Vishy vs Magnus, Magnus vs Sindarov | Global Chess League Day 3

Welcome and a very good afternoon. We are live from Bengaluru. This is day three of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. Now, whatever you have planned for the next one hour, I'm very sorry to inform you, but you need to cancel all of that because today is a blockbuster day and we kick it off with the legend Vishy Anand about to face the goat of chess Magnus Carlsen. With me, the goat of commentary here, Sahaj and Sagar. मजा आने वाला है टुडे इट्स गोइंग टू बी फैंटास्टिक हाउ हाइप्ड आर यू?

तानिया व्हेन यू सेड यू हैव टू कैंसल एवरीथिंग फॉर वन आवर आई थॉट यू आर गोइंग टू अनाउंस समथिंग एल्स.

एंड बिफोर वी ब्रेक डाउन ऑल द चेस एक्शन टुडे इज़ नॉट जस्ट अ स्पेशल टुडे इज़ नॉट जस Let's do it. Happy birthday to you, Sahaj. How does it to you?

Oh, that is so sweet, guys. Thank you so much.

How old have you turned?

That's, uh, I think I'm just turning 21. Uh, I mean, but, uh, I think it's the first time, Sagar bhai, that I've heard you sing. So my— that's a perfect birthday present that I could have received.

Clearly Sahaj hasn't been watching our broadcast because Sagar has been singing since day one. But Sahaj, what a day to have your birthday here at the Global Chess League. We're going to have Magnus enter the arena twice, we'll have Vishy enter the arena twice, we'll have Triveni Continental Kings fight for survival. What else could one wish for?

Vishy versus Magnus, it's happening literally. Vishy and, and it's, and it's the first round itself. Vishy versus Magnus, I mean, it's the perfect birthday present that, you know, one could receive, right?

And there we see right now the format, how the league works. There are 6 franchisees that are playing here. There are 2 times they will play each other, the double round robin, 30 matches. Each team has 6 boards, 1 icon player, 2 superstar men, 2 superstar women, 1 prodigy board. Time control is 20 minutes, no increment until 40 moves, 2-second increment after 40 moves. Very cool. And this is how the points system work.

And this is one of the most unique factors that makes Global Chess League so incredibly exciting. It incentivizes bravery, fighting chess, especially if you're playing with the black pieces, there's a premium on every win. You get 3, 4 points for a win with black, 3 points for a win with white. If it's a draw, uh, then just a point. And of course, for a match win, it's going to be 3 apiece, and then a draw gives both the teams 1 point. And Sahaj, we've seen this storyline and exactly how much weightage the point system— because some of the teams have had equal number of wins, equal number of losses, but have gone on to win the match only because they play black.

100%. And there is a certain player in the Alpine APL Pipers who had— who has utilized this to the Maximum, you know, possibility, which is Vidit, of course, who has won both of his games with the black pieces.

Yeah, the Alpine APL Pipers are like black lengue, and we'll try to win with every single game with black. And that's what has been working for them. Let's see if they get black again today, third time.

It all comes down to that coin toss, which we'll have right behind us. It's going to be fantastic to watch that. You mentioned Vidit. Humpy's been doing the same for the Alpine Pipers. Both these players at 2 out of 2, and those 4-pointers have been big. Let's just set the stage of where we are before we enter day 3 right now. Now, we had a super weekend. The opening weekend of the Global Chess League has seen 3 teams at the top with 6 match points. But the Alpine Pipers, Sagar, that's the standout point. They still have a match in hand. They've only played 2 while the top 2 teams have had 3 matches so far.

Right. If they win today, they'll go to the top of the leaderboard. And in fact, they have 2 matches today. They could very well end up with 12 points. and make a very strong claim to be in the finals.

Absolutely. And today is the day when they can achieve this. But they are playing against PPG Alaskan Knights, who are on paper at least— I mean, firstly, they've got Vishy, they've got Arjun. I mean, it's such a star-studded lineup. It's going to be a tough day for them.

And you know who else has a tough day? Sahaj, I think one of the striking storylines so far has to be bottom of the table. There's one team that's still winless. Right, zero points. And this is a team that's won 2 GCL, has finished runners-up in one. I think that's been the most shocking story so far.

100%. And if you look at the game point difference, I mean, they are at the bottom of the leaderboard, but they still have 23 points. That is absolutely crazy. I mean, think about it like this, they have more game points than the Alpine APL Pipers right now, who are currently number 3 on the list.

They've played one match lesser, so that's also true. Maybe Alpine will surpass them, but 23 is a good Decent score, which means that the Triveni Continental Kings are doing well. They're just not able to beat their opponents. In fact, guys, I must tell you, yesterday when our day got over and I went back to the hotel, uh, I did see the Triveni Continental Kings team all coming together, sitting together in one room. Today morning itself, I think while coming to the venue, we again saw them together. So— I think they are really doing this team bonding activities to fire today.

They need a resurgence, that's for sure. I'm gonna call this the survival day for Triveni Continental Kings, and I'm gonna go so far as to say that if they were to lose their 4th match in a row right now, maybe mathematically, Sahed Sagar, it still might be possible to make it to the finals, but from a practical tournament perspective, the chances of that in my head are close to zero. And with that, let's see what are the blockbuster matches that we've got ourselves up ahead. And it's quite a menu.

Wow, we have the PBG Alaskan Knights led by Vishy Anand taking on the Alpine APL Pipers led by Magnus Carlsen. That's the blockbuster match of today. A lot of people have come in to watch this. Then we have the Czech Mumba Masters led by MVL against the Ganges Grandmasters. Of you know Nepo, who's the top board there.

Absolutely. And then on on round three, we've got Alpine once again going against the Fires American Gambits led by Srinath Narayanan and Sindarov Javokir. And then on the last day, we've got PBG Alaskan Knights going against the Triveni Continental Kings. That is absolutely crazy.

I love it.

We've got the appetizers. You know, we've got this big matchup Vishy Magnus building up to Magnus Sindarov later on as well. Lots of main courses, lots of desserts coming up on the chessboard.

पहला ही में कोर्स है यार पहले में ही पेड़ भरने वाला है। I just realized something. We've got Vishy versus Magnus. We've got Magnus versus Javakir and then we got Vishy versus Firuja.

Wow!

That is what?

Happy birthday sir.

Thank you. Thank you GCL for this. Let's go.

Yeah, it's a beautiful day. We have so many superstars coming in. You can see here the back. We have the fan zone. It's a Monday afternoon here in Bengaluru and it is full. You know why? there's still some space because half of the people have gone inside the auditorium already for the start of the encounter.

Sagar, in just a few moments from now, we'll actually have the teams' arrival happening. So a lot of the fans are waiting there for, you know, for them to come in to cheer for them. Now, we've been talking about the story of how for the Alpine Pipers, the color black has mattered so much for the team. And it's time to find out that in this iconic clash of the Alaskan Knights and the Pipers, Which team plays with which color? Arohi, take it away.

Start of a new week. I understand that all of y'all, it's a Monday, but if you're here, rest assured this is going to be super exciting. Well, in the first game of the day, you have PBG Alaskan Knights who take on the Alpine APL Pipers. Can the Knights turn things around, or will the Pipers continue to dance to the tune of their own drum? We'll get to know right here, starting at the coin toss. Now, to start off, let me call upon the match officials: the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, along with the chief arbiter, Mr. Gert Bayer. And now, the coaches of the 2 teams will be playing in game number one today. We have Abhijit Kunte for PBG Alaskan Knights and Praveen Tipse for Alpine APL Pipers. Welcome, gentlemen. Pipers will be taking the call. Heads is the call. Tails.

So we will play with white.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So white it is. Any particular reason?

We had a good result yesterday with white, so I thought we will continue with white. That's the only reason.

But anyway, we have to play with both the colors.

Correct. But, uh, probably starting with white because you have a good momentum coming in from the last game. That helps the team?

Yes, I think so.

Talk us through the team, because in the first game, day 1, y'all did lose with black. Yesterday, y'all won with white. Today, again picking white, expecting the same result. Anything that's changed in the team or the strategies that you're going to be applying against this?

Well, I think day 1 was, uh, the loss was unfortunate because, uh, I think Anand was—

it was just equal position and he just misplayed it. And then Abhimanyu tried to, you know, match the score, so he lost the game.

But the overall— the team spirit was very good.

The way Abhimanyu tried to come back and play for the team, and it was a dead draw position, but he just overstretched and lost.

So I think, I think that the team spirit is more important in such tournaments.

Absolutely. So we've seen great individual performances coming in from the team, but probably that one team performance is what y'all are looking at. Let this be your day. Black happy with it?

Well, we had black in first two rounds and we won both the matches. But of course, we wanted to have white pieces. Well, everybody has to play with two whites and two blacks. So I thought it was better to try whites and blacks alternatively. And that's okay that we play third black. Doesn't really matter because we have to play with white anyway afterwards.

Do you think they made it easier for you because you all have already won two games with the black pieces again playing with the black pieces on day three?

Well, I think it's more or less the players are very seasoned and they know that toss is only a chance and there is a 50% chance of losing the toss. So they are prepared for both the sides. And what's important is perhaps this could be a boon eventually because in the 8th round we would be playing white pieces against the same team. So I look forward to a good match from our side.

Let's talk about Vidit and Hampi. 2 games, 2 wins with the black pieces. Is this coincidence or Is there a method to this absolute madness?

No, I think it's— it shows great on the personalities that from day one they were into full spirit. And I'm sure that the rest of the players who initially struggled because of the jet lag or something, I think they have recovered now. And now it's not only 2 boards, you're going to see that on all 6 boards now.

All right.

All the best to the team. Let the Pipers continue their run.

Thank you.

That is it from the coin toss. The news is that the PBG Alaskan Knights have won the toss, opted white. We'll be back after a short break.

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मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल पोलो स्टील पाइप्स एयरपोर्ट से लेकर आपके घर तक कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत एपीएल अपोलो बनाता है देश की बढ़ती ताकत एपीएल अपोलो देश की बढ़ती ताकत चीफ गेस्ट्स हैं अराय सलूट सलूट करो सलूट करो सलूट हटाओ ये पीलाओ Long non-sticky full of veggies.

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And the seat of power keeps its own square, the King.

6 franchises take the board. Equals until the first move. Every game ends the same way. One seat, one name on it.

Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. Season 4, Bengaluru, starts now. Take your seats.

Take your seats and also fasten those seat belts and get the popcorn ready, because what a day we have ahead of us right now. In just a few moments from now, we will have the PBG Alaskan Knights and the Alpine Pipers walk into the arena, and the clash that we've set ourselves up for. Now, Alpine Pipers lost the toss but still got the color they've been dominating so far. Did that decision of Abhijit Kunte After winning, to choose the white pieces surprise you, Sahaj?

Uh, I think so, yes, considering the fact that Vidit specifically has scored both wins with the black pieces. And also, well, they have won both of their matches with the black pieces as well. But I think, uh, there is a strategy involved here, and I believe it's largely due to, you know, them wanting to win the match. And with the white pieces, you really want to win the match, and, and it puts you on a stronger position.

Tell me a little bit, what do you think is that strategy? What are the boards that are hot for the Alaskan Knights that they chose the white pieces?

I think it has to be Arjun and it has to be Lagnu, because I think Arjun, uh, is, is extremely dangerous with the white pieces. And Vishy, of course, can, you know, try to put pressure against Magnus there. But I think specifically Lagnu versus Divya. Now Divya has lost both of her matches with the black pieces, and this is going to be her 3rd match. Uh, and you know, if you have, you know, a short castle with the black pieces, playing the 3rd match of course puts you on some kind of a tilt. And maybe that's the strategy I think they're trying to target Divya here.

Yeah, I, I agree with, uh, Sahaj. I think, uh, the boards where the PBG Alaskan Knights have to strike is Arjun and Lagnu. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand will have the unenviable task of trying to hold Magnus Carlsen, but he will have the white pieces. And also Magnus does seem a bit shaky in this event, Tanya. He hasn't been his Top self.

He hasn't won a game yet here in Bengaluru. It's been Vidit and Hampi who've carried the team so far for the Pipers. Divya has been a weak spot in the first 2 matches. She is on 0 out of 2, which is why you think Lagnu will be looking to strike. And I think there is some sense to be made with the choice of starting with the white pieces. You also want Vishy at the end of it to have the chance to be solid and shut down the game if needed against the world number 1.

I agree. I think that is where, uh, the white pieces will come to good use. There's also Erdogmus who's taking on Vidit Gujarati. I think Vidit is in such good form here. He feels confident. In fact, I saw him at the breakfast today. He felt so calm. I haven't seen him so relaxed in last few months because I think this is the start he needed. Once a player of his caliber gets a good start, he becomes an entirely different player.

It's been an up-and-down year for Vidit Gujarati. And now coming back into this arena right before the Olympiad as well. And then having this performance to kick things off, you know, we've been seeing those social media posts as well. He's got his family here, Nidhi's here supporting him. He's got a lot of fans here cheering for him as well. I think it's definitely going to put him in a great mood going ahead.

Also, he's like this into tech and AI, and there's no better place than Bengaluru, you know.

Everyone, you know, it must be helping him with the chess as well because clearly he's doing something different. I think, I think in this tournament, winning, winning both matches with the black pieces is always Uh, you know, impressive. But against Erdemir, who is not in form, if you had to predict a result there, Erdemir with white, Vidit with black, Vidit 2 out of 2, and I think Erdemir is 0 out of 2, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, he lost to Shaq, I think.

Yes, in the, in the previous— he, he had a good, really good position, but then ended up, I think, in time scramble, he ended up making a mistake. But what are your thoughts there?

I think mainly Vidit's time management has been very good, and Erdemir is time management hasn't been great. So there I do feel Vidit is a small favorite here. This is what we are looking forward to. I think it's a very even match with some favorites for the PBG Alaskan Knights. Some boards are the favorites for the Alpine APL Pipers.

For Vidit Gujarati, definitely experience on his side here at the Global Chess League. Adhokma is making his debut here. Now another board that catches my attention, and of course we will talk about our top marquee matchup, our big headliner, in just a few. But Arjun Aragaisi versus Anish Giri, what can we expect when these 2 styles clash?

Absolute chaos. This is, this is a perfect example of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. And, uh, yeah, I guess we'll find out, but I'm taking Arjun on this one.

Yeah, I agree. I think Arjun having the white pieces means that he can dictate the play. He'll try to create chaos on the board. At the same time, Anish hasn't yet settled down very much. He did lose his First game here to Pranesh. Then he was almost getting checkmated against Levon Aronian. He saved that game. And right now, the teams are arriving in. There we see the PBG Alaskan Knights coming in.

Wow!

