadem with white pieces played a very solid opening here. And now it's time for us to look at the men superstar board. Nihal Sarin adjusts the clock. He's white against Levon Aronian. These two players are so evenly matched. Pawn comes up to e. Wow, Katie, you know, the last time I saw Levon playing the Sicilian, I don't even recollect when he did that. He doesn't play it much.

He doesn't play, and here he just decided to go for it. And you know what, I don't hate that because Sicilian always promises us to have really sharp positions, and Sagar have really Notice how many Sicilians we're having at GCL Season Four.

Yes, I think the time control itself is making the players ambitious. Sicilian, let's go for it. Not E four, E five. And this is a very interesting opening that they are playing. Let's check what Daniel Dubov is doing against Lenier Dominguez. Much more sedate opening, like very calm, very calm.

Although this position can trans. Opposed to the isolated pawn position. If White goes here, Queen to e2 with idea Rook to d1, then it kind of forces Black to take the pawn on d4. And if we have the isolated position, that we know that some of the strong kingside attack might happen.

Okay, so this one very interesting. Let's head over to our icon board because that is where the first move's gonna happen. Now, Javokir Sindarov and Jan Nepomniachtchi are ready.

Yeah, Javokir is already shaking, you know, his legs, and he's getting ready. He played a really good tournament. He's giving us it all. And you know, Sagar, he's really good leader of his team. He, he just takes care of everyone in the team, and they have a very good team spirit.

You mean Javakir? Yes, yes. Do you have any examples of what he does or something like that?

First of all, do you remember yesterday when they walked in? He, uh, he was just walking with Nihal and giving some advices. They play often puzzle games, card games, and you know, you're socializing with this, with your teammates, right?

And I was expecting Javakir to play pawn to e4, but he goes D4, and we have the Queen's Gambit Declined with Bishop F4 line—a very sharp weapon, I must say. Black often has to play very carefully; otherwise, they can slide into an inferior position.

You know what? This is a bit calm position, and if you make a little bit inaccuracy with black pieces, you can get really bad position. Knight to H5 here. Janne Pomniš. She is aiming to grab the dark square bishop, and Sindarov did not even blink. He said, come on, take it, take it.

And, and you know what, Katie, this structure is very good for white. Often you can put your knight on e5, you can bring your bishop to d3. It's very easy to play this with white.

Yes, I love to have double pawns in the center, and I want to prove to the world that double pawns are not weaknesses and they their strengths in this position. Those double pawns are supporting knight on e5. At some point we're gonna have knight on e5. The bishop from d3 is targeting h7 pawn. We might have, after short castle, some rook lift as well on the 3rd rank. I love this position for white. We might have some activity in the— on the kingside, right?

While this is the position That is there on the icon board. Let's go through the games one by one. Let's start from the prodigy board. Marc Andrea Morizzi and Leon Mendonça. Why are they playing so slowly, Ketty?

They've only played four moves because they just started to play.

They're still like it's the it's the Catalan, and Leon has already taken two minutes.

Ah yeah, because here he has an option either to play bishop to b. d4 check and force White to have bishop on d2, or to skip that part. And another, uh, very popular move is dxc4 and to grab that pawn on c4. So maybe he just— these players, they know too much theory. They need to, you know, go through to their variations.

Yes, maybe Marc-Andrea Morizzi has surprised Leon already, and Leon is now 2 minutes behind on the clock. Let's head over to the 5th board, Sara Khadem versus Stavrula Solakidou. Ooh, Stavrula has this position which is very nice to play with the black pieces. I feel, you know, Ketty, just go Rook f6, Rook h6, maybe even push down your g-pawn, queen coming in. It will be an attack.

Okay, too many arrows. You're very excited about this attack. Well, the point Last move, f5, clearly tells us that that's, that's one way to go. And this bishop on e4 is so nicely placed. Uh, I was thinking maybe it's time for Saric to play some move like Knight d2 and f3 to kick this bishop away, uh, or try to do something in the center, d5, c5 kind of, uh, breakthroughs. Otherwise, if White is slow here What you have just showed us on the board, this is very much possibility, right?

So this game, we will come back to it. It's looking exciting. Let's go to Bibisara versus Polina Shuvalova. Bibisara looks to be having a very nice position out of the opening, uh, Ketty. Look at this knight on d4, nicely looking at the c6 square. The rooks can swing over and take control of the c-file. Bishops on a good diagonal here.

Yeah, looks, looks really, uh, active pieces here. At some point when White controls the c-file, then she can also even push e5 to trade light square bishops and then get the knight on c6. Uh, I'm not so sure about how the queen ended up on b8. Was it forced to go? Was Was it just a random move?

That is very interesting.

Well, she actually voluntarily went Queen b8. She wants to control the e5 square, I believe, which is why she has gone for this. And now this is the live board position. We have this beautiful fan zone in the background for us. If you are in the auditorium watching this, do come back to the fan zone after the game. If you're back home, you should think about coming either here, or if our director can show us a view of the entire auditorium. Lot of people came today for the game of Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, and I believe many of them will stay back to watch Javokhir Sindarov, Nepo, and Nihal Sarin, and all these top players playing.

All these superstars. Look at this, my Guys, if you are enjoying, can you show us a heart? Yes, give us some hearts.

Is it easy? Oh nice, let's go! Thank you, that's so cool there. Enjoying there?

Beautiful. And there are some people who cannot travel because they might be a little bit far or a little bit busy. Uh, here we have more hand— more waves.