With a legend up front, front seat leading from the front Vishy Anand there, Arjun right behind him. And there we see we've got a couple of backbenchers: Erdogmus. Sitting there as well. The team gets in together, and of course our big clash will be on the Icon Board. An iconic matchup, this one as well. You know, you've got 2 eras, 2 icons, one board today.

I love the smile on Vishy's face. It says to everyone that, yes, I know I'm facing Magnus, but I'm relaxed. And I think that's a great state to be in. And the Alpine APL Pipers are here, and Magnus is here as well.

He arrives with the team this time, Sahaj.

Wow, wow, wow. So some nice team spirit there.

And as the teams come in, there you see Magnus leading the charge, and he just smiles to the fans. I think Magnus is really feeling comfortable in Bengaluru. He's enjoying himself.

Yes, um, he— it's almost like he wants to say yippee.

I wonder where he got that idea from. Now, Magnus Carlsen has played the Global Chess League twice before, but his team has never won. He's represented the Pipers in Season 1 and Season 2. Pipers won it in Season 3, and it was without Magnus Carlsen leading them. Magnus is back, feels like he's back on the right side of the team, stacked top to bottom. They've done it so far in their first 2 matches, but it's been Vidit and Hampi who've carried the team. Is this the day that Magnus will be able to do it? What are our predictions and what should the viewers watching the icon board looking out for in those early stages?

I, I think Vishy will try to push, uh, you know, from the opening itself, but I, I have a feeling that it's gonna come down to a time scramble. Now Vishy, sir, generally, you know, uh, when it comes to time scramble, I think Magnus handled it, handled it a bit better, but I think it's gonna end in a, like, a safe draw, or I I'll say that it's going to be a blunder in, in the, uh, in the end phase of the game, essentially, by Vishy, sir.

Okay, okay.

That's my prediction. What about you?

I think in general Vishy will start off— I mean, the way he will start off will determine, has he come with a defensive mind that, okay, a draw is fine, or is he looking to actually push against Magnus? I think the latter would be much better for his chances to win today.

You know, Sagar, I want everyone watching to get involved right now because this is such a massive moment in chess. You know, we've got these 2 generations of chess. Vishy Anand, 5 times world champion. Magnus Carlsen, 5 times world champion. They're playing against each other. What does our chat think? Who takes the win in this one? It's going to be a massive day ahead of us. Tell us in chat what you think. And right now, the players are ready to enter the arena. We head over to the stage.

We've already had 2 days of drama, stories, and some serious chess being played. Welcome to day 3 of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. Now today, the first clash is as exciting as it gets. We have a 5-time world champion against a 5-time world champion on the Icon Board, and it couldn't get any more bigger than that. So without further ado, let's call upon the 2 teams. PBG, Alaskan Knights, and Alpine, APL Pipers.

Thank you.

It's time now to introduce the 2 teams. Let's start with the one which has momentum as well as the color of the pieces on their side. Give it up for PBG Alaska Knights! 5 times World Chess Champion Vishwanathan Anand! World Rapid number 3, Arjun Erigaise. Youngest 2700, Yagiz Khan Erdogmus. Former Women World Rapid and Blitz champion, Katerina Lagno. Georgian superstar, Nino Batsiyashvili. And the youngest Grandmaster, Abhimanyu Mishra. Along with their coach Abhijit Kunte. And now it is time to introduce the team with all the brilliance that they could have accumulated in this one team. It is the Alpine APL Pipers. World number 1 Magnus Carlsen. Reigning Grand Swiss Champion Anish Giri. Arjun Awadhi. वेदित गुजराती, अनदर अर्जुना अवार्डी दिव्या देशमुख, टू टाइम्स विमेन्स रैपिड चैम्पियन हंपी कोनेरू, फॉर्मर वर्ल्ड रैपिड चैम्पियन वोलादार मर्जिन, एंड देर कोच प्रवीण तिप्से। कैन वी हैव अ राउंड राउंड ऑफ अप्लाउज़ फॉर बोथ द टीम्स प्लेइंग इन मैच नंबर वन ऑफ़ टुडे? All right, teams, you may now proceed to handshakes. And now, as the teams get settled, may I please call upon for the first move our tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Bayer, along with our special guest for today, Mr. Chandrakant Nayak, site leader enterprise AI and data, Boeing, and Mr. Arun Dwajan, head Amazon Payment Tech.

And with the ceremonial moves made, only one thing left to do is to get to the match. Now Vishy Anand versus Magnus Carlsen. On one side, a man who inspired a generation. On the other side, a man who dominated one. This is such a marquee matchup, a headliner there. All eyes on that one. On our icon board for Divya Deshmukh, today is about Stopping the bleeding at a very important time when her team needs it. We've got the opening moves coming in on another very big men's superstar board. Arjun Naragaisi with his feisty chess against Anish Giri, who's been struggling so far.

Yeah, Tanya, I think all eyes on the Vishy Magnus encounter. But as it is a staggered start, we will be beginning with the women's superstar board. If we can go to Katrina Lagnow versus Divya Deshmukh camp. Because that is where the first moves will happen, and there we have it. Divya starts off with the Caro-Kann.

Divya has employed these opening several times against the King's Pawn Opening, and again, Sagar, the first two matches haven't gone her way, but the fighting spirit has always been there. The one thing I noticed when the teams were shaking hands, I don't know अगर आपने देखा ये, but it was like Vishy was already in the zone. He had to be reminded twice.

Handshakes का time आ गया है। Yeah, Vishy was like, okay, I am here for the game. Ah, you have to shake hands with everyone. That's new. That's something very cool that happens here. And meanwhile, you can see here the Caro-Kann with e takes f6 variation that has been played. Divya has played this a lot before. Black castles sometimes even pushes the h pawn ahead very soon. So we will be looking at this game very closely. Let's look at the other women's superstar board— Nino Batsyashvili versus Koneiro Hampi.

And this one, Sagar, it appears has started as the Queen's Pawn Opening. Would have been a Queen's Gambit Declined, but a Ragozin is where we are at after the first 5 moves. Now the bishop has come out pinning the knight. White's bishop has come out pinning black's knight, and we have several games in this position. So I'm just surprised that Nino is taking an early think.

Yeah, I think Nino just wants to get herself into the game. She has been amazing at the Global Chess League. Even here, she's in great form. I think Hampi has to be very careful against her. This is a match of 2 in-form players.

Yes.

So I think this will be a great game to follow.

I completely agree. And also, let's point out that Nino was actually part of the Pipers last season. Oh, and today she sits on the board for a very crucial match to challenge them.

That's a great point, Tanya. And while we are looking at the women superstars board, let's head over to the male superstar boards. We have Arjun versus Anish. The handshake there, and Arjun kicks off the game with E4, E5. Tanya, Anish is going to be the ice to Arjun's fire here. मतलब क्या अर्जुन पूरे बोर्ड पे ओ धमाका करेगा?

I love it. The marker already हो चुका है with the Scotch appearing on the board. I think we can moniker this match fire versus ice.

Tanya, what is bishop b five? I've never seen this move before. The move that has happened usually in this position is knight takes knight.

Yes.

Takes and you push the pawn. But ये तो नहीं हुआ है. Goes bishop b five. This is the first time I'm seeing such a move.

And Sagar, you know Arjun is known to come up. With these non-standard ideas earlier on in the opening to throw his opponent off. His opening preparation is incredible, and I think this aims at exactly that. And look at Anish; he's already starting to think now.

Yes, Anish is like, "Whoa! I'm an opening expert, but I've never seen this before." Let's go to the next game. We have Vidit the Inform. I would call him Vidit the Inform Gujarati against Yas. The talent, Erdogmus. What a game we have here. f3 has been played. Tanya, let's just go through the opening moves very quickly because we don't want to miss the handshake of the icon board.

That is an iconic handshake with so much history between these 2 players as well. We will go on to the icon board. This is how we got there. And, uh, Sagar, to me, just feels like for Erdogmus, he wants to try to score today. He's got the white pieces. We'll come back to that, but let's go over to our marquee matchup here. A big headliner. I'm I'm saying that today was the first day when I saw Magnus in a good mood when he came in. He had smiles with the fans.

Hi, मुझे लगता है Magnus ने आज golf में बहुत अच्छा खेला है। Because guys, every morning he goes to the golf course, he plays a game while Vishy looks very calm, cool, collected. The first move is going to happen. Handshakes will happen.

I think they are ready, and the clocks have begun, and we have the first move on the board.

Oh, Sicilian!

Let's go!

Sicilian means it's going to be a fantastic battle in the middle game. Magnus taking the fight, and we see a bishop come out.

No way, Tanya! Vishy played this. Do you know Magnus played this very opening with white in the entire World Rapid and Blitz in 2025?

Look at the way Vishy just gives a stare on Magnus. I analyze all those games, Magnus Carlsen. I've seen exactly What your plans are?

Oh my God!

Vishy is like, you know, Magnus.

जो तुमने खेला है, वही हम आज खेल के तुमको हराएंगे। For Magnus, the world rapid and blitz went off to perfection, but he takes a pause with the black pieces right now. Will he blunt the bishop, or will he have his knight come out first? And Magnus is a little. There's indecision right now for Magnus. Even though he's employed this with the white pieces, he's not ready for a response with black.

Yeah, I think Tanya, what Magnus would have thought is that is that भाई ये opening तो मैंने तैयारी की थी पूरी। Now suddenly Vishy is playing with white. What exactly did I face the most problems when I was preparing it with white? Is the question.

Sagar, it's already a little success when you can get Your opponent on move three to burn the clock. There is no increment till they reach move forty, and Magnus does blunt that bishop. E pawn आगे बढ़ चुका है, creating another square for the knight to come out. We might see a break in the center at some point by Magnus pushing that pawn in front of his own queen two steps forward.

You know what, Tanya? The time is Vishy has nineteen minutes forty nine seconds. He's only taken eleven seconds. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen has actually taken 18 minutes 22 seconds. So like he's used one and a half minute on the clock.

And Vishy had a response ready.

Yes.

You know Magnus played the pawn move. Vishy castles, and again Magnus starts thinking. This is a good opening sign for the PBG Alaskan Knights.

Yeah.

I mean Vishy, you know all the years of his experience brought him to this opening line where he thought that this would be the most uncomfortable. Tanya, look at this view. Beautiful one with the clock we can see. We can see the time here, 1752, 1949 for Vishy. Oh, incredible, incredible here. And I'm going to wait here till Magnus makes his move. You know, we're going to just see what Magnus comes up with.

But he has to rush up a little bit. The opening just started. One thing is clear, Vishy की preparation तो on point है, and he's got an early surprise in as well. Sagar, do you think Vishy will eventually be the first to strike in the center with the d-pawn now moving forward to open up the game?

Yeah, Magnus did play Bishop e7, which is a little bit of a— I would say a move which was intended against Tanya. If you play pawn to d5, I would take, take, and give a check on the e-file. So that's the reason why here Bishop e7 was played to block the file. And now at this point, Vishy starts to think because this is something new for him as well. He's, he's not prepared this.

सागरस विशी इज़ हैविंग अ थिंक इन दिस मोमेंट. डज ही ओपन अप द सिसिलियन इमीडिएटली और विल ही कंटिन्यू टू डेवलप हिज पीसेस, ब्रिंग द रुक आउट तू द सेंट्रल लाइन, मेबी डेवलप हिज नाइट ऑन द लेफ्ट साइड टूवर्ड्स द सेंटर टू स्टॉप डी फाइव फ्रॉम गेटिंग ऑन द बोर्ड. और विल वी सी एन And Anish Giri.

And here we can see a lot of moves have been played, and Arjun's opening surprise seems to have worked because bishop c5 is a good move. Knight b3. And now, you know, Anish had to be slightly brave and take this. But then when your opponent is prepared, you try to play a little bit differently, and he played it this way. And you can see after castles, castles, Rookie one, d five. The position seems slightly better for Arjun Eri Gaisi.

And to my question is, what is the reason? And I love what you're doing, Sagar, because मुझे भी लगता है you have to push. Arjun को भी लगता है you have to push. And there it is on the stage. E five has been played. Otherwise the center would have gotten completely liquidated. And now we have a game that's divided in two halves. White कप on आगे आ चुका है. More space on the king side. We'll probably have counterplay there. Black को एक open b file मिल चुकी है. Anish will try to push his pawns in the center on the queenside. Try and target that pawn you're highlighting on b2. Is it gonna be Arjun's attack on the right side versus the queenside power that we'll see with Anish?

Yeah, will be very exciting to see this, Tanya. Great breakdown of the position. Last move bishop e3, not particularly the best move. a5, a4 possible.

I think he's gonna do it.

Possible.

आपने push किया तो मैं भी push करूँगा। Is what Anish is thinking. a5, a4 comes with tempo and Sagar highlight that b2 pawn. Yes, it will be something that you'll have to defend long term on the open line.

I agree, I agree. And you can see here we have the analysis board as well, the live board on the right. Some great new angles being put forth by the team. a5 is what we think Anish should play. The other option, Tanya, is to push f6, take, and then play your bishop here. And I think that's a nice position. You can also jump back with your knight.

I love it. So either ways, we're expecting a pawn move. It could be to destabilize Arjun's center or counterplay on the queenside. So far, I think this is a double-edged opening.

Should we go to the 3rd board?

Let's do it. Let's see the big matchup for Erdogmus taking on a very in-form Vidit. Vidit with his 3rd black in a row. How is he doing in this one, Sagar? I have faced this opening quite a few times with black myself. And the one plan you have to always watch out for is that E4 advance.

Yes, E4. And Tanya, sometimes the knight jumps here and clamps down on the E5 square. One thing that Vidit does incredibly well is takes good care of his pieces. You will see that often in such structures there's a very bad bishop on C8. जो वहाँ पे पड़ा रहता है। Vidit ने बोला भाई मैंने तो bishop already दे दिया है and that's the reason why his position is Fine.

The problem child has disappeared for Vidit, which would have been behind his own pawn chain. And now for Dogmas, does he continue with the piece play or more activity with the pawn pushes in the center? Looks quite pleasant for white as well, I will say, Sagar. Yes, a little bit more space, a little bit more control of the pawn breaks in the position. But Vidit's position also very healthy. No pawn weaknesses, no bad pieces.

I agree. And Tanya, I'll be actually thinking that Vidit might go for something like knight b8, knight c6. ऐसा Undeveloping move करके he might try. Let's go to the fourth board because there's some big news here. Katrina Lagnu is actually already substantially better against Divya Deshmukh with the white pieces. So great news for the PBG Alaskan Knights here.