You can wave to us, we are watching you there. It's wonderful. It's beautiful to see the crowd there. They can watch the games, they can watch the players, they can tune into the commentary. It's a beautiful setup. And then if you get inspired, Ketty, there are chessboards waiting for you to come and play.

Exactly. And Sagar, there are some people who cannot make it here because they are far, they're busy. There's also opportunity to get involved with the, uh, app that we have, Global Chess League. It is free to download and you can actually predict the moves. You can recruit your team, uh, for GCL. And also, oh, look at this!

There's— thank you guys for waving here! Wow, that's so cool! And by the way, that entire section is the Fires American Gambit section. Yeah, they are like so, so excited, and if their team wins, they will be chanting at the end of the day. Yeah, so let's see if that comes to it for now. Now their team has a huge chance. It's white to play, and Bibisara Asaupayava has found that move, knight f5.

Beautiful move. She promised us yesterday that she's not doing well so far, but she hopes to. She promised us, and look at her. She's inspired.

She is inspired today. Beautiful move, attacking the bishop. If you take the knight, I take your knight in the center. And Kedi, this position is very, very good for white.

Yes, and knight is hanging right now. You have to guard this knight, and then I'm certain that she wants to play e6 and break through the kingside as well next move.

What a move here! This is almost like you create this pressure here. The bishop is strong here. Looks brilliant. Yeah.

Yes, it does look— let's go to board 3 and take a look at Dubov and Dominguez.

Okay.

Oh yes, Dubov and Dominguez has reached exactly the position which you had mentioned, Ketty.

The isolated pawn. Uh, here Black is trying to block this isolated pawn with knight being on b4, wants to play knight to d5. Uh, and White will play knight e5.

White will jump in.

Yes. And then at some point when the d d3 square is free and not controlled by the knight. Rook d3, rook g3 will be the White's plan.

Oh, and we already have seen in the game of Arvind and Mamedyarov that sometimes the knight comes here and sacrifices itself on f7 as well. So clearly Dominguez has to be careful, but if there is someone who is very, very good at playing such positions, it should be Dominguez.

Should be Dominguez. Yes, and he knows how to play. This is exactly how you should play. You should put this bishop here on d7 and bring the rook on c8. Although this is a mistake.

That's a mistake, but why? It is a small error, it's not a huge one. Daniel Dubov has to calm down himself. 14 minutes he has. Think, Daniel. And I will ask this question to all our viewers here. White to play, what is a Good move.

Why to play?

It is related to getting rid of this isolated pawn, Ketti.

Should we push d5 right away or take?

Exactly. Boom! If you play d5, you get a big, big edge here because all of a sudden, Ketti, the game is now turning around. Like imagine you take Pontic's pawn. I jump with my knight and suddenly. Suddenly the rook is opposite the queen. These bishops are weak.

Yeah, all white pieces are beautifully centered in the, in the, in the center. Look at 2 knights there supported by 2 bishops, and black pieces are not well coordinated.

And such a thing, he just simply loses a piece here.

Yeah, thank you very much. I have won so many times piece like this when you push d5. If you can push d5 and you do, this is already big advantage. Advantage for whites.

I think Dominguez had to play bishop e eight here. D five is on the board. Oh, did he play? Yes. Whoa, Daniel Dubov! He has played d five and the fires American gambits are on fire here because they are like Daniel, who was not really playing so well, is getting into form. Yes, Sakar.

Shall we bring all the boards on the screen? Okay. We have actually two good moves on the on the boards right now by Fire American Gambit. If we can pull up all the 6 boards on the screen, we can see a very clear picture. Here we have in— on board 3, d5, very strong move, first line by engine. And next move, Bibisar Asalbayeva, Knight f5.

And somehow Polina has not made a move at all since that move has come on the board. So you are saying that the Fire American Gambit Gambits are in a good position right now in this match.

Yeah, they are finding the best moves. As you can see, the engines are like in the middle in most of the, uh, positions, but when you are able to deliver move like Knight f5 or move like d5, you know, this is just a small step to get better and better in the position.

Correct. Okay, so this is looking very, very promising here for the Fires American Gambit Let's head over to our icon board because Javokir Sindarov has got the kind of position he would like.

Yeah, just this is a really different pawn structure, uh, of what would we would expect. So d4 pawn is gone, and also we see that f7 pawn is gone. So how that happened?

I, I guess let's, let's have a look. So what happened here was that in such a position, instead of castling, the king went to g2.

Yes.

And then rook came in, bishop f5, and then took here. And this is how we reach this position. The last move by Jauhar wasn't the best. He had to find the move f5, which was super tough, but that would have given him an advantage. But he played rook e2. And after Bishop b4, Queen b3, the position is slightly better for white, right?

The bishop is hanging on b4, and if you move this bishop away, then the pawn on b7 is also hanging. And this rook on e2 does a great job to protect the pawn on b2.

Nice, nice. And you know, Ketty, if bishop takes knight, then pawn takes, and pawn structure is a bit ruined, but white has excellent pieces.

Yeah, this pawn structure is ruined for white, obviously, but there's always this target on b7, uh, that's the semi-open file created. So here we have 2 boards, you guys. The middle board is the one that we are going to analyze, and the board, the smaller one, is the live game, right?

And Bishop c3, b takes c3, Queen comes to c7, very quickly played by Jan, and Knight to d4 by Jao. Here, he's like, "Come in, Ian. Take this pawn, but then I'll take here. You will have a weakness, and I love my position." I love White's position as well.

These pawns, you know, once the pawn is gone from e six, then another pawn will be also the weakness on d five. Correct.

Okay, so this looks really nice for the fires American gambits. Is there any? Board where the Ganges Grandmasters have chances. Yes, this is the board 5.