And I'm trying to take this position in why that's the case, and the connect four that Lagnu has really stands out, giving white so many more squares for the pieces and a beautiful diagonal. Eventually, for the dark squared bishop to land on when it does find the time to go bishop b2. Also notice that pawn on f4. Highlight that pawn for me, Sagar. It really clamps down the activity of Divya's knight on the right side. Whenever you have more space, ऐसे आपके pieces बहुत जगह जा सकते हैं. They can move around freely. But for Divya right now, it's like a Mumbai apartment.

Yes.

You know squares have been taken away.

Tanya roasting me after visiting my apartment. But I get your point, Tanya.

छोटे घर में हम रहते हैं not much space in Mumbai of course कुछ भी चल रहा है यहाँ पे सागर everyone seen chess base India super chats nobody is missing that one out but I will say we are in Bengaluru so I think space will count quite a bit right now problem for Divya is that knight there are no weaknesses to get to meanwhile for white it just feels like the play is easy you put a piece on f3 you defend that f4 pawn you then develop your bishop you get the last remaining rook to the open file That pawn on D five is a past pawn. It always has to be blocked. You have to keep it under lock and key.

Yeah, Divya has to bring all her fighting spirit here. दोस्तों कभी-कभी ना एक tournament जब खराब तरीके से शुरू होता है, you need to turn it around in some way. And I don't know how Divya is going to do it, but she has to. नहीं तो एक के बाद एक game you you are facing the best in the world.

And that's the problem that you have two bad games. What is your reward? You play against the three-time World Blitz champion, Katrina Lagnau, one of the most experienced players in the world. So where do you make that comeback? But let's not forget, Divya Deshmukh is an absolute fighter. She's a World Cup winner, Olympic gold medalist, and I think if anyone can, it's her. But the first thing that worries me about Divya's position here is that this is a very anti-Divya position. She likes activity. She likes initiative. कहाँ से आ रहा है वो initiative?

That's true, Tanya. It's a very cramped position, and I think Divya. Is going to struggle here, but maybe the Alpine APL Pipers will once again bank on Koneiro Humpy to get them that win here with the black pieces. Here you can see Koneiro already has a decent position out of the opening last move, forcing a queen trade in some ways. Tanya, if you take here, I could even take with the rook, and this could come in, and this might be the position we are looking at. Very even. between Nino and Koneru?

Very even. But I will say, if you give up that bishop for the knight, potentially the bishop pair slightly more even for Nino than for Hampi in that endgame. So if not bishop takes knight, I would really rethink that decision, Sagar.

Go back.

I, I'm very biased towards a bishop pair. You know, the biggest debate in the chess world— are you a bishop person or a knight person?

Uh, I'm a day person, not a night person. But yes, on the chessboard, I like the knights. Knights बहुत सही होते हैं तानिया। They jump around, they go to every square possible. But I think those who love the bishops are usually stronger players than those who like knights. But okay, Vishy Anand is a big exception there.

I was about to ask chat that question. Chat, you know, Sagar's almost given it away, but you tell us, what about Vishy? Is he biased towards the bishops or the knight? What do you think? It's very famously known. Let's see if our chat knows it.

Maybe he'll also use that against Magnus. जब हम उनके गेम देखेंगे, I think there's only one board left for us on this journey. The prodigy board between Abhimanyu Mishra and Volodar Murzin and Tanya. It seems like early days in this game, but it does feel like very equal. A lot of like couple of minor pieces have been traded.

Yes, the position is very much in the balance. But if I had to pick a color, I would pick Abhimanyu's side right now. I see that a six pawn. It just feels like a weakness on the open line there. You know, imagine, Sagar, a scenario where the b4 pawn—just highlight that pawn. We don't need to make moves, but it gets traded off. Suddenly notice that the rook, जो एक साइड पे है, gets a clear runaway to the other side of the board. क्या बात है? And again, you're easier to put pressure on the weakness. I like the activity of the knight on a5. Yes, it's balanced. The bar completely agrees with you. But I feel it's slightly more equal for white than it is for black.

Can we say on this entire journey that we had of six boards that the PBG Alaskan Knights look slightly better right now?

Yeah, just the slight opening edge. Henna, where even Vishy surprised Magnus early on. All the boards that we've seen, white is not in trouble anywhere yet. Not yet. Not yet being the crucial word. Let's circle back to our icon board saga. Everyone wants to watch this clash. Vishy Anand versus Magnus Carlsen. What a matchup we have! Can we just backtrack and do a quick action replay from where we left this?

Yes, Tanya, but only 2 more moves had been played. They are playing a little slowly. Vishy did play his rook to e1, then Magnus went pawn a6. Pawn came up one step ahead to open up the position, and Magnus said, I can also open up the position. He pushed, pushed, And now the bishop dropped back and takes here in the center. Vishy takes back. Now they are making their moves quickly, but I like Vishy's position here.

And I know why you're saying that. You see this lone pawn in the center that Magnus has? It's a forever weakness. It's what we call a strategic weakness. Uh, it's going to be there for the rest of the game. So Vishy, he has a target. Magnus, on the other hand, is hoping to create some play on the kingside or some kind of an attack to compensate for that weakness. But it looks like it's really far away from that happening.

Yeah, Tanya, I think this is something that Vishy has studied so well. I mean, you know, guys, Anatoly Karpov was known for playing against the isolated pawn, and Vishy has played so many games against him when he was young. So I think Vishy knows what needs to be done, when to take here, when not to take, how to put pressure on this pawn. Seems like a very good outcome out the opening for Vishy Anand.

You know, for those who might be new to chess, one of the ways to understand who has the better pawn formation, less weakness, is the concept of pawn islands. And we do a quick math here.

You know, how many islands do you own?

That is very secret. I mustn't reveal it on this, on our stream just yet. सागर बाद में बताती हूँ। But right now, Magnus owns three pawn islands in this position. For Vishy, it's two. So it's more consolidated. The pawns are closer to each other. No formational weakness right now. I like this move of Vishy. You were talking about a kingside attack that you potentially could have with the knight or the bishop jumping there, but that has been stopped by that h pawn moving forward, controlling g four. Vishy continues with development. Bishop bhar aagya hai. I'm expecting your move knight to jump out later, the queen to get out of the way, the rook to come to d one eventually, and just go all out on that d five pawn.

Tanya, you kind of laid it down fully here. कि क्या होने वाला है यहाँ पे विशी के लिए? But what about Magnus? वो क्या करेंगे? What will Magnus do here?

And that's a question I'm hoping Magnus has to answer before I do. But I'll tell you some thematic plans that the player playing with the isolated queen's pawn, the pawn on d5, can potentially have. Now, one of the squares for the bishop, the light-squared bishop, could be that e6 square. आप चाहते हो कि white या तो वो bishop को मारे या knight को मारे and then your pawns get closer to the center if there is a trade in those positions. The other plan to take care of or to think about is to maneuver the knight to the center of the board, Sagar, aiming at that C4 square. By the way, Vishy is saying, I have a different path completely in mind.

He's coming here on F3 square. He's reinforcing his knight in the center. Vishy Anand is playing this very interestingly. Dosto, Magnus is definitely going to have to play his best chess today if he wants to score the full point.

And Magnus has shown vulnerability so far at the Global Chess League. I have to say what he did against Jan Nepomniachtchi yesterday, and if any of you watching missed that endgame, please, please go rewatch it. You know, you feel you've seen everything in the chess world, and then you see what Magnus— how he defended it, and your mind is blown, right? You just run out of adjectives sometimes for this guy. That fortress that he built But Sagar, he's been in trouble for both games. Right. Against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, against Jan Nepomniachtchi. And can Vishy capitalize a bit on that?

लगता है आज अच्छी शुरुआत हुई है। And director, sir, can we have that view which you showed us full screen of Vishy and Magnus with the clock that we could see? Oh, that was so good. That was so good, Tanya, that you can actually see that entire chessboard there, them making the moves, the clock there. It's a beautiful.

Clearly visible. And there, Sagar, I think that was a— was that this one?

No, there was one more. Uh, there was one more angle. This is also a cool one. Beautiful.

And that one, I think we'll have our clocks with us very, very soon. By the way, Magnus has just made a move as well. उन्होंने भी G5 का square under control ले लिया है। We'll just adjust our board, which is on the bottom right there.

H6 has been played. छोटे-छोटे moves कर रहे हैं अभी दोनों. Both are playing a waiting game, guys. Many times on the chessboard, there's not a clear plan that is in sight. You have to play the kind Of maneuvering game that is there, and there we have it—a beautiful view here. And you can see H6, H3. ये जो ये जो little. Can we get the chess digital board in so then we can follow everything?

I want to also point out one more. We were talking about Magnus's plans in the position. हमने एक knight jump के बारे में बात किया। Magnus का जो kingside knight है, can also aim for a central E4 square. Yes, Tanya. Very well. One plan that you can accelerate that with is get the bishop out of the way from the black rook, line it up, battery lagalo उस diagonal में b8 to h2 वाले bishop d6 queen c7 knight e4 light square bishop बाहर निकालो, get the other rook out into the game and finish your development if you're Magnus Carlsen.

Oh, we have a draw already on the prodigy board. Wow, look at that. Tanya, you were almost right there that the position looked very drawish, maybe slightly better for Abhimanyu. But I think he's done a good job here to hold Volodar Murzin, and I think it keeps the match in balance right now. Nothing has changed.

Look at that final position on that board. We missed absolutely no drama on that saga. The Prodigy board first to wrap things up, and I wonder if it'll come down to this board. As the match decider, Magnus moves his bishop, sidesteps it to the diagonal. You could also think about retreating with the bishop. Queens ahead of bishop and start taking on the kingside.

ये होगा होगा तानिया। This will happen. Magnus will push it back and then bring his queen up. पर एक चीज़ clear है this is going to be a big fight. There's no quick draw going to happen here. Vishy will have to fight. Magnus will have to fight. You can see the clock by the way. Times are getting even slowly, Tanya. Vishy's time lead is going away.

The clocks are leveling out currently. Now for Vishy, it's about what is his next plan. Sagar, you want to double down on that central pawn. Vishy's trying to figure out how does he do that. And while he'll show us the path, let's move around and see what's happening on the other boards. It's a team championship, every board matters.

Yes, let's go to board number 2 between Arjun Erigaisi and Anish Giri. And Arjun is essentially saying here, "Kibhai, I am better, Tanya, because I have a छोटा सा pawn who dreams big to become a queen." And it's a freeway for that छोटा सा pawn.

It's going to be a मोटा सा pawn very soon, Sagar. वो pawn कौन रोक रहा है उसको? A7 तक तो पहुँच भी जाएगा because there's a bishop supporting, assisting that. A rook behind it. This is looking very dangerous for Anish to handle. And Sagar, the problem here is yes, it's six versus six when we do the pawn count, but those two doubled pawns that Anish has, they are not going anywhere. It is so difficult to make a passer, create counterplay, and आपके opponent के पास highway है गाड़ी भगाने के लिए.

I agree. I think these two pawns are like my chess career, and this pawn is like Arjun's chess.

करियर, यू नो आगे ही बढ़ते जा रहा है मैं इधर अटक के बैठा हूँ प्रिटी बैड। The one case I'll make in point for Anish is the rook and the queen doubled up on the b-file. He's trying to look for counterplay कि भाई रुक b2 आके क्वीन को हिट करो can I get to the c3 pawn? But सागर it doesn't feel like enough. I think this is an important case. You can go all the way oh I love that square you're highlighting the maneuver that you're highlighting. Sagar, this is advantage PBG Alaskan Knights on this board 100%. Right. That A4 pawn, everyone watching has to focus on that pawn for Arjun because Arjun's focus is on that pawn. I agree, I agree.

So this is looking really good for the PBG Alaskan Knights, but as always, two people are like Alpine APL Pipers. We are here for you. Hi moves आ गए.

क्या हुआ? Something got traded.

He went rook b1, not the best move. Takes, takes, queen a8, pawn pushed forward, and this is the live board position.

You know, the feeling is that last few moves were a bit cautious. Arjun said that I want to get rid of Anish's most active piece, but it's given Anish the time to at least for now stall that a pawn.

Correct.

But Sagar, you were saying something, sorry.

Yeah, I was saying like where Anish is not looking in great shape and Divya is not doing well, there is always Vidit and Hampi who are striking back. And today as well, let's look at Vidit's game. He is in fact now looking quite good, Tanya. The reason, and it's a very subtle reason, it may look very even, but this pawn is a potential weakness that the knight sitting here is looking. And the queen can suddenly enter in here. Erdogmus could be in some trouble.

I see what you mean. That you know, optically it looks like totally a symmetrical position, right? You've got all the pawns facing each other, two knights, two knights apiece. And Erdogmus says, "Sagar bhai, I've got ideas of my own." आपकी queen आ रही है, उससे पहले मेरी queen आके will hit the a7 pawn.

I'm going to ask all the people in the chat and everyone watching here a question. If you play Queen d6 and Eradogmus goes and takes the pawn, then what is the move that Vidit has prepared? Black to play and win. It's a very tough one. It's a tough question here, but the point is not to trap the queen, Tanya, because queen can wriggle out from here taking this pawn. But rather taking this pawn on E3.

Oh wow! You get rid of the defender, Sagar. Exactly. The knight on F4 is hanging, but it goes on because the knight on B6 is hanging. But then the knight on E3 is hanging, and then the rook on C1 is hanging.

अरे तो ये सब हो रहा है दोस्तों that E3 point. Yes, analysis board आ चुका है यहाँ पर. This point, Tanya, which we spoke about. Let's go to the live board. This is not the live. This is the live position.

We have the live board in front of us, Sagar. Analysis board page. Just show us that line one more time. Queen to d six hasn't been played yet, but it's a beautiful move, Sagar. It threatens a sacrifice only to win the other knight and then hit the rook at the end of that line. Right.

And Vidit is knows all these little subtleties. You know, he's born. Do you think खेलेगा वो? वो खेलेगा भाई। वो आज एकदम top shape में है यहाँ पर। He has slightly lower time than his opponent, five minutes forty seconds, while Erdogmus has roughly around seven minutes. So Vidit has to speed up.

The one thing you don't want to do is go defensive on that a seven pawn. I cannot imagine Vidit saying कि भाई मेरा जो रुक ओपन फाइल पे है, मैं a eight पे लाके ये बचा लेता हूँ. Also the move a six, I think he just played it. It is a committed move because now notice how the knight on b six is unstable. So for some time, Vidit's queen cannot jump over to the kingside, and Edogmus uses that time to reroute his knight, putting pressure on those two pawns on the other side.

I agree, Tanya. This is very interesting strategic game. Should we go to the icon board? क्योंकि यहाँ पर हो गया है एक्शन शुरू। Lot of things have happened in the last couple of moves. We left it somewhere here, Tanya. Pawn pushed forward.

बिशप केम आउट, क्वीन टू सी टू, एंड देन मैग्नस जंप्ड इन विथ हिज नाइट, द रुक केम टू द सेंटर, यू हैड प्रेडिक्टेड दिस आइडिया, क्वीन केम इन, पूरा खिचड़ी बन गया है सेंटर में तानिया, ये देखो पूरा ऐसे। इतनी टेंस्ड पोजीशन है, सारे माइनर पीसेस ऑन द बोर्ड हैं, सागर एक माइनर पीस Vishy trying to break open the position, saying, "If you trade your weakness, my bishop will jump forward with great firepower in the position." And Magnus says, "I will finish my development first." But pawn takes pawn.

Yeah, exactly, Tanya. What's happening? I I have this question, and I think everyone is curious. Why has Magnus Carlsen sacrificed a pawn? Dostho, we are seeing the genius in action.

एक पॉन ऐसे ही दे दिया उन्होंने and we are wondering भाई नाइट से तो मार नहीं सकता कोई टैक्टिक भी आ नहीं रहा है why did he do what he did this is chess from another planet सागर मुझे दो-तीन घंटे लग जाएंगे to understand this pawn sacrifice but the one concept here is that that white queen is vulnerable सागर if you can start chasing it away it needs to stay connected to that pawn by the way विशी takes a decision he plays a three but तानिया the point here was knight will jump back Suddenly the bishop is coming here.

Queen has to leave the support of the pawn, and then knight takes pawn. That was what Magnus wanted. Brilliant!

And you can feel it. You know that that queen on b3, Jadwishi has with so many minor pieces, is quite exposed. So what he does is he pushes his pawn forward.

He's saying, "अगर मेरे को queen को hide करना पड़ा, if that queen needs shelter, सागर, he has a square." स्क्वायर बना दिया यहाँ पर। यस, क्वीन एटू इज़ द स्क्वायर दैट विशी हैज़ मेड। बट लुक एट मैग्नस की इंटेंसिटी हियर। ही इज़ आल्सो अहेड ऑन द क्लॉक। ही हैज़ रफ़्फ़िली सेवेन मिनट्स ऑन द, आई थिंक इट्स अराउंड इवन द क्लॉक टाइमिंग। बट दिस इज़ द काइंड ऑफ़ पोजीशन व्ह Who can have just a couple more extra seconds?

Because big questions lie ahead, and I say that because not a single minor piece has been traded. Right. And just as I was mentioning, I do see an exchange that's just happened. Sagar, the center has been traded off. It's liquidated. Pawn takes pawn. Bishop takes pawn. आ चुका है. And suddenly that queen's pawn weakness is gone. But Vishy's pieces are looking so beautifully compact in the center. But so are Magnus's.

मतलब, you know, Tanya, I think I can see a bishop sacrificing itself here. Suddenly the queen switching over pawn to b5. Magnus is like, Tanya, you loved this diagonal. I'm not going to give you.

And the thing is, it's not just the bishop. Magnus can start chasing the queen away as well. So that diagonal completely broken up, and suddenly Vishy's coordination is coming into question. Queen offside हो चुकी है board में alone piece on that side. Sagar, that's not good news. And Magnus makes sure that that queen has to defend a pawn, and that's not a happy job for the moment. I agree.

Magnus making one good move after another. Vishy also holding his fort very well. I want to inform all of you that I have an eye on all the other boards, and believe it or not, all the positions are equal, Tanya. Suddenly, yes, we can have a look at the 6-board cam. Divya has equalized. Hampi is no longer better. Vidit was roughly equal. Arjun and Anish— Anish has made a comeback. And so this position is equal. What a match we are having!

And look at that. To your point, we have our six evaluation bars on the board. One thing that's standing out is Sagar on none of the boards are the PBG Alaskan Knights, which at least on paper, just on paper, would be the underdog in this match against the stacked Pipers. But but but they're doing great.

Opening के बाद तो अपने को लगा था कि PBG Alaskan Knights will do very well.

अभी भी वो ही लग रहा है कहाँ?

Where is the advantage? Show me a board where the bar is upwards. Nowhere. Nowhere. It's very even, and we started this match 33 minutes ago.

But I'll show you one board where you know, Sagar. Equal bar, level bar does not mean a draw. Ha! Correct, correct.

Draw तो नहीं होने वाला है. But it's not like.

I will say one thing. Anish Giri has escaped a very difficult position against Arjun Aragaisi. I agree. वो A pawn गायब हो चुका है. Arjun now top center board पे कोशिश कर रहा है to get some counterplay in. But very few pieces remain. Where is the attack coming from?

Yeah, I don't know. I think Anish has managed to hold a draw, and it's not a surprise. Anish, one of the best defenders. Tanya, let's go to our icon board because I feel that will be the decisive one today with Magnus Carlsen's knight doing all sorts of acrobatics here. Look at this knight. पहले jump करता है A4, फिर आता है C3. Then atai d5, and now attacking the bishop, attacking here, bishop here. Too much pressure on Vishy, I feel.

And it's the kind of position where you can feel it's so easy to go wrong with missing a tactic. अब नाइट आगे आ चुका है already f4 पे eyeballing that g2 h3 pawn for sacrifices. Black's queen ready to shift over to g6 given one moment. Sagar, the bishop ready to go to c5. hitting that centralized knight. Suddenly pieces are equal, pawns are equal, but quality of pieces very high for Magnus.

And Tanya, as we said, Magnus asked so many questions that Vishy has erred here. He goes a4. I have a feeling that Magnus will now take over from this point onwards.

It feels like he's seizing the advantage, Sagar. The move I'm really scared about for Vishy is if Magnus lines up his queen against the King. It comes with some direct ideas along that pin.

But he takes the pawn first, and I think Vishy—I'm not sure whether this pawn on a four is a weakness, not a weakness. The bishop is eyeing it, but Tanya, you were right. Queen इधर गई. King is the one that's going to be in trouble.

It optically looks like a very tough position for Vishy to handle, even though balanced. I think getting a queen trade in would be the dream if you're white. Magnus has made his move. He comes in with a threat on that h3 pawn. Sagar, you have to sidestep with your king.

The king moves away, and now Magnus could jump in with the knight attacking the rook and the pawn on f2, which would force Vishy to give up his bishop.

He does it, yeah, which means that you will be down a bishop pair, Sagar. And that queen on d3 looking such a beautiful strong piece. The bishop's ready to jump into the attack as well.

And Tanya, look at the crowd today. We have a packed crowd in the auditorium Monday afternoon in Bengaluru. Few people have taken leaves from office to watch this once in a lifetime game. Guys, कितने लोगों ने ऑफिस से लीव लिया है? अरे उधर देखो हाँ भाई लीव लिया। We see you.

You know it is magnificent Monday, Sagar. If there was any day to take a leave, I think it had to be today. You're gonna have Magnus in the arena twice, Vishy in the arena twice. Trivani Continental Kings fighting for survival. So many GCL storylines.

This is what you tell your grandkids, right? You don't say I went to the office on a Monday afternoon. You tell I watched Vishy versus Magnus live.

I saw the greatest chess players go head to head. By the way, Vishy lines up traffic jam. हो चुका है D file पे। एक मिनट, एक मिनट, एक मिनट। Why not Rook d8?

यही तो सुंदरता है chess की। Wow wow wow! What a position! Beautiful.

But ये होगा नहीं। Probably loses on the spot to a tactic. But it would give us a very beautiful picture. But Sagar, right now Magnus has to hide against bishop takes pawn. That's the threat. This is the Bangalore traffic which they are actually producing on the board. Yes, and it comes with a very big idea, Sagar. That bishop move to either hitting the black bishop or just bishop takes pawn is something you have to be careful about. Where will Magnus move his queen away? Knowing Magnus, it's always about centralizing the queen. Yeah. He'll play it here or here.

These are the few options, but you can already see Magnus. If you look at the video, he's getting a.

He goes the other way. He goes the other way, Sagar. He's trading, but this it feels.

एक तो whenever you trade queens against Magnus, ना दिल की जो heartbeat होती है। मैं तो नहीं trade करता हूँ। वो थोड़ी ऊपर ही चलेगा। भागो भाई यहाँ से निकलो कहीं से। But Vishy Vishy cannot trade his queen, so he takes. I mean could not go somewhere else, so he trades the queens. And now pawn pushes ahead so that it is no longer attacked.

It's no longer attacked, but the problem is that Magnus Carlsen is in an endgame and there's a bishop pair to advantage. The rook on c8 more active right now, ready to jump in. And we've got huge news coming in from our women's superstar board.

Yes, you know, Batsyashvili is actually taking down one of the in-form players of the Alpine APL, Pipers.

Humpy is losing. And look at what has happened. Her clock has gone red. She's under a minute right now. But more than that, her king under pressure. A rook check is about to arrive. That f6 pawn two steps away from queening. She tries to control the queening square.

It's going to get over here, Tanya. This is completely winning for white. King under Lelo. It's a checkmate coming up. Nino Batsyashvili goes. Oh, she goes with bishop back.

She's attacking the pawn on the other side of the board. Sagar also a very strong threat right now. Humpy runs away with the king. But it's not going to be enough. She'll simply hide with the rook or even step in with her own king to defend that rook. Nino Batsia-Shivili could potentially be the first scorer for the PBG Alaskan Knights, giving them the lead. She reaches for the rook, she slides it over to the other side.

It's a great move. I think she's playing really well. She's going to win this one, Tanya. And pawn push by—

panic, panic! Oh, this is a forced mate! सागर, there's no check on the board. She comes back with the bishop.

But now mate in mate in two. Rook d7 and f7. It's winning.

But rook d7 is not an easy move because it threatens a mate. You want to give a check. If Nino finds rook d7, it's game over. Fifty seconds. She doesn't find it. She's not going to find it. She puts the rook the other way.

It's also winning. It's also winning. Bishop d6. Humpy trying to defend everything loses a key pawn and this is over. She resigns first. point for the PBG Alaskan Knights, now leading 4-1.

Wow, what a game by Nino Batsyashvili! What a finish by her! Humpy, a key scorer for the team, goes down and Nino gets it done for her team. Let's go back to the Icon board, Sagar. It's pressure on the Alpine Pipers and Magnus Carlsen has to show up for his team.

Well, where is that win coming for the AP— for the Alpine APL Pipers? We have Humpy who's lost here. Magnus needs to strike because other games, Tanya, at this point are even, almost even. Anish is a pawn up against Arjun, but it's a drawn rook endgame with it. Oh my God, that game is another thing that we have to witness. But look at this, this is the game where we need to stick. This is where Magnus and Vishy— Magnus slightly better, but I think Vishy can draw this one, Tanya.

सागर, the tension. I've got goosebumps right here, and I can only imagine the pressure the players are feeling. You can see, you know, Vishy slightly fidgety there with his hands. Bishop comes back, hits the rook and the pawn at the same time. You've got another result on the women's superstar board. Divya versus Kavya. I think saved it from a difficult opening. This has ended in a draw.

Great play by Divya. I think very important.

Which means, Sagar, the score is five to two now. Right. Very important hold there. All eyes on our iconic clash currently. Sagar, bishop takes pawn is the move you want to make. You want to pick up that pawn.

But you know, Tanya Vishy is very smart. If you take this pawn, he's going to take here, take here, and then jump in with the knight attacking the bishop and a fork. So that was his plan. So Magnus says, "I'm not falling for it." He takes here. Vishy needs to take back with the knight. That's the only move. Can we, can we see the full board?

Everything else is lost for Vishy. Well, you only can take it with the bishop or the knight. Bishop takes knight would give Magnus a huge advantage in that endgame. It's close to a lost endgame, and he takes the right decision. Vishy keeps the balance.

Good move, Tanya. Again, you can't take here. It's the Same idea of take, take, and the knight jumping in. It's very important for you can see Magnus getting a bit fidgety. Forty-six seconds.

Sagar, the good news for Vishy here is he's got extra time, more time than Magnus on the clock. He's going to need those extra seconds in this endgame. He's looking at the other boards. He knows what he needs to do on his own. Magnus makes a slow move right now, opening a path for his own king to come towards the center.

तो क्या लग रहा है? Draw होगा. Magnus जीतेगा क्या?

Magnus in an endgame, no matter how equal it is, you just cannot write it off. Vishy comes back with the knight.

Only 32 seconds and Magnus gets back.

If the rooks get traded off, that is big advantage in this endgame for the black pieces. And Vishy takes that off. Now Magnus is going to combine his king with the bishop and target that a5 pawn. Sagar, this is big trouble for Vishy.

Tanya, there is an insane news. Vidit Gujarati has lost on time. Vidit has lost on time. PBG Alaskan Knights have struck again.

Wow, and that means that puts them on a 12-3 lead. Sagar?

No, no, no, it's 9-3. It's 9-3.

That is the score updated.

It is 9-3 after Vidit's loss, which means even if Magnus wins this, the PBG Alaskan Knights have won because this is the final game going on.

Wow, wow, what a shocker! It'll be the first match defeat for Alpine Pipers. Look at Magnus, he's counting the score. He knows that his board doesn't matter, but game points so important right now. But this takes the pressure off Vishy now.

Yeah, and look, you can see Vishy getting confident, but power of 2 bishops, guys. Tanya was talking about the bishops. Let's— we are seeing Magnus giving a masterclass here. Will he be able to win this?

And you can't trade those bishops. The pawn on a5 is the problem pawn for Vishy that would fall on the dark squares. Magnus is targeting that pawn right now. If that pawn is taken, it's game over. Nothing is going to stop that a6 pawn. For Vishy, defending this is an uphill task, and when you've got Magnus sitting in front of you, that becomes even more Herculean.

Yeah, you can see Magnus's king coming in. Vishy also bringing his king in, but somehow the black bishops are like lasers on the board. Oh, he's trading one of them.

He's trying to get that defender bishop off the board to create that a5 weakness. विशी सेज़ यू ट्रेड, डू इट ऑन माय टर्म्स। मैग्नस डज़न वांट टू डू दैट, ही कम्स बैक विद द बिशिप, एंड द प्लान इज़ टू गेट द किंग क्लोजर तू दैट पॉन, ऑन द लाइट स्क्वेयर्स, मार्च अप तू सी फोर, मार्च अप तू बी फाइव। तानिया विशी इज़ क्लोज तू अ ड्रॉ नाउ, ही ब्रिंग Pawn.

What an insane game! Magnus goes back.

Bishop five seconds for Magnus Carlsen. Five seconds on the clock. He defends that pawn.

Man, people who are in the crowd are just enjoying this immensely. What a game! Takes pawn takes pawn. Vishy take it with the knight.