You called for this idea, uh, we blame you for it. Everything what you predicted happened. We have queen and the rook on the kingside in the attack, and we have d5 being a question mark here. This is not the perfect move. There is some way that Black can punish this move.

Yeah, somehow this last move by Sarah them is very, very interesting because if black were to take here, then after pawn takes, this pawn on the open file becomes tremendously weak. But you know, Katie, I don't even touch it. I push my pawn forward. Oh, that's—

this is a nasty move. Gives black a small edge. Yeah, white wished to have this bishop instead of e2, close to the king, in front of the king on g2 square just to protect all these weaknesses. So that's on 2 moves, right? So that means that Black has such a powerful attack here that it's not— Whites are not on time to get this bishop here on g2. If Sarah gets this bishop on g2, then White's king will be safe.

Well, if she does play Bishop f1, it's a question to all of you here: what is a beautiful Move for black in such a position. It's not happened in the game. We are on the by the way, e5 is on the board, and Sarah goes c5.

This is a good move to play because black is attack is attacking on the kingside, and she has to do something in the center on the queenside to get the position a little bit open up.

And this was the move I was looking for: knight g4 threatening a mate, and you take a queen. Queen, I take this pawn with a discovery and take your queen on c2. So this is not working out so well. And c5 played by Sara Khadem. Once again, knight g4 could be played. Wow, this is very interesting. Kedi, I want to go to the Daniel Dubov game because some crazy action has happened there. After pawn to d5, Leinier Dominguez said, if I take here, I'm getting completely roasted in the center, so let me sacrifice an exchange.

Wow, this is— do you think this was the only option that Dominguez had to do?

Yeah, it was the best move. Wow, that's something.

Yeah, it's actually not so bad move now as I'm looking, because you are getting the light square bishop and you are getting also the pawn on d5.

And the thing is, if you take with the queen, then I take back with the knight. So Knight c4 was the best move, but instead he did take with the queen. And now Dominguez had to find pawn takes pawn, which is so difficult because you want to keep all your pawns together.

Yeah, he took, uh, on d5 with Knight f6. Yes, and this is a not so great move according to the engine, and the White's move here, the best move is to take the bishop on d7. Yes, queen takes, queen takes, and then to play rook to c1.

And just claim that you are better here because you are an exchange up for just a pawn.

Yeah, and wait black to, you know, proceed with this position. Like, I have everything together. I have these 2 rooks controlling open files. I have an extra exchange. I'm happy in this position with white. Let's go.

But now Daniel Dubov has to play his move. Lenier Dominguez misassessed the position. He took with the knight instead of the pawn. Let's see if Daniel Dubov is able to convert this into an advantage for himself. He already is better.

We have to go to the board two, Nihal Sarin and Levon Aronian. Now it is Levon who has the bishop. Oh, look at this! Queen to d7, bishop sacrifice.

Brilliant move, Katie. Should we go back a couple of moves? So like here we were seeing it was the Sicilian. I mean, we had left it quite a few moves back and it was a standard position. White had space, black was punching back. Pawn was given first.

Yeah, to activate the knight on d4.

Should be 6.

I love this bishop controlling the long diagonal.

Bishop b2, and now sacrificing the bishop. And you know, Nihal says, I don't even want it because if I take it, you have the queen, knight, and bishop in the attack. Your knight is coming in. So he went rook c1, but in came an incredible move from Levon Aronian, a double exclamation Move Queen d7.

Sagar, this was all planned and calculated, all this sequence. Giving up the pawn on b5, then jumping knight on d4, then Queen c8 attacking the knight as well, and Bishop to h3. So well calculated. Maybe Levon was inspired by his opponents in the morning, Anish Giri, who did Bishop h6 sacrifice, right?

Yeah, he did that. Uh, actually also the Bishop h6 And then Magnus did Bishop H6 with Vishy. Yes. So today is the day of the bishops and also E3 pawns as well.

Stavrula pushed E3, which was the best move, remember? Like we have kind of like same sequence. Talking about Bishop H6, I want to go to Daniel Dubov and Dominguez. You might have another brilliant move there.

What the hell is happening? Once again, so here, just to tell our viewers, this bishop Can we have that two-board view with this Daniel? Then we can compare, right? So we can keep this board and we can have Daniel's board because insane thing has happened while Levon Aronian has sacked this bishop here on h3 and knight e2, bishop g4 quickly played here. I want to draw your attention to the Daniel Dubov board. Which is on board number three. You can see here that bishop is here, and look at this Daniel board. Bishop is on H six.

We we have both bishops. I think both moves are just brilliant moves.

Yeah, and on both it's like both the boards. One board is the fire American gambits, which is Daniel, and on the other board is Ganji's Grandmasters.

That's.

Won. So it's not just one side doing this magic.

Uh, great spot, by the way.

Great spot.

It is like, you know, I just mentioned Knight d7 move in the game of Dubov, right? It was the first suggestion by the engine, and then Dubov plays Bishop h6, right? Like, who cares about the engines when you have players like Dubov? And his idea here is That when Black takes this bishop, then queen from c4 goes to g4 and gives the check.

Can we have the Dubov board on like full screen? Like, we want to analyze this because Katie has some insanely good lines to share here. So bishop takes h6 happened here. You can get the board. Bishop h6. And, and maybe later we can have the analysis board As well. So g takes h6, if it happens, Ketty, which could very likely happen.

Yes.

Then you are saying the queen swings over, gives a check, correct?

It's not only the check, but you are actually pinning the bishop on d7, which we wanted to capture at the very beginning. So king goes on h8, h7 doesn't matter, and your move is knight d5.

Okay, and I take back with the knight, and your move is rook to d5. And after take, my queen is looking here, and I just simply take with the knight, and I'm better.

Yes, you are better. Black's king is destroyed, black's pawn structure is destroyed, and you have a knight together with the queen into the game.

Wow, look at this amazing, amazing chess here by Daniel Dubov, another player who's doing brilliantly for the fires. American guy It's, it's Javokir Sindarov. Let's head over to the icon board. He is completely crushing it against Nepo. Nepo's last move, a huge mistake. I mean, he was worse, but Knight e4 is just giving up the pawn.

Wow, this is really strange. It was a blunder, right? After Rook to d5, Knight c3, was it?

That was his idea, but what is it that he had missed here? Nepo What is the move that Javokir has seen? Because knight c3 does fork the two rooks, but there's something. Is it very strong?

Rook c2, rook c2, and I pin the knights.

Beautiful! That is the right move. And if you take my rook, I take your rook, and this position is completely winning.

Sagar, Sagar, Sagar, I want to checkmate black king with rook to f8. Next move, it's a checkmate threat. In fact, that's a checkmate here.

Nice. Yeah. Oh wow! Nice. So Javokir Sindarov winning. Can we have our six boards so that we can analyze the game match situation? It seems as of now that the fires American gambits are doing really well. You could see Jan Nepomniachtchi shaking his head. Board one, Sindarov looks better.

Better.

Much better. Board two, Nihal is pushing. It feels now suddenly he's gotten. Better. Wow, that's crazy. But it is. But I think anything can look in. Look at the time difference. Nine minutes. Levon has extra. So maybe we can be unsure there. Board three, Daniel Dubov better. Much better. Board four, Bibi Sara is crushing it. Yes, I think. Board five is where Stavrula from the Ganges Grandmasters is creating her chance. And board 6, Mark-Andrea Morizi is better. At this rate, the Fire's American Gambits are firmly in the driver's seat.

Yeah, yeah, that's, that, that's it. But you know, that's what happens when you start with white pieces, right?

You are getting the advantage, right? But things can turn around. Yes, because every win with black is worth 4 points, and Levon Aronian's game is looking very interesting. But let's first finish the game of the icon board because I think this might end very soon, Ketti. If we can go to the icon board.

Yeah, here we had the knight back on c5 to pin the rook. Yeah, and then Java here said, "I'll also pin your rook." So it is just extra pawn for Java here and a beautiful knight on e6. Thank you very much.

Now the There's a fork here, very similar to the game Carlsen-MVL, if you guys have seen. The move is Knight d8 check, and if the king moves, there's Knight c6.

Look at Nepo, look at Nepo!

He had this, this reaction that he just got shocked by this.

But he didn't play, he didn't play it. He took the knight, which means that suddenly the advantage has dropped.

Maybe that's why he was surprised. That, uh, it was like 2 moves tactic, right?

Exactly. And now Javakhir Sindarov is better because count the number of pawns, he has an extra pawn, but it's not as winning as before.

Yeah, I kind of have a feeling that Nepo was ready to resign after Knight d8 and Knight c6, and now he's like, okay, let's, let's go.

Thank you for the second life. Now, although my life isn't that great, I'll take it and I'll try to fight Here, but a miss by Sindarov, which is very rare, which is very rare at his level to miss such a move. Bibisara Asaubayeva is like, "Well, Javokir, I'm going to get the job done today." You can see Polina Shuvalova. She's not used to losing her games here. Right?

Sagar was rook to b7 last final move because if this was the final move there, this is the this is really good move.

Yeah, this was—

Look at, look at this. Rook to c7 attacking the pawn on f7. Black wanted to trade the queens. Yes, yes, Black wanted to trade the queens.

Should have traded.

Yes, but now rook to b7 blocking the diagonal. Yes, and then you want to take on f7 and you cannot protect this pawn on f7.

It's gone, it's gone, and mate in 1 is threatened here.

Look at Polina. She is she can't believe. She can't be. Look at her. She is disbelief, shaking her head. Very disappointed.

This is not not happy Polina that we are seeing here. Bibisara Asaubayeva just needs to finish off this game well. First, get out from this pin here for the rook on B7. Just move the king away.

Can she also? Play f3 move. That's also a possibility, or king h3 must be just safer.

King h3 and then just pick up a7 and e6 and everything falls.

Perfect, perfect position for white.

Okay, so while this is doing really well, Daniel Dubov is also striking for the fires American Gambits. And look at that position. It is exactly what you said, Ketti, because we had left it off at king h. Then came knight takes knight, knight takes knight, rook takes double exclamation. Maybe the AMD move of the match could go to this one.

Maybe, maybe we'll see that.

Ed knight takes d7 and now f5. Now this move is met with the check bishop f6 and queen takes pawn. I'm simply a pawn up and the game.

King is just exposed. There's weakness on h6 as well. Rook is hanging. Maybe there's rook to b1 even in this position, or rook to d1. That's possibility. Yeah, white is just simply better here, or even winning.

Yeah, man, Daniel Dubov, nice play today. Bibisara Asaubayeva, nice play by her. Jao Kir Sindarov, nice play. What did the Fires American Gambits do today?

I know what they did, but I will not tell.

Oh, you know it?

Yes.

Oh, come on, Ketty, spill some tea.

They had a really good rest, I guess, because—

No, no, no, no, no, you know it, you know it. Did they go outside somewhere? Not today, not today, not today. Yes. So they went yesterday outside. Oh man, I, I need to know from Ketty, but maybe something things have to be kept secret because it could be part of the team strategy, and maybe it would be revealed after the tournament.