He's going to take it with the knight. He hits the other pawn on f six. Magnus defends it.

Magnus बोल रहा है मैं bishop को कभी trade नहीं करूँगा। I need my two bishops.

He can't take that pawn because the f six pawn is hanging. Sagar, he needs to defend it, which means that now that a pawn cannot be picked up. Yes, Vishy's knight. We spoke about this. The piece he loves the most is Vishy's knights that are defending this endgame. He goes in, attacks the bishop, and bishop comes up.

Bishop to g6.

The knight jumping, Sagar. It wants to go to c7 to attack a6. Five.

Oh my God! Will Vishy get some chances or what? Take, take. This is going to end in a draw, Tanya. Look at Magnus.

He has three seconds. Both players under ten seconds now. Gives the check. Magnus, Vishy needs to move. He cannot panic right now. Are they going to repeat? Oh, Vishy down to three seconds.

Yes. Vishy play, play, play, play.

Magnus wants more. Magnus is not repeating.

Vishy don't. Oh, he will lose on time.

Time is back. He made a move with one second on the clock. Make a move. No, he lost on time. Magnus Carlsen wins. Flagging Vishy Anand. What a game! But at the end of it, the BBG Alaska Knights win the match.

I couldn't believe it, Tanya. He was playing so well, Vishy, there. But you know, sometimes reflexes are not possible when you are, you know, so like— there's so much pressure. And also Magnus just kept grinding on and on. I mean, kudos to Vishy for fighting so hard.

And Magnus does this in these endgames. He'll play it out till the end. You could see he did not want to win in that way. He apologized after flagging Vishy, but the clock is a part of the game. It is perhaps the most important piece in these endgames, the 17th piece of chess. But for Vishy Anand, his team got the job done. And what a fantastic match it was on the Icon board. The position level saving a difficult endgame there, but the time being the problem. And Magnus Carlsen is not happy.

Yes, he won, but the team Goes down, and you know Vishy. We can call him the Bazi Gar. क्योंकि हार के भी जीतने वाले को बाज़ीगर कहते हैं। Vishy lost that game, but he's won the match, Tanya.

And that means for the Alpine Pipers, they taste their first defeat of the Global Chess League Season Four.

Everyone on six points now. The Alpine Pipers, and we have we have the arbiter who's going to announce the results.

Good afternoon. I request all of you to kindly attention, please.

I am privileged to have announced the results of PPG Election Knights and Alpine APL Pipers. I request the captains to please come to the dais. PBG Alex and Knight won with nine points, and Alpine APL scores seven points.

Congratulations!

Give them a big round of applause. These are the captains. I request the captains kindly sign this.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Then give it to— I think Nino is fine. Captain Abhijit Kunte, he's got to be a happy captain right now with his team win, taking down the mighty, the mighty Alpine Pipers. But the day is not over for the PBG Alaskan Knights. They will be taking on the Trevini Continental Kings for the final match of the day. Sagar, that was an absolute nail-biter.

मेरे को ऐसे कापने को हो रहा है यहाँ पे। I'm feeling the jitters here when Vishy was not making his moves. And you know Vishy is this evergreen genius, Tanya. But that moment showed that perhaps it's not possible to play under time. Pressure at this age, it's difficult. You know, chess is difficult.

Chess is hard. And there was a moment when Magnus had five seconds, Vishy had fifty-five seconds. Then Magnus was making moves with just two to three seconds, had five seconds, Vishy had thirty-five seconds, and it kept coming down. And in the end, making moves under five seconds incredibly hard. This is how the team entered a massive match for both these teams at the top of the table. Worthy Alpine. Pipers Vishy all smiles at the beginning. I think he's got to be all smiles right now. He has to be feeling proud of what the team achieved. Magnus Carlsen, though he won on his board, kept pushing, kept putting pressure on Vishy on that icon board. A game that had its up and down, tense position out of the opening, complicated middle game, fantastic battle in the endgame. At the end, the clock told the story for Divya Deshmukh. She did survive against Katrina Lagnon. But Sagar, it was all eyes on the icon board.

Yeah, I think Vishy versus Magnus games are a treat to the viewers, especially in GCL. I think beautiful game, but as you rightly pointed out, Tanya, credit to Nino Batyashvili and Yazgan Erdogmus. There you see the youngster.

He actually managed to put so much pressure on Vidit that in a position where white was only slightly And I'm also going to point out that the 2 star performers for the Alpine Pipers have been Vidit and Humpy, and in this match both of them tasted— suffered their first defeats with the black pieces. Dogmas taking down Vidit, flagging him in a position that could have gone either way. He did have a slight advantage there, but nothing out of control. But Nino, a fantastic middle game, end game play by her. But when we talk about end game again, And coming back to the icon board, almost heartbreaking to watch, you know, Vishy get flagged. But Magnus just kept pushing, kept putting pressure, and this is one of his biggest strengths. You have to earn not only every result but every move against the world number 1.

I agree, I agree, Tanya. And I think overall this was the key moment which gave the PPG Alaskan Knights their victory. And this is where I felt— I feel every—

Look at the clock, Sagar.

It kept going down. Magnus At five, and he apologized. He this is not the way any player wants to win. But again, the clock is such an important factor of the Global Chess League, and you have to use it as a weapon if given one. True, true. What a match! What a match!

I mean, how would Magnus be feeling? You know, he won his game, but his team lost. I don't think he would be happy. No, Magnus is a team player.

You know, he he wants the Pipers in the finals. I think he wants the Global Chess League title more than anyone here. He's played. Seasons before, he's done it all, won it all in the chess world. The league still eludes him, and I don't think he's a happy man. But he better reset because just like the Alaskan Knights, the Pipers will be back in action.

Yeah, and he'll take on Javokir Sindarov later today, which will be a very exciting game. Tanya, which with this result, if we look at the standings, there are now four teams on six points. It's become very crowded at the top because no one's leading anymore.

And Sagar, I actually really love that storyline that you don't have a runaway team. You know, sometimes some teams have gone on to dominate, get their path through easily, but it just feels like we're setting ourselves up so nicely for the finish line.

Like on top two में आएगा? No idea.

And it is all about those top two finishes, and it's going to become a bottleneck by the end of it.

मजा आने वाला है दोस्तों. It's going to be great fun. We are going to have The next game, which is Czech Mumbai Masters led by MVL taking on the Ganges Grandmasters led by Nepo. But first, let's see who's the player of the match.

Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony of match number nine, which is the first game of the day. Well, we did not expect anything less out of this one, and it turned out to be one of the best games that we have ever seen, especially on that. that icon board. Well, to move ahead with giving away the award of the Player of the Match, please let us call upon the guest, Mr. Sunil Menon, Executive Connective Engineering and Tech Services, Telstra. And now the award goes to Nino Batsiyashvili from PBG Alaska Knights.

Congratulations. Very well played.

Very well done.

Nino, congratulations. And how does it feel? It was a tough opponent. This wasn't ever supposed to be an easy game.

Yes, it was very difficult game for me because after opening I got no initiative, nothing, and she was playing so well in some point. And after I saw this rook c4 exchange sacrifice, and after this I got some chances, and I'm very happy.

You know, you did take control of the game in the middle game and then finish it off in style. Um, did it go according to your plan, or did you just improvise on the board? I was improvising.

No plan today.

So then, are you surprised it went your way, or are you— were you confident that even if I improvise, this is going to go my way?

Uh, I was not thinking like that.

I was just playing, and position was normal, not very bad, so I was trying my best.

Let's talk about Hampi as an opponent. You know, she— in the last 2 games that she's played, she's won both those games. You playing against her today, did you have that playing on your mind, or were you confident?

Yes, I have this because here Hampi is playing very well, so I was very focused.

Well, the Knights have made a comeback in the last game today, again winning their second game of the tournament. All the best for the upcoming games and congratulations on this great win. Thank you. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We head back to the casters.

Thank you, Arohi, and congratulations to Nino right there getting a Very key victory. Now, Nino is a player who really knows how to play under the spotlight at the Global Chess League. She's been part of winning teams, winning franchises as well, played a key role. But I think today what she said, she's playing against a very inform Humpy Sagar, and to find that tactical idea in the endgame, and she never gave her a chance after that.

Very sharp. She was very sharp overall, and I think if I'm a team owner, I will be keeping my eyes on Nino. I want her in my team. And that's the summary there. Magnus with the win for the APL Alpine Pipers, but two wins for the PBG Alaskan Knights: Yaskan Erdogmus and Nino Batsyashvili.

And both games having a turnaround storyline between them, with Erdogmus flagging with it at the end of it. Nino beautiful conversion from an equal position after given one opportunity. But the Magnus board, it was just so incredibly dramatic. And Sagar, what a well fought.

Yes.

You know, it really felt like 2 legends of the game pushing each other to the edge.

I agree, I agree. I will definitely go back and look at this game again because I feel like both of them tried their best to fight each other. Magnus was trying his best to push because he had always the small edge, and Vishy held on. That's not easy to keep Magnus at bay. It's never easy.

It really is never easy at the Global Chess League. Every opponent so incredibly strong, every team stacked top to bottom. Let's see how this has affected our standings going into our next match of the day. And right now at the top are the fires American Gambits Alpine Piper still with six points, but that one match margin has been taken away from them. Sagar, like you said, four teams and the PBG Alaskan Knights join the party.

Right, and next one, Tanya, is the Czech Mumba Masters versus the Ganges Grandmasters. Now imagine if the Czech Mumba Masters win it; they also join the six-point league, and that would be incredible for all the teams to be there at six.

And that's been the other ripple effect of everything that we just witnessed right now with the Pipers going down. It just is a complete league wide open.

I agree. There's no team that's dominating this league like every year. We have the Trivani Continental Kings who's doing well this time. Where are they?

I can't see them right now.

At the bottom of the table, Tanya.

It's unbelievable. This is not something anyone's used to at the Global Chess League. The royalty of the league is what we've been calling them with their previous season performance. But the problem for the Kings has been that their 2 kings on the top boards haven't yet performed. We've got a very big matchup coming up next. Of course, the chess action continues here at the Global Chess League. It's going to be Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Mumbai Masters taking on Jan Nepomniachtchi's, uh, Ganji's Grandmasters. And of course, we've got so many people really showing up for the Global Chess League. Sagar, this has been so much fun.

A lot of fun, a lot of fun. They go into the auditorium, they watch the match, then they come here to the fan zone. They can play with each other and they can also interact with the commentators. I think overall a beautiful setup here. If you are in and around Bangalore, please do consider coming here even on a weekday. It's full of life. Tanya, one thing about today's match that still strikes me—

Tell me.

Is Vidit's loss, because somewhere he was looking so good in this tournament.

Yes.

If he would have managed to hold on, he would have led his team to victory. But today he couldn't manage that. Well, it wasn't great.

Well, Vidit's got about 1 hour to reset because he will be back in action later today, and he will be taking on a mighty Daniel Dubov. All of that is for later. We've got We've got the Mumbai Masters versus the Ganjis Grandmasters next, and we break all of that down for you on the other side of this break. Thank you. 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 Power, the all new Yono.

Power to every Indian.

Come on, guys. Hurry up.

अरे सुनना। एक break ले लेते हैं। Guys, I'm telling you.

तुमलोगों सही से trekking नहीं आता। But that's okay. You can learn. रोज़ का ढक्कन देना। हम्म वो ये रेड वाला है सही वाला देना मैं ढक्कन पहले तो सही पानी पीना मानिकचन ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता जैसे कि एपीएल बोलो स्टील पाइप्स एयरपोर्ट से लेकर आपके घर तक कुछ ऐसी हिस्से स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल पोलो बनाता है, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। एपीएल पोलो, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। चीफ गेस्ट्स हैव अराइव। सलूट। सलूट करो, सलूट करो। सलूट हटाओ। ये पिलाओ। ये पी खाओ ना चो मस्ती की भीट जगाओ रे ये पी का बाइट लेके टेस्ट का ब्लास्ट हरे इतने से मन न भरे दिल का है थोड़ा और मिले। Long non-sticky full of veggies formality 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। यानी कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है। क्रेडिट पेमेंट्स की चिंता हमेशा सर पे? आओ चेक पे। सारे क्रेडिट कार्ड्स के बिल एक क्लिक में पे करो और 1% वापस पाओ। रिडीम करो फॉर वाउचर्स या सीधा कैश डिस्काउंट। क्रेडिट कार्ड है तो चेक करो। Five rupees, that is the whole difference. At fifty orders a day, five rupees becomes sixty thousand rupees annually. With Five's Prime, every order costs you ₹15. Lower cost and unlimited platform access. So get Fyers Prime at just ₹499 a month today. Investment in securities markets are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing.

पर हम भी जिद्दी हैं। तीस से ज्यादा क्वालिटी चेक्स, विटामिन ए और विटामिन डी से युक्त और खाना भी बने स्वादिष्ट। खाने में समझौता नहीं, अच्छा खाना शुरुआत से ही। इंडिपेंडेंस। What a fighting match we had between the Alaska Knights and the Pipers, with the Pipers going down for the first time this season 4 of the Global Chess League. But the action on day 3 is just getting started. We've still got 3 big, big fights ahead of us, and we will be taking on next the Czech Mumba Masters against the Ganges Grandmasters. And to take us through all the action सहज जॉइनिंग अस इन द स्टूडियो फर्स्ट क्वेश्चन हाउ्स द बर्थडे गोइंग सो फार?

आह आई मीन द मैच वाज इंसेन आई मीन आई आई नो दैट मैग्नस सेड दैट ही वांटेड टू फ्लैग फिरूजा बट आई थिंक आई डिडन't एक्सPECT हिम टू फ्लैग विशी बट बट दैट वाज दैट वाज वेरी वेरी एक्साइटिंग। Yeah, I mean, a little bit sad for Vishy, but I think this is just the nature of the time control.

But you know, Sagar, you ask any player here, especially the icons, that if you win but the team loses, or you lose on your board but the team wins, what are you taking? I think a team win just goes over everything.

I agree, I agree. I think at the end of the day, you want your team to win. There's so much of effort that goes behind. There's a team owner, there's a team manager, there are so many people helping you. You want your team to do well.

And also for Vishy, the big takeaway I would say for all of us watching in that match was that the position was balanced. It was such a great fight.

He would have made a draw, I think, quite easily. That's of course, of course.

I think, I think he played exceptionally, uh, well, you know. Same goes for Vidit versus Yaz as well. I mean, I think in principle Vidit would have held that. I mean, I know it was slightly worse for him, but, um, yeah, it just all came down to To the time scramble, and what a time scramble it was!