So a week— we can actually check the game of Sarah Hadem and Sarula because Ganges Grandmasters are actually, uh, hoping her to win her game.

But even that game seems to be not ending in their favor. Look at This rook to b6, d6 is hanging, and the rook can move. Ah no, this is not going to be enough. I think Sara Khadem is going to get a draw here, which will be great news for the fires American gambits. Oh, and Chavokir Sindarov totally better now. Let's go to board one. And look, this rook endgame is lost.

Oi, rook e2 check. Is not the greatest move. White can just play king f3 or king g3, any of those moves. The pawn on c5 is hanging next, and you can't really save it.

And g5! Oh, what? What did Chaukid really play? g5? That is let's go full screen.

Look at Nepo's reaction. Let's go full screen.

I mean, I can't believe. And maybe if we can get that other view where you know we can see the clock. As well on the full screen. g5. I'm shocked because at this point all that Sinderov had to do was come back, Rook dd3, defend here your pawn up. But instead he went g5.

Ah, he just blundered the b3 pawn.

Yeah, with a check. But maybe he has something on his mind here, Ketty. And Nepo has to find the right sequence. It's not easy because Javokir is coming check, pushing his pawns forward, and the checkmate.

Yeah, or a checkmate on the back rank.

Yeah, why not? So, so the defense is h takes, f takes, making the structure better. And now black to play. It's a tough, tough move for Jan Nepomniachtchi to find. If this is possible, we can have the analysis board so that people know what's the live position and also So what we are analyzing here, and while this— I just show the move. The move is g6 here, Ketti, that Nepo must find if he wants to hold this.

This is the only move to play, and it is definitely not easy. Not at all. He's Jan Nepomniachtchi. He is one of the strongest chess players in the world. Maybe he will find—

maybe if he finds this, then the Ganji's grandmasters can get a draw. Meanwhile, Levon Aronian saying, teammates, don't lose hope. I'm here to strike. He's winning against Nihal Sarin.

Like in this game, the bishops were like crazy bishops, like mad bishops. Bishops were like bishop h3, bishop f7.

Like, do we not have to sacrifice our life? We don't know that.

Oh, they're playing this fast, or it is just, uh, yeah, they're playing, they're playing.

They just took right now. Nihal Sarin has only 2 seconds left on the clock. He just made it to move forty. Insane! If we can go full screen on Nihal's clock, that would be that would be very interesting to see because he had to reach move forty and look at Nihal. He doesn't know if he's reached move forty. There's two second increment, Nihal. You can slow down. You can slow down a bit.

Like I remember this one game Nihal playing against Sindarov, I think in London when he stood up during the game and he was just standing up there to play it like that.

He might do that here as well. While Levon Aronian. Has all the time in the world to win this position. His position is winning. His time is extra.

He is going. We have to point out his time management today is amazing.

Oh, by the way, Jan Nepomniachtchi did not find G6, nor did he find the right move, it seems. Or maybe once again. No, no, no. It's still here. We're still here. Sorry. No, no, no. False alarm. False alarm. No, no, no.

Rook B seven. Has been played. He played? Yes. Are you sure? Yes, yes, yes. I don't have to. Yes, Rook b7 has been played.

Yes. Oh, g6. Rook b7, what a big error by Yan. Takes, and now g6. And this is what Javokir wanted.

g8 is coming and picking up the pawn on g7. If you play King f6, then Rook f8 and Rook f7. And who is the rook?

Oh, that is nice, that is nice. By the way, I saw one person in the chat saying— Vaibhav is his name— he says GCL made me fall in love with chess. Wow, how beautiful is that?

That is amazing.

That's so nice.

Yeah, thanks guys for sharing that.

Hmm, and suddenly this, uh, you know, we have 2 contrasting things happening on the top 2 boards. Sindarov is winning, but Nihal is losing, so it will be 1-1 there.

And Bob is also winning.

Is there any hope on any other boards for the team of Ganges Grandmasters?

Uh, yeah, this looks really— I'm looking now at the screen of 6 boards with the engine. Yes.

Yeah, not looking good. So, so that means that Firs American Gambits are simply winning on every single board almost.

Also, the last board seems like White's— White is winning. Marc-Andrea Maurizzi.

Yes, and this f6, I believe Nepo is going to resign soon because after takes you have g7. Next move I'm giving a check and making a queen. There's no stopping it even if you come here to the last rank. Or something to 7th rank. I just moved.

Yeah, look at them, both are watching that on the screen like they both know the result of this game.

So Nepo is shaking his head, he's like, okay, if I was winning and someone else was— if I was losing and someone else was winning, I would be fine. But no one's winning. Yeah, except Levon.

Levon. Anyway, we have a handshake. What a day for Levon Aronian! He beat Nihal Sarin and Anish Giri today.

Fantastic day for Levon, and I think it's very clear: don't get an advantage against Levon; he will beat you. Meanwhile, Daniel Dubov is doing something very special with his knight, queen, and rook. He's weaving his magic against the black king. That's the best combination against the king, indeed.

And here we have also Polina Shovalova trying to survive her game. Against Bibi Sara Salbaeva. Uh, but really tough position, she's a pawn down.

Rook to d7 played there by Nepo on the left board, but look at the white king moving in. King g6 coming in, and he pushes his pawn down the board, Jan Nepomniachtchi. But Sinderov picks up another pawn. He is going to win here because now the rook will come behind the passer.

And here we have a handshake Like, oh, Nepo resigns.

That means Javokir wins the game. The score is now 3-4 in the favor of the Ganges Grandmasters. Yes, but that seems like the only points that they are going to get, it seems, in this one. Because if we bring up our 6-board view very quickly, you will see that on board 3, Daniel is winning. On Board four, Bibisara is winning. On board five, it's a draw. And board six, Marc Andrea Morizzi is winning. This is going to be a huge win, Katie.

Huge win for a fire American gambits. Shall we take a look Bibisara's game and Paulina? Because yes, they have seconds on the clock.

For sure, let's go to that one. I think Bibisara should not, and she's won it. Oh, she won it. She won. the game. Polina's first defeat of the tournament, and it didn't come at a great time. Meanwhile, another result— Daniel Dubov has beaten Leinier Dominguez, and with this result, almost scoring this win. It's not done yet, but they're almost there.

9 points for Fire American Gambits, 4 points for Ganges Grandmasters, and still we have 2 more games Yes.

And meanwhile, look at Leon's rook. Look at Leon's rook. It is pinned.

It is pinned. Yes.

And it can't move. I can put more pressure. Rook d1, Ketti. That's the move. And then after rook e8, it comes a beautiful move.

Ah, f5.

So that you can't play f5. And after you Take. I simply keep this pressure going on the e-file. It's zugzwang even, Ketti. That's the beautiful thing. What is a zugzwang? None of the pieces can move, and every move you make leads to a worsening of your position. But tough to find, right?

Very tough to find. Do you think this is the only way? I kind of have a feeling that there might be other ways too. And Mark Andrea Maurits. He has 2 minutes. Sarah has finished her game against Stavrula and she made a draw.

That's a great result for Sarah Khadem, and that means the score is 10-5 with just 1 game left. And which means that, yeah, the Fire's American Gambits have already won, because even if Leon wins, the maximum he can get his team to is 9 points, and Fire's American Gambits already have 10.

points. So the match is basically over, but we know here every point matters, and Marc-Andrea Maurizzi will try to win his game. 9 seconds for Luke.

Yeah, Leon has 9. 2 minutes for Marc-Andrea Maurizzi, and he goes— oh, Rook h3! He doesn't, doesn't go for that line, and now suddenly the position is equal. Equal, but you know, Ketti, the pressure has.

He goes f5 now. Yeah, he goes f5 now.

f5 takes the pawn. No, what did he do? He took on d6. Oh, and Marc Andrea Morizzi missed that. He missed that. You could see his expression.

He was like, "Oh, what did I do here?" Wait, can I take the pawn on g6 now with idea rooks h7?

Oh.

That's a cool one. Like he has four seconds, right?

Yes. How to react with that?

And that would be such a good move. Look at Leon. He takes. He does your move. Check. Leon finds it. This is move thirty-eight. Leon has to make two more moves. He gives a check. This is move thirty-nine. One more move, Leon.

Play, play, play.

Oh, he lost on time and he loses the queen. No, he didn't lose on time. He lost on time. Now he lost it, but he. He lost his queen as well, KT. It's too much to lose. And the Fires American Gambits have won it. Their team, look at that, the celebration. A dominating performance by them. The match score, 13-5 for the Fires American Gambits. And the team is so happy with Javokir, Daniel, Bibisara. Everyone's taking, and now will come in Marc-Andrea Morizzi, who played also tremendous chess.

Everyone delivered it just like yesterday. Yesterday also they made draw and Sindara won. Do you think I'm, I'm hinting something there? Oh, I think they have some kind of strategy. They have strategy to hold on the boards and Sindara And look at the fans there.

And the Gambits are very happy. Let's go to Arohi for the announcement of who has won the match.

Match number 24, it was the Fires American Gambits Versus the Ganges Grandmasters, and we have the result. The Fires American Gambits win with 13 is to 5. May I please have the chief arbiter, Mr. Gert Bayerl, join me along with the coaches of the two teams, Srinath for the Gambits, Adiban for the Grandmasters, for signing the result. Thank you.

And you can see the Ganji's Grandmasters, they have had Oh, Nihal! Wait, imposter, imposter in Ganges Grandmasters! He's just analyzing with Levon Aronian, the only player who won for the Ganges Grandmasters. But look at Jan Nepomniachtchi, look at Polina, look at Stavrula, Lenny, Leon. Everyone is so upset. This means so much to them, Ketty. They wanted to win, they wanted to be on the top of the leaderboard. Board have that cushion to make it to the finals, but right now they don't have it anymore.

Yeah, well, we knew that in the end of a day it would be only one team out of them, and you know, it's just American Gambits, they just delivered it.

Yes, and it's such a tough decision to give the player of the match because so many players have played well. Javokir Sindarov, brilliant. Play on board number one. Then you have Daniel Dubov, who played an incredible game on board three. Bibisarasa Ubaeva beating the one in form totally Polina Shualova. And then finally Mark Andrea Morizzi also scoring on the last board.

Yeah, it's good to have a problem to choose which player is the best player in your team. And here we have the highlights just the seconds before the players. Walked in into the venue, and here we have American Gambits greeting their fans.

And they are actually adding so much of color to this tournament, the Fires American Gambits. It's not just that the players are here, fans are here, and they've got all these things.

Love it, I love it. We don't have that unfortunately in chess, right, to have this support of the Fans, but this is Global Chess League, and here everything is just opposite of what you usually have. Very important match here. Levon Aronian was a superstar of the Ganges Grand Masters today.

He had a fantastic day. Only one, Katie. That's the problem. There was only one superstar. They needed more superstars or even more.

Yeah, and they. This is the final game. Nihal did his best to guard it, but you know, it's good to be in a team that your loss don't really affect your team.