And are we expecting more time scrambles ahead of us? Because a certain speed monster, Jan Nepomniachtchi, who's been on hot form on the Icon board so far, will take on MVL. It is the Czech Mumba Masters against the Ganges Grandmasters. Looking at the team rosters here, what's the first thing that strikes you, Sahaj?

Levon. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm a big fan of Levon, especially in this format, and I think he's an extremely dangerous player. I mean, I grew up watching Levon, you know, be. at the top, uh, as he was. And I'm very, very excited to see him play.

I think even Levon's opponent grew up watching him, but I think he will want to beat him. That's Pranesh today with Levon. Very exciting game because Pranesh is someone who's not giving up. You know, he beat Anish, he did lose his second game to Arjun, but today he'll be trying to get better off. And he drew against Bei as well, so he's He's actually doing a good job on board too for his team.

Absolutely, Sagar. He's making his debut at the Global Chess League. He is a late replacement for Fedoseev who couldn't make the trip to India, and Pranesh has been proving to be such an asset for the Mumbai Masters. And of course, the big question: which team plays with what colors? We've got the coin toss coming up next.

Right. Similar storylines on day 2 for these 2 teams. Well, both of them lost their first game, won their second. But now, if they want to continue the momentum, today's win is crucial. It is the Czech Mumbai Masters versus the Ganges Grandmasters who will be playing in game number two of day three at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season Four. Now, before at the coin toss, we call upon the match officials, Chief Arbiter Gird Bayal, along with him the Deputy Chief Vasanth B.H. And now to call upon the coaches of the 2 teams, Suryashekar Ganguly for the Masters and Adiban Bhaskaran for the Grandmasters.

Okay, gentlemen, tails, heads.

Masters will be taking the call. Yes, tails is the call. Heads, heads is the call. Tails it is.

Okay, we'll take black. We'll take black.

All right, thank you so much, gentlemen. Adiban, black for the first time after playing 3 whites in a row. Why, sir?

Yeah, I thought to mix it up a bit. Yeah, that's the plan.

Okay, so you were basically winning the toss even after losing the toss. That's what you said. So today finally you won the toss, picked black. Uh, is the strategy gonna change?

No, actually I was hoping not to win the toss so that he, he gets to decide and I don't have to decide. It was not an easy decision because with white we were also doing well. To change, I was not sure. So, but yeah, I am I had to choose anyway, so.

Well, let's talk about the players. Polina Shualova doing really well for the team, exceptionally well in both the, uh, in all 3 games. Though she did win player of the tournament in 2 of the— player of the match in 2 of them. Uh, tell me, what's her plan today?

No, I think it's just a long tournament and you just have to keep taking one game at a time. I think that's why you just have to focus on the next game.

All right, all the best for today's game. Yeah, thank you. Surya, happy with white?

Yeah, always happy with white.

Y'all won with white in the last game yesterday, and finally, Mumba Masters, after 3 games, y'all did win that one. I'm sure the momentum is gonna get going from today if y'all win this one as well.

Yeah, sure. Thank you.

Anything that you would want to tell me about the team? Because Mumba Masters looks like a great squad. Finally, in the last game yesterday, we saw the squad actually come to life. You know, we had Maxim in the post-match presentation. He said I did not take a nap, but I was around. I was taking in the vibe. How's the team looking today?

The team is vibing good, excellent all the time, irrespective of the results.

So yeah, we are always in a good mood.

And yeah, I hope the results will show eventually.

And you know, you see that when you see Mumba Masters coming together, playing a couple of rounds of games, board games. Otherwise, when you go back, head back from here, I'm sure that's rejuvenating enough. And all the best for today. Thanks a lot. That is it from the coin toss. The news from here is that Ganges Grandmasters have won the toss, opted black this time.

Thank you, Arohi. Oh, I cannot agree more with what just Gangs just said. You know, the vibes of the Mumbai Masters, not just this season, it's been a defining factor for them. We see them chilling in the hotel lobby late at night, no matter what the result is. Feels like a great team camaraderie, always arriving together, and that plays a big role.

Yeah, I think they are they are doing quite well together as a team. And yesterday, them winning their first match against the Triveni Continental Kings would have done a world of good for their confidence. So, आज मुझे ऐसे लग रहा है सैज भाई that they are the small favourites for this match.

What do you say? I think very very likely. And you know, just to add on to your point, Tanya, you know when I was after celebrating my birthday, I had this birthday cake with me. It's downstairs at at around one a.m. or something. They were playing. You know these games, like the like the Mumbai Masters were playing these games. So I basically it was such a nice celebration over there, completely unprompted. I was just going from one place to the other with my birthday cake, and you know we got.

भाई आपको invite आया for Sahaj's birthday celebration?

मुझे खुद नहीं आया था। I think it was meant for the great players of this tournament. अरे अरे अरे अरे अरे! Actually, I know Sahaj bhai only invited grandmas.

So Tanya, unfortunately we are out. All right, well these two teams are definitely in for the race for the top two at the Global Chess League. Now I want to point out that icon clash that we have. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also has been in form in this tournament, but Jan Nepomniachtchi, Sahaj, it almost feels like a resurgence. What he did against Sinderov yesterday, getting that win, putting an 89-move pressure game against Magnus Carlsen. He's won a game. He hasn't lost a single game on the icon board. I would almost go as far as saying Nepomniachtchi is a slight favorite today.

I think when it comes to this format, Nepo is always going to be a favorite. I mean, there are not many players, many icons, or well, any other player in the world who will play classical as if it was blitz. We have seen Nepo do that so many times, and I think just because of the format of this event Nepo is a favorite on most boards there.

Yeah, well, I think my eyes go down to the second encounter on the right side, which is between Harika and Polina Shuvalova. I feel like these 2 players are in good form here, maybe the best form of all the players out there in their teams, respective teams. And I think it'll be interesting to see If Harika manages to win today, or Polina Shualova.

But Polina has been on a run so far. Yeah, but but लेकिन एक प्रॉब्लम ये भी है कि गांजी से ग्रैंडमास्टर्स हैव प्लेड जस्ट व्हाइट सो फार। I think they they had three whites back to back, and now this is the first time they're playing with the black pieces. How does that change the team dynamics? I think it's a good idea to get black.

I mean, I I'm happy that they at least took one black here. Imagine they took five whites in a row, and then suddenly second half all five blacks. That's bit too much.

It's a bit too much, and I think that's a very sensible move. I agree, Sagar, because you want your players to get used to playing with both colors. You don't want it to come as a surprise later on. You want to see who's performing, what are the boards we want to aim at later. So aiming for that healthy mix, mixing it up with the black pieces. But to your point, Shivalova Polina has got three out of three. She's on a hundred percent. She's pulling off a Firouzja. This season, she's a beast.

I think when it—I mean, also the quality of the games. I mean, it feels like she is just the superior player. I mean, so far, but black से खेलना is a bit you know. I mean, first you have to equalize, then you have to kind of you know put pressure. So and Harika is an extremely solid player. You know, knight f three g three करके वो bed जाती है and and and and it's going to be very difficult for her to you know score a win. तो इस match पे मजा आएगा बहुत.

Right, and also Harika in good shape. She has beaten Divya Deshmukher and Zhu Jin'er, with only one draw against Katrina Lagnow. So वो बढ़िया encounter है. The third board clash between Dominguez and Shakriyar Mamedyarov. I think clash of styles. Dominguez not in great form. I feel he is right now. I think he even lost all his games or maybe two out of his three games. He isn't playing so well. Yeah, two losses, one to Arvind. One to Vidit, and then a draw to Dubov. So he's not in good form, while Shakriyar Mamedyarov is doing quite well. He beat Yaskan Erdogmus yesterday and Arvind Chidambaram.

Absolutely. And let's not forget that Lennyer के जो दो losses और एक draw थे, तीनों white से थे। Right. That I think makes the situation a whole lot worse, you know, for Lennyer. But maybe playing with black is going to be refreshing, you know, in that sense. Maybe it breaks the streak, you know, to Because, like, to some extent we know how strong, uh, you know, Linear can be. And there we see the standings.

And a big one, we see Czech Mumbai Masters currently on 5th position. They are playing a team that has got 6 match points at Ganji's Grandmasters. And, Sahaj, this is that potential moment if Mumbai Masters do what they did against Triveni Continental Kings yesterday, that going into the next match we'll have 5 teams at 6 match points.

Wow.

Wow, that is, that is absolutely insane.

And for the Czech Mumbai Masters, their first win came on yesterday, right? Uh, they were having great positions, but the match conversion was in question. I want to do a little hot and cold on these 2 teams and the boards. If we can have our pairings up for the upcoming match that we've got, and board to board. I know we've discussed the strengths and the weaknesses. You know, we've made a case for Polina, we've made a case for Jan Nepomniachtchi. But where are we overall looking at a team favorite given the form coming into this tournament? And I'm especially also looking at Carissa Yip, who has started to be a big expectation for the Mumbai Masters, but so far hasn't impressed.

Absolutely. I think she's lost all 3 of her games so far. But hopefully, you know, she can make a comeback. But I think the big match for me is on game 3, which we see Pranesh versus Levon Aronian. Now, both of these players are extremely strong. And I personally rate Pranesh extremely high because I think he's very underrated. And you know, in in this format, he can be extremely fast. He can be extremely quick. But Levonki preparation is also something you have to manage well.

You know, Sagar, what I like about that matchup that Sahaj is highlighting is that both these players don't shy away from imaginative, creative play on the board. So we can expect it to be quite a nail biter on that board going down to those tactics. And I want you to take us through the prodigy board. Now, in the previous matchup, the prodigy board was the first to finish.

Correct. They drew very quickly. Here, both the prodigies haven't played their best chess yet. Dhaneshwar Bardia has lost 2 games and 1 draw, while Leon has drawn 1 game and 2 losses. There you can see the Czech Pumba Masters coming in. We have Harika, MVL, Carissa Yip, Pranay. Shakriyar Mamedyarov and Danish Verbaardia there.

And these moments are always quite special for us here at the venue at the Lalit. You know, the fans love it. They're always lined up. But I've noticed one thing, Sahed. Whenever the players arrive, they aren't quick to go in for the autographs. They always have the smiles. You know, they they thank the fans. But it's always after the match is over that they give them their time. I think it's all about getting locked in for the match.

Hundred percent. I mean, on the outside, we see them you know being relaxed. But you know, इतना preparation. I mean, I mean, I'm I'm I'm sure there must be a lot of pressure, you know, for the players as well to perform well because of course individually they want to do really well for this, you know, for their teams.

Yes, and by the way, guys, I just wanted to point out this shirt that I'm wearing today. Bye!

I was about to say. Yes, I was about to say. ये तो this is the summer shirt, right?

Yes, and I think the Global Chess League is something. Oh, by the way, we see the Ganges Grandmasters entering in. With Levon Aronian here, we have Lenier Dominguez, Atiban the coach of the team, and what a nice team they have here. By the way, coming in this buggy is really really cool. And coming back to my shirt, yes it is the shirt which Samay has made very popular because he wears it, and he's also one of the major reasons behind the Global Chess League happening. He was the one who kind of challenged Anand Mahindra to say, okay, can you do this league? And so this is a small dedication for him from my end.

That's very sweet, Sagar. I remember watching it. It was the Online Olympiad that year that you were streaming along with Sameer, and Anand sir was watching it as well. And that's when he got into the game. And because of all of that, that one moment back in 2020, that we are right here. watching the, the Czech Mumba Masters enter for their match of the day. All the dramatic storylines. 36 of the world's elite grandmasters in Bengaluru fighting out for championship for the 4th season of the Global Chess League. Can you imagine? We've had 4 seasons since that stream that you and Samy did.

Yeah, and, and 4 amazing seasons where every single time there have been improvements happening. And I think this one Clearly the best of all, Tanya, in terms of not just the production and everything, but also I can sense that energy in the team owners. They feel like they want to win.

I can see the organizers being like, "We want to give our best foot forward." Everything's coming together, and this team will have to give its best foot forward as they face the Czech Mumba Masters. Mendonsa will be on the prodigy board. Jan Nepomniachtchi, it's been. Awesome to watch him so far, and Sahaj, you very rightly pointed out that he's built for this format. The speed, the questions he asks, his tactical dynamic play, and one team player, Levon Aronian, always hyping up his team as well. Sagar, to your point, I think the fan experience tells you all that you need to know. Everyone who's coming here, I believe we've sold out tickets for most of the days. People always smiling. They get to see the best in the world. They get to interact. They better. They get to play some chess right here behind us. You know that stage that everyone sees chat right there is where Arohi has all the coin tosses. You've got the captains come in, the player of the match. It is such a 360 experience for everyone here.

100 percent. I mean, even behind us, while you guys were commentating, we were watching the games and I was playing blitz with this. You know the spectators as well. It was so much fun. Yes, and it kept happening because people are so hungry for chess.

Yes, and it's so nice to see that the Global Chess League. fever is on in Bengaluru. So if you're around, definitely go on BookMyShow or on the official website, try and get those tickets, try and come and watch the players, come hang out with us as well. Sagar, we'll be hanging out with the Mumbai Masters and Ganji's Grandmasters next coming on. Overall, on paper, again with the form for both of you, is there— For both of you, is there a favorite to win this very crucial matchup?

I'm gonna play my birthday card and be like, Tan, can we can we get an answer from you this time? बस फिर उसके बाद और कोई birthday gift नहीं मिलने वाला। We'll talk about that. But first, वाला Pri, what do you think if you had to choose one team?

You know, I keep putting everyone in a spot and I see how difficult that is. We see the check Mumbai Masters getting my good friend Harika right up front there. It's hard not to not to take her name. Pranesh, as you mentioned out. But has been such a standout late entry into the Mumbai Masters camp. Shark always bringing the fire. I've also been just so impressed with the way Yan Nepomniachtchi has played, Polina has played. You know what, my heart says Mumbai Masters. I've got a lot of good friends in that team, but Ganji's Grandmasters has been the more impressive team so far at the league for me.

Okay, got it. So you are choosing Ganji's Grandmasters?

forced to pick. Absolutely. Um, I think on paper, and also they're the ones on 6 match points, and there's a reason for that.

So for me personally, it would be the Czech Mumba Masters because of 3 players who seem to be in good form. It is MVL, Mamedyarov, and Harika. I think these 3 players are doing very well. I know that Ganji's Grandmasters also have Shuvalova, who's in good shape. and Levon Aronian. I don't know, Jan Nepomniachtchi, how do I rate him? Because, you know, he was winning against Magnus and drew, and against Sinderov also he was almost on the verge of losing that game and then won on time. So I, I am not so sure about his form just as yet. I think MVL is the much more stable icon board as of now.