And this is where I think Jan Nepomniachtchi would be quite livid with himself. He got his chance to hold Sinderov to a draw, but in the end he was unable to find the best moves. He resigned, and Mark-Andrey Moritz and And Leon's game was so interesting because Leon had only 1 second. He made this move with 1 second on the clock, lost his queen, almost banged the table there. And Leon— oh, I've never seen him so unhappy.

I have seen him more happy when there was the same situation, right, against Abhimanyu Mishra, where he could not make the moves against, uh, uh, Leon earlier, right?

Yes, yes. Leon and Abhimanyu played that amazing match few rounds ago. But now, Ketti, this means that the Alpine APL Pipers on 15. Yeah, right. We have the Ganges Grandmasters on 15. We have the Fires American Gambits on 15. We have, I think, the Czech Mumba Masters also on 15, right? Or no, maybe they are on 12. So 3 teams on 15. This is the match summary. 4 players Winning for one team—that is massive.

It is massive, and Levon and Aronian win only. Oh, orange jersey poster here! What a lineup! What the superstars that we have on the screen. Both teams thirteen to five. American Gambits takes the victory here. Such a tough decision to. Which game is the which move is the best because we had a lot of beautiful moves and sacrifices. They all of them scored nicely, very important victory.

And I think Bibisara had said in the last match that we have a great icon board who's playing well because the rest had drawn and Javokir had won. But today it's like the entire team delivered. And this is what you want when you are reaching those final rounds— every single player to fire. Like, you just feel the team effort here.

You feel it. And do you think the reason of that might be that they have not played? They wanted to play game. And Ganges Grandmasters, they played today the first game. They might be a little bit tired.

Tired, true. But the Ganges Grandmasters did a huge, uh, damage In the morning round, like you can say the first round of the day when they beat the Alpine APL Pipers.

Magnus team with all the big names, perfect players. As I'm using the question perfect. Yeah, that was a big win for Gantus Gridmasters.

So I think they would take this one out of two for sure. They would have loved to make it two out of two, but they keep their chance. alive in this tournament. Remember, the entire fight of this group stage is to find 2 teams that reach the finals. And Katie, uh, those 2 teams are not clear right now.

Oh, absolutely not. We might know that Triveni, uh, Continental Kings are out of the competition. They cannot get it, uh, but the rest of the teams are And now let's take a look who is the player of the match. Let's go to Arohi.

Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony. The leaderboard is currently the most important thing there is for all the teams, and being top of the leaderboard, I mean, that's a privilege not all teams can claim, but currently it is with the fires American Gambits. Welcome guys, congratulations. Javakir, Bibisara had said we have a great icon player and you delivered yet again.

Uh, yeah, uh, like what can I say? Happy to win.

I mean, like always, first of all, like, our team win very important game and yeah, we have good chances to qualify for finals now.

You know, there was a point in the game where it could have ended in a draw, but then you pulled things back, you kept things tight and you got the win.

Sorry, is there some moment it's going to draw?

You said?

There was some time in the game where it could have been a draw, but you kept things tight, you pulled it back, you got— went For the win?

No, I think like, uh, like I, I have always very good position. Yeah, but some moment maybe I have like, like very easy win, but I messed up some moves. And yeah, and the end, I think, yeah, I find, uh, it's a good, uh, brilliant, good moves. And yeah, and won.

Yeah, I think I'm always have very good position, but some moment I just can win like in One move, but I didn't see.

Javakir, top of the table. How does it feel at this juncture in the competition?

I don't know. Just good.

Fair enough. Nihal, you know there was a scene today. Your team won. Cameras were on your dugout. I went. I announced the results. I got back down, and then I heard the commentator say, "Oh, look at Nihal! He is in the Grandmasters." What were you doing there?

No, after the game I was just, I was just analyzing with Lavon, like, yeah, just discussing the game where I could have played better and yeah, just, just discussing some crucial moments.

Fair enough. But Nihal, when can I see you here and be like, yes, we've won?

I don't know, maybe...

Maybe when, when I finally play a good quality game. But no, but of course this is much more important. Like today I played rather badly and okay, also Levon played extremely well, like his trademark style, very active and very tricky. But yeah, much more important is that the team won a very crucial match and of course I'm very happy. Like losing an individual game really doesn't matter at all.

Absolutely. I'm gonna put my money on the day That you come here with that expression because I know that's coming soon. A couple of games more to go, and hope to see you back, right? Thank you. All right then, we have the Player of the Match Award that is to be given, and to give it away, may I please call upon Dr. Sindura Narayana, Director, the Narayana Group of Educational Institutions. And the Player of the Match Award goes to Bibisara Salvaeva. Bibi Sara, congratulations on that win. You were waiting for this, right? You're waiting for that first win. You're waiting for the day. I was also waiting for the day you would say, yes, I won! Probably today. Yeah, you got the player of the match. What a great game.

Uh, yeah, thank you. Finally I won my first game in this tournament because how I played, sometimes I think maybe I will not.

And also yesterday, Jawa here joking on me like, maybe I will give you one of them because I have a lot.

But finally I have mine and I'm very happy that we won the match.

You know, you never know, with a couple of games games left, probably you will earn more of these and you will have to give one to Javakir.

No, I think so. I hope he will win all the games.

All right, uh, crucial juncture in the tournament, and, uh, this probably— the team performance comes at a very good time. Congratulations on today's win. All the best for the games ahead.

Thank you.

That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. Back to the casters.

If this is not the perfect moment, I don't know what else it is. And I love to see the players after the tense game. They are sharing, they're so open, they're so nice and sweet. And have you realized that yesterday we had very similar end as well? Yeah, Fires American Gambits were the last people standing here.

True. I think the, the Fires American Gambits have made it like a small little ceremony, end the day nicely for themselves, let their fans go to sleep with a smile on their face. But 2 days still left, and today if you saw the games that happened, they were so intense. In this match, Bibisara Asaubhaya won the Player of the Match award, but the move of the match Would go to another player, and that let's bring it on our board to show our viewers this amazing move, Ketti, that was played by Daniel Dubov. It was a brilliant game. There were many moments, but I think the standout moment for all of us is this moment to push the pawn to D5.

Exactly. Uh, d5 itself is not a brilliant move, but this is how you start it. This is the, the idea you have, right? There was Bishop h6, there was like Rook d5 sacrifice, but all of this started with one d5, right?

This d5 gave energy to all of the white pieces, and that's the reason why we call it the AMD move of the match. Thank Thank you, Daniel, for showing some brilliant chess. I think he's always very inspiring. You know, whenever I see Daniel playing chess, I feel like there's an artist there creating some art.

Yes, he wants to create something and he wants to, uh, somehow find new things in chess, you know. And I love that too. Let's take a look at the overall standings and let's see what has In the end of day 6 at Tech Mahindra Global Chess League.

Unbelievable, 2 teams in the same match point but also game points.

Yes, that's actually true. This tells us that it is such a close, uh, run, right? Right. Alpine Pipers and American Gambits are sharing 50 match points and 73 game points as well. But there are more teams in the line waiting for their turn. Candice Green Masters, they have 15 points, and Czech Mumba Masters have 12 points. PBG Alaskan Knights lost their game, so they did not get any points today. They have 9 points, and Triveni Continental Kings have 6 points after 24 matches.

And you know what, Ketty? Tomorrow we have only 3 games. Tomorrow, not 4, only 3. And the Alpine and the Fires will play each other, top 2 teams. And then we have the Ganges and Czech Mumba Masters playing each other. That's insane. And PBG Alaskan Knights and Triveni Continental Kings will play each other as well. well, which will make it like, you know, that game will not be that relevant, I think, for this final standings. But the top 2 matches would be insane. I'm going to go crazy tonight. I may not even sleep. There are many birthdays to celebrate. Karissa Yeb, we also have the birthday of Awadh Shah. But you know, guys, all the players will very much be preparing, I think.

No, I love how little it takes for you to Go crazy!

No, I mean, I'm so excited. We don't know who the two teams are going to be. It's just two days away.

Yeah, I can't believe it. And you know what?

I don't want.

I don't want this to end. I just don't want this.

Anyway, we discussed this, Katie. You are kind of thinking about shifting to India as well, right? No. Yes, we did.

We did. I still have that hopes. And Sakar, you know how I feel. at GCL, we do have this, like, not one team leading the competition, like, as on the other tournaments, and we have to, like, you know, just move around this one player, one team. Here, every team has their own stories, right? And anything can— tomorrow can be a totally different day.

Yeah, it can happen. Anything can happen tomorrow. And look at this, SBI Bankable Player of the Day. Levon Aronian. His age is 43, his Elo is 2739, from the United States. Levon Aronian, you are someone that we can bank upon, just like SBI, the banker to every Indian. What a— if you do settle in India, Ketty, yes, your bank account will be in SBI. Okay?

Okay.

Let's come back to the studio. I think today was an incredible day of chess. A lot of fun, a lot of excitement. Katie, I'm going to put you on the spot like I always do.

Thank you very much. 2 teams.

Name the 2 teams that will make it to the finals.

Yes. Well, you know what? I want American Gambit to be there. Like, we, we saw this.

They are amazing. They are doing so well. I think they'll do it. No, we're choosing it, but you have to choose 2 people. Yes, yes, I think they will do it. I think one of the teams will be them. And also, let's have a look at tomorrow's fixtures. We did speak about it, but let's bring it on screen. We have the Fire American Gambits versus Alpine APL Pipers. That's the 2nd match of the day. First match is Triveni Continental Kings and PBG Alaskan Knights. And the last one is Ganji's Grandmasters and Czech Moon Yeah, okay, back to our conversation.

Uh, I pick one team, American Gambits, and then I will open the rest of the, uh, one spot for rest of the teams.

Yes, but which one?

You choose, you help me.

So tomorrow you are saying that between Fires and Alpine, Fires would win? You're thinking that way?

Uh, by the way, look at Jawa Kill.

there. He's giving his time to the fans. I think the fans really want to spend time with either Vishy Anand, either Jawahiri, either Magnus Carlsen. And somehow, you know, Javokhit is giving that, uh, time to all the people, making them feel special. I mean, he has that in him.

Yes, but also I have to, to, to mention this, uh, Sagar, because you are you're Indian, you have seen this, this is a normal thing. But for me, as, uh, as yet foreigner, not, not, uh, not, not yet.

Half Indian.

Yeah, it is such a nice, uh, feeling when there is this, uh, huge number of very, very nice people, very polite people asking for the signatures and photos, uh, and like every chess player here feels like they, they have to make the photos. And because other side, it's such beautiful people here, they appreciate so much everyone that it's just, you know, I think it's very strong connection with Indian chess fans and the chess players.

True, true. Yeah, it's very well put, Ketty. And so the final one spot—

You will never get that from me.

Between the Czech Mumba Masters and Ganji's Grandmasters, I have a feeling that we will get the answer tomorrow. It's time for us to end the show, guys. Thank you all for tuning in.

Thanks for watching. Bye.