I think, uh, I'm still gonna choose Czech Mumba Masters simply because I feel even though Nepo didn't win his match against Magnus, he did put him in that place where he had to show that Magnus-level defense in order to— so are you choosing Ganji's Grandmasters? I will choose the Czech. I think I will choose the Czech Mumba Masters.

Yeah, both of you have gone for Mumba Masters.

Yes, I'm on your team.

Left me alone one more time after putting me on the spot, but that's okay. Someone had to pick Ganji's Grandmasters, and I'm glad I did.

It will Very close, actually.

It's very close. We'll see what happens. I think the one player who I feel has to be careful for the Ganjis is Leinier Dominguez. I think that's the one board that's been shaky for them. But one thing's for sure, I don't know who wins, but the fans are going to win because it's going to be fiery chess with the players, the lineups that we have. Again, just talking about how big a factor clock has been, do you expect more flagging in this one?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm not. Do I? Do I hope? No, no. I'm I'm I'm praying for it. You're rooting for it. I'm rooting for it. Yes, please. More flags. That's that's exactly what I want.

So you must have been very happy in the previous one. We had two flagging situations. Hundred percent.

Yes, I I I want to see more. अभी मेरे को तीन चाहिए. Like अभी शुरुआत से don't keep any increment. Forty मुझके बाद game ही मत रखो। Like शुरुआत से just just you know twenty plus zero. That's it.

I love that you bring it up because let's talk about the format that is there at the Global Chess League. Now, a win with black outweighs a win with white for one game point. You get 4 if you win with black, only 3 if you win with white. Draw gives you a single point, and it's all about finishing on those top 2 spots to make it to the grand final. Winning a match gives you 3 match points, and then a draw would mean 1, loss means 0. There's one team that's on 0 match points, and that's the Triveni Continental It's a survival battle for them tonight.

You know, if we could go back, you know, one year and, and I could ask you the question, after 3 rounds there is only one team that's going to be on 0 points, how many guesses would it take you to say Triveni Continental Kings? I'm guessing 6. Yeah, it's impossible because they were completely dominating in the previous edition in the first 5 rounds. You remember Firouzja winning 5 out of 5 as well.

Yes, Sagar Sahaj. In the previous GCL season, Triveni Continental Kings did not only dominate, you know, with the way they played. It wasn't just the match points; their game points were massive. Yes, they were just crushing it. And well, speaking of crushing it, one of these two next teams will have to crush it on the board. And the players have arrived in Lalit, and now they are ready to enter the arena. Arohi. Over to you.

Momentum is the key for these two teams, and a win today will secure their spot on the leaderboard. Although it is early days, but every win matters. Please let us welcome the players from the two teams: Czech Mumba Masters versus the Ganges Grandmasters. Now for the player introductions and to move on to teams specifically. Let's start with the one who've got the leaderboard going, and consistency will be the key. Give it up for the Czech Mumba Masters! Former World Blitz Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave! India's rising star Praneesh! Former World Blitz Champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov! 3-time Women's World Championship bronze medalist Harika Dronowale, 4-time American Women's Chess Champion Carissa Yip, former Asian champion Badiya Dhaneshwar, and their coach Surya Shekhar Ganguly. And now, for the first time with black pieces this tournament, we will See the other team compete. It is the Ganges Grandmasters. Two times candidates winner Ian Nepomniachtchi. Two times World Cup winner Levon Aronian. Former World Blitz champion Linnea Dominguez. Speed demon Polina Shuvalova. Top-ranked Greek women player Stavrula Solakidou. Tara Seal Challengers winner Leon Luke Mendonca. And their coach Adiban Bhaskaran. Please put your hands together for the 2 teams competing match number 2 of today. Proceed for the handshakes. How are they smiling? Both the teams getting in action, ready to go for this one clash of the day. But before that, we have the first move. May I call upon the tournament director? Mr. Bharat Singh, the chief arbiter, Geert Beijer, and our special guest for today, Nithya Krishnan, head of marketing, Couchbase.

And as we've got the ceremonial moves there on the board by Nithya Krishnan, the players are thinking about what their first moves will be. Saj, I'm going to say it again. I think we were talking about predictions, we were talking about Which team might be a slight favorite? The feeling here, well, Maxime is definitely going to put that knight back. The feeling here is that the icon board very likely will be decisive in this one.

Hundred percent, I think, because both of them are known for their fast chess and and format ESIK. I mean, it doesn't just encourage draws in the first place. So you know, so both of them know कि यहाँ पर we have our first move on. The women on Harika's board. She plays c4. Interesting, Tanya. Usually, you know, knight f3, g3, you know, she plays quite solid, but I think she's going for a different approach this time. She is.

She's trying to surprise and survive against a player who has 3 out of 3. But I like what Harika's done. But she does eventually take out her knight, gets that Reti opening. Our women superstar boards, the first to kick off. Let's see the other one as well. This one starts with the English opening. And our other board, Carissa Yip versus Stavrula. There we've got a Sicilian, simple Sicilian, the classical Sicilian as they call it.

Unless Carissa goes crazy with g4. I was going to predict that. Let's go, Carissa! You know, I think she has lost, uh, her game so far, but I love the fact that she went for g4 because this means she doesn't want to play it safe anymore. She wants to go for the kill. Let's go!

I think the Trivedi Continental Kings mascot is also celebrating g4 for the score here by Carissa in the women's Superstar board, but let's move on. We're gonna have handshakes in the men's superstar boards as well. This one promising to be a big battle in the night of. भाई जी पॉन आगे बढ़ चुका है, मजा आने वाला है। Absolutely.

I mean, I'm thinking she's still thinking about this move. Yeah, she was like, ये क्या हो गया? भाई I thought Carissa is gonna play it safe and you know maybe we could make a like a solid draw or something. But no, no sir. I think let's go back to Harika to check out what what's happening as Um, as, uh, Astavi is thinking, I'm just really enjoying what's happening here behind us.

You know, we've got, uh, a lot of fun going on on the board and right here as well. Uh, let's head back to Harika's board. We are waiting for handshakes on our men's superstar board, and we'll go straight to that as those games are also about to begin. Sahaj, this started with the English Opening but has transformed, transposed into Into a Catalan, and now we've got a board that you're very excited about. Handshakes on Prani versus Levon, and there we saw a little bit of a clock dilemma happening there at the start.

Absolutely, and look at that Pranesh. I mean, look at just just the body language itself. He's ready for this battle. I'm taking Pranesh in this one, bye. Let's go. Knight c three, and look at that knight e two.

Literally twenty minutes ago, you were just talking for five minutes about what a Levon fan you are.

But I'm also a fan of Pranesh. You know, I'm fan of both of them. It's it's it's a very tough call for me because I really. Think that Pranesh is a story of my life. But you know, Sveshnikov has happened on the board. Knight db five. By the way, this opening was played between Magnus and Fabi. Magnus and Fabi indeed. And it was this exact same variation. यहाँ पे knight बैठ जाता है और यहाँ पे please Prani play g four. This is this is the move that I'm waiting for. G four is very very tricky here actually. Oh he plays a four instead. Goes for a more solid approach.

Very unlike Prani. Well, Mama Masters are saying, Sahaj, we have G4 on one board. On this one, you'll have to wait. Let's see what's the update on our second men's superstar board, also in action. Shakriyar Mamedyarov versus Leinier Dominguez. Now, Leinier has been struggling in the tournament so far. Shakriyar has been up and down, but yesterday, a fantastic mate to end their match against the Ravani Continental Kings, the Shark Attack. And this one, a slow start right now. Shark attack is cooking.

It it it hasn't cooked yet, but but but you see within a few, let's say five to ten moves, I'm predicting G four in this game.

How many G fours will make you happy?

All of them. I want G four on all of them because attack करो भाई. Let's go.

Well, right now that could be a potential pawn sacrifice. We'll come back to it, but let's blow out our icon board in just a few seconds from now. We will have the first moves on this one. Sehaj. These two players. It almost feels like you know two players who know each other so well. I don't even know how many hundreds of games they played against each other in so many formats. Handshakes. We are off on the icon board and another Sicilian.

Let's go. You know generally in classical chess we see e four, e five. बहुत boring सा लगता है। यहाँ पर when we see Sicilian we know that the fight is gonna happen. And now MVL has many choices. He goes for d four. Yeah, open Sicilian. Are we gonna see another special nikovtania?

Saj, that's what I'm wondering. Have the Ganji's grandmasters sat down at night and just decided a team strategy of playing the Sicilian Sveshnikov on as many boards as they can today?

Exactly. I think oh actually Leon K board पे भी Sicilian ही हुआ है. It's it's like all of the boards are happening after E four. They have played Sicilian. Some team preparation, yeah? But this is not exactly Sveshnikov. It's it's it's kind it's kind of like Sveshnikov की छोटी बहन. It's it's it's It's called Kalashnikov. Basically, the difference is that black has not committed knight f6 and white has not committed knight c3. Not that it's a very big difference. यहाँ पर भी आप knight c3 और knight f6 के बाद आप transpose कर सकते हो and then we would be in the same position as as the game of Pranesh versus Levon.

Sveshnikov की छोटी बहन Kalashnikov that's a first for me in commentary. Do they have another sibling?

I think Rosolimo ya. Rosolimo can be can be like a like a cousin.

दूर के रिश्तेदार, but right now, now this has completely transformed into a very different setup because this last move by Jan Nepomniachtchi pushing his g pawn forward, looking at the bishop coming out from there. Sahaj, we might even see a kingside expansion from him. I just want to point out quickly before we do a world tour of openings that the structure that Maxime has taken— let's highlight the e4 pawn and the c4 pawn— it's called the Maroczy setup usually in the Sicilian. And what this does is gets complete control of a key d5 square. Black is never able to break free with a pawn break at the center, which instantly means that that d6 pawn will be a backward weakness for the rest of the game.

Hundred percent. This is a problem that you know Nepo will have to deal with. But at the same time, you know I've looked at this variation with the black pieces before. बहुत बार ऐसा होता है तानिया कि आप ये pawn को ना sack ही कर देते हो just for the sake of compensation and And just to add on to you know Nepo's defense, Knight d4 is actually a very interesting idea in some you know situations here where you allow White to take on d4 as well. So बहुत exciting chess यहाँ पे देखने को मिलेगी हमें। Which next game should we go to?

I know we should go to the game of Carissa because g4 तो नहीं आया था न्या, but h4 जरूर आ चुका है। g4 तो आया था बहुत ही पहले इसमें तो उसके बाद h4 भी आ गया। उसने कहा g4 पे नहीं रुकना भाई g4 h4 it's on the board. But, Seth, can we do a quick action replay? We left it last when you were very excited to see Carissa's opening choice here.

Let's go!

Has she managed to get an attack in the position?

Look at this, g4, and she's like, h4, castle. Absolutely. Bishop a6, and guess what? Your move, Tanya. g5, pawn takes, bishop takes, and now castle. So you can— yeah, Black goes Knight bd7, Queen d3. Black plays Rook c8 to maybe put some pressure on the c3 Knight, white goes long castle. If you want to go rook takes e three, be my guest. And black plays queen c seven. And यहाँ पे करिशा सोचते हुए, but लेकिन आप आप समय का थोड़ा difference देखिए यहाँ पे। करिशा has eighteen minutes on the clock, whereas Stavi has fourteen minutes. Wow!

And I think that's a lot to do with the opening surprise, right? You play g four, you play h four, you force your opponent to think again in this Sicilian. I want everyone watching to focus on that central. D file. Sayaj, all the play revolves around that. There's a D six pawn that's a weakness. The D five square absolutely essential. Black का aim है Stavrula wants a D five break if she can score it. What she's doing right now is expanding to kick that knight. उसको लात मारके भगा दो B four से and then strike with D five in the center.

So Dan, we have talked about G four. We've talked about H four. We've talked about B five. We've talked about I mean guess the move we have not talked about so far. Tanya, that's a quiz for you because I'm about to take you to the game of Pranesh versus Levon where look at his last move. Wow! ये गलती नहीं है. This this cannot be a mistake because he's planning to just put the bishop back to g six and play f five f four and go for the attack. Creativity pro max.

Let's go. Levon Aronian is called the artist in the chess world for a reason. He is being very imaginative in this position. Saj, do not try this at home is what I want to tell everyone watching. आपका king castle हो चुका है। आप अपने pawns की जो wall है in front of your king, you are you know wanting to push those forward. But again, in this time format, you want to play the position as much as your opponent's clock. He's going on the attack. But Saj, it just feels like this is one of those plans that have no return value on it. You have to either checkmate or you could just be lost with the overexpansion.

Absolutely. So so Levon's intentions are clear. मुझे draw नहीं करना है यहाँ पे। I I'm I'm either gonna go for the kill or you know it's not gonna go. Go my way, is it essentially? And and look at that. Pranesh goes knight b six offering the trade of knights. Basically, if your opponent is attacking, you either trade or you try to you know break the center. Center तो यहाँ पे break होने सकता because it's already closed. So Pranesh goes for the other option and offers the trade of knights there. If knight takes b six, just bishop takes b six.

Yeah, you want to hit that queen. You're also looking at ideas somewhere of expanding the four pawns that you have on the left side. If you're Pranesh. You know, I'll tell you one thing about Prani, as we like to call Pranesh here, is that he doesn't get scared. It's not like he sees G5 by F5. Ara, I'm gonna get nervous. But Sahaj, what is the counter plan to that? How are you taking advantage of this very committal decision by Levon?

That's a good question. I think F5 का idea है to play F4 and maybe to you know annoy the bishop somehow and maybe to get it away from this diagonal. But Pranesh ने इसका solution already निकाल लिया है because Because f4 के बाद ये bishop already b6 पे बैठेगा and there would be no problems whatsoever if you go knight takes b6. So f5 का कोई threat ही नहीं है and अगर if you're still a little bit concerned about the position, what you can do is simply just push f3 ताकि ये इस diagonal से bishop ना हट पाए and फिर g5 starts to look more like आपका king weak है rather than you know you are you trying to attack I feel that as well.

And after listening to your excellent breakdown, it feels like it will be a race on both flanks. You know why? Levon will push the pawns on the kingside. Pranesh will expand on the queenside. Bishop takes knight is what I'm expecting. Hits the queen. वो queen आगे जाएगी। You push the c pawn forward. You push the b pawn forward. c four, b four, c five.

Oof! Oof! So it just becomes a race at the end of the day. And I think Pranesh right now is the faster player because जब भी आप ऐसे pawn push करते हो तो आपको एक hook चाहिए होता है। आगे भाई c four Let's go, let's go. And C five is that hook in this position which would force black to kind of capture and just say एक फाइल खुल सकती है यहाँ पे जो जो past जो ये D five का pawn है ये past pawn बन सकता है. Look at that F five played as well. एकदम proper fire on the board.

Love to see this. Who will strike first? Will it be Pranesh who is in time with B four C five towards the center? Big pressure on Levon. It does feel कि Levon की जो firepower है needed for this king with the knight. Traded off knights off the board. Will it have enough to attack? Will you have enough ammunition? Says the feeling is Pranesh might be first to the party.

Hundred percent, and Tanya, why I think you are saying this is because generally जब black ऐसे g five वगैरह फैक्टा है, तो white का knight f three पे बैठा होता है. Then g four becomes like a tempo. Essentially g four e four whatever you know. But in this case, you क्यों अपने knight है ही नहीं? So g four just becomes like a okay. I have another move. And then it's got up f4, g3. And it's me too. I mean, by this point, this this this pawn could already be very be you know very close to queening. So I'm taking Pranesh. I mean, I that was my original prediction. I mean, as the game started, I think Pranesh is looking excellent in this position.

All right. So Levon Aronian in big trouble. Let's circle back to our icon board. Lots of action happening there. वहाँ पे भी f5 has landed. सहज, let us have that. There we have it. What is going on at the center of the board? White के minor pieces, black के minor pieces. We are in an endgame, or as we often call it, a queenless middle game. But this one far from level, even if the bar says it's in the balance. Hundred percent.

And I think on practicality की बात करें तानिया, तो I I think maybe you'll agree with me that black looks a lot more comfortable here. Like Nepo's that knight on d4 is a monster. The knight on c5 is also technically on an outpost. These two pawns are pretty far ahead as well. E four के बाद ये जो bishop खुलेगा ये भी बहुत सही लग रहा है और ये knight a five का क्या कर रहा है यहाँ पे? It doesn't really have much use. Yeah besides okay you're putting some pressure here and you're hoping I'll play b six ताकि आपका knight ऐसे c six पे बैठ सके but I'll just keep it here.

Well he just says Sahaj bhai I don't want your knights at the center of the board relinquishes the bishop pair right there gives Jan Nepomniachtchi a slightly worse pawn formation there. I do like that knight on a five Sahaj. I want to say that that knight Is making sure that black has to watch out for a threat like b4 at all moments. B4 would kick that defender out. That knight is ready to also transfer itself. मैं बोलने वाली थी to trade that knight, and if you take it, knight takes knight, pawn takes knight. Is that a draw for this last move by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave going into an opposite color bishop?

I think उसने प्रणेश का गेम देख लिया है and उससे लगा कि यहाँ पर you know already on board two we are looking quite good. So this is maybe like a Like a strategic decision, you know, overall. And yes, I think absolutely right. After knight takes b3, a takes b3, this game is moving more towards equality. Yes, there are still rooks present on the board, but dohi open files हैं. अगर यहाँ पे रुक अगर white रखता है, तो bishop e5 के बाद you have no access here whatsoever. Then this is the only file remaining जहाँ पे rooks exchange हो जाएंगे, which means the game just fizzles out into a draw.

Wow! And yeah, Nepomniachtchi is thinking, can I keep some chances alive in this? Can I get aggressive with my own knight moving it forward, maybe to a4, putting pressure on b2. Sage, we'll come back to this, but let's continue going around. I want to go to Harika versus Polina. You know, it's a game we've been talking about. Polina has been a star player for the Ganges Grandmaster. She's really found her flow there for the Ganges. Harika as well in top form here. How's their battle going?

I think on— when, when we look at the bar, Harika looks a lot better. I mean, I'm, I'm seeing, you know, a slight advantage there, but On the board, like practically speaking, I'm seeing this rook on a1, एकदम घर पे, knight on b1, एकदम घर पे, and and on top of this, Harika is technically a pawn down at the moment, right? I mean, of course you can take this pawn on a5 in the near future, but अभी के लिए she's a pawn down. Yes, she has some compensation. The rook on c5 is amazing. The pawn on d4 is amazing. But ये दोनों pieces देख के ऐसा लग रहा है कि I will take Polina practically in this position. Your thoughts on this, Tanya?

Well, I am pawn down, but I can pick up one pawn instantly right now. That a five pawn is hanging. I do feel structurally, अगर हम black के queenside pawns देखें, it feels एक backward है c seven पे. b four potentially attack में है queen के साथ. I do like the flexibility of Harika's structure in the center compared to those two pawns. e four कभी भी आ सकता है to kick that knight out. सहज, if you just highlight that. Queen can go to C2, double up with more pressure. This is a very thematic pawn sacrifice in these positions to get control on the dark squares, which Harika's improved. You'll take black, bhai. Match ख़तम होएगा। You and I will set up this board. You did you say you wanted black? Yes. I will take white and we shall have a blitz showdown. Absolutely done.

And I know, Tanya, you play Catalan so often, and you know these positions I play so often with black. I think it comes down to personal preference at the at the end of the day, but I. I think the position is roughly balanced, and I think she has just taken the pawn on a5, to which Polina should respond. Rook takes rook as well. एक advantage है हरेका के पास, which we haven't mentioned so far. She has a four-minute cushion over Polina, and and there is no increment until move forty-one. So this definitely counts in the long run.

Very well pointed out. We've seen what an important factor the clock. Saj, we're expecting trades here. I still like White's positional strategic advantages here, given the control on the dark squares. But let's go on because on another board, the Czech Mumba Masters seem to be doing really well. भाई प्रणेश का pawn c six पर पहुंच गया है। Exactly.

The pawn is black was trying to attack with this g five f five business, but Pranesh says no no no wait. I'm much faster than you. And वो bar भाई वो bar actually pawn से भी ऊपर चला गया है। That is crazy. Look at that, b5 pawn. I mean, b5 is just winning, yeah, for white. Just b5 in this position.

And the reason is you'll trade off everything and there will be a super strong passer that white will have. Sahaj, हम कह रहे थे this is going to be a race. Levon on the kingside, Pranesh on the queenside. भाई लग रहा है Levon marathon भाग रहे हैं और Pranesh sprint कर रहा है। Exactly.

And this is why we call him the human calculator because he's just so fast, you know, in these formats. I mean, I absolutely love his position. Queen side, पे एकदम absolute domination and Aronian is still trying to find that you know counterplay on the king side. And Tanya, like you rightly pointed out, वो knights चाहिए थे यहाँ पे। Imagine करो black का knight e5 पे होता and you could get f4, f3. That could be something, right?

Absolutely. But no such tempos. Let's bring up our analysis board as well, Sahaj, because I want you to break down. There is a pawn hanging. Well, the queen defends the pawn on b7, but there is this idea of b5 always in the air. I think what he set up is the idea कि queen a7 पे land आने वाली है. It's about to infiltrate on the dark squares. So many squares right there, b6, a7, forcing Levon's hand on that side to give headway to white to enter with a passed pawn.

100%. What a nice, uh, way to break down the position. Queen b6 and a7 are just amazing moves there. And of course, if you go Rook takes d5, Tanya, then Queen takes d5 can be a plan because Bishop c4 is a pin in the position. So, so many tactics You know, in the in the air there. इसीलिए अरुणिया यहाँ पे इतना सोच रहे हैं। Time is completely equal, which I don't think is a good sign for Levon here because you do want to compensate this. You know, in because the position is so much worse for Levon. I mean, कुछ time का compensation यहाँ पे होना चाहिए था। And and of course, if you go Queen d5, same logic.

Bishop c4 is just GG. That d5 pawn you can't touch it. You would lose big material. Head in hands, भाई, for Levon Aronian. And you look at the position, you know why. And Pranesh there with that boss move of picking up that water bottle, taking a sip. Now usually I know people are like, भाई, उसमें क्या हो गया? पानी ही तो पी रहा है. But everyone in the chess world knows that a chess player only does that when they know they are the ones on the front foot.

Exactly. You, I mean, absolutely correct. जब आप पानी पीते हो, then you know you are much better. And your opponent also knows. Of course, there can be some psychology behind this. By the way, Aronian plays king g7, getting away from this pin and threatening perhaps queen d5 or rook d5 के plans. But ये rook भी pinned है अभी के लिए. So एक pin से आप बचे, but दूसरे pin के अंदर आप आ गए. And now the ball is once again on Pranav. Going with the queen.

Take the queen. Queen b6, queen a7. I'm not sure which one is better, but these are the two moves that have to be on Pranesh's radar to force Levon's hand with his pawns on the left. Left flank right now, Pranesh on the things edge. We'll come back to this. Is there another board you want to check in with? This one big advantage for the Mumbai Masters. Absolutely.

Let's take a quick look at Harika versus Polina because looks like she her advantage has also grown in the last couple of moves. She is a pawn up now. पहले वो pawn down थी and Tanya your like understanding of these positions is just incredible.

Yeah. Still want to play that blitz game?

No, I will I will take a rain check on that. But you know. I mean, I'm pretty sure Polina is not happy with this outcome either. But of course, you have to be careful. Queen takes d6 is a blunder here, Tanya.

Queen takes d6, pawn takes d6, and rook c1 पे mate हो रही है। भाई सिर्फ piece नहीं मर रहा तो अगर आप mate से बचोगे you will end up losing that piece by the way. So we've got a different board, a different camera, but very well done there because we see Pranesh has gone in with this queen to b6 that has landed. But let's have Polina back on our screen, Sahaj. We'll go to the players as well. We'll circle back to this one. So here, advantage Mumbai Masters on one more board, Sahaj.

Wow, actually I'm looking at across all the boards, they are better everywhere, Tanya. Maxime is 0.4, Pranesh is like +2 or something. Mamedyarov also slightly better, Harika also slightly better. Some players are slightly better in this position with the white pieces.

भाई प्रेशर हैज एंटर्ड द चैट हियर। इफ मुंबा मास्टर्स टेक डाउन द गांधीज़ ग्रैंड मास्टर्स, मुंबा मास्टर्स विल गो टू सिक्स मैच पॉइंट्स। दैट विल बी अ कंपलीट ट्रैफिक जाम एट द टॉप। सहज, वी हैव सीन टू बोर्ड्स वेर द मुंबा मास्टर्स आर पुशिंग। प्रणेश एंड हरिका। वी सी द बार्स र The only position where they are not much worse is the game between Mamedyarov and Linier Dominguez, and that's up right now.

But practically, Tanya, I am not sure if I will think that I'm fine here as black. I will think that white has a very, very good advantage. As you pointed out earlier, ये Maroksi का जो structure होता है, ये बहुत annoying होता है because आप कभी भी d5 या b5 से आप ऐसे break easily नहीं कर पाते हो and ये d6 का pawn becomes a weakness in the long term.

Well, lots of pieces and pawns on this one. Let's circle back to our icon board because, Sahaj, I think that is also a board that is favoring the Mumbai Masters somewhere. We see it's an opposite color bishop endgame. Clock pretty much balanced for both these players. It's 2 rooks apiece here, but the pawn structure very asymmetrical. The feeling is that white's bishop has more targets than the black bishop. That a6 pawn, if we can highlight Always watching out for that, and a complete blockade on Nepomniachtchi's central pawns. भाई वो नहीं बढ़ रहे हैं, वो कहीं नहीं जा रहे हैं। Exactly.

This is the difference between a bishop and a big pawn. This pawn is a this bishop is completely blocked by its own pawns because of the c5, d4, and f4. कुछ mobility नहीं मिल रही है, and Nepo I think very smartly plays bishop e7 to sidestep to d8 and attack this pawn on a5. ताकि कुछ तो you know pressure आए from the bishop. Top class maneuver.

Absolutely. Nepo rerouting the bishop, trying to get counterplay on that a5 pawn. Maxime Kille, one plan that comes to mind is get rid of that rook defender. Rook को इवान पे ले आओ सहज. Go rook e6. I want to get to that a6 pawn.

Okay, so you attack this pawn. I attack this pawn essentially is what you're trying to say. And I think maybe Nepo can you know try to save this. I mean it's not losing or anything, but it is definitely unpleasant. To you know face this with the black pieces, Tan. I would also love to take you to the prodigy board because वहाँ पर it's the only board where right now the Ganges Grandmasters have a chance of scoring a win. And look at that beautiful attack with the queen and the knight. They say it's the most dangerous combination in chess, and rightfully so. This this pawn on h2 is is under attack. Even if you play h3, Tanya, I will just ignore it.

I see your point, but you know, Sahaj, what they say also. Is that three is the magical number for an attack? You want three pieces ammunition to come for the king. You have two only here. If you're Mendonsa, a queen and a knight. I have one knight defending that square, making a case for Dhaneshwar here. Where is your third piece coming from?

Look at this, Tanya. Knight to D three, attacking the rook and the bishop. And ये queen अगर आपने मारा तो knight F two check.

GG. Move, Sahaj. I think it's your birthday today. You haven't only grown wiser, but you've grown stronger as well, man.

It's it's just the birthday charm. I think at the end at the end of the day. But knight d three, what a move! I think I think Dhaneshwar ने miss किया था ना ये पहले. And I think this is what he's trying to figure out because if he doesn't figure out what to do right now, he could just be losing in the next move. They say, for example, if you play h three, is that losing? Like immediately knight d three, perhaps.

Like this looks so good. And again, that third piece joins the attack. The magical number is achieved. F two पे check है. हैंगिंग है बिशप हैंगिंग है वो नाइट एफ फोर पे जा सकता है हिटिंग दैट क्वीन नाइट डी थ्री विल दानेश्वर फाइंड एंड स्टॉप दैट आइडिया वेरी इम्पोर्टेंट मेंडोंसा रेडी टू ब्रिंग इन द फायर पावर सहज अगेन इफ मेंडोंसा हियर इज़ मेकिंग अ केस फॉर द गांजीज़ ग्रैंडमास्टर्स वेर The the Mumbai Masters are actually cruising through, and look at this match.

This is completely winning for Pranesh. He's about to take down Levon Aronian. I think this is just over. Yeah, rook takes rook, queen e five check, and this is just over.

That is key. If you take the majors off the board, exchange the queens and the rooks, you still are down an exchange, but you can hold that as black. There's one extra pawn that Levon has, but because Levon का king is so unsafe, सहज that g five f five idea. All the ranks open towards the black king. White has to get the rook and the queen to combine to kill that king off.

Hundred percent, and I think by extension to what you're saying, queens यहाँ पे trade बिल्कुल नहीं करनी है प्रणेश को because the moment you trade queens, this becomes a draw because king unsafe है. You can take the rook. You can give a check on e five. I think ज़्यादा से ज़्यादा pieces रखो यहाँ पे. As you can see, Pranesh just gave a check offering queen f six ताकि rook c four पे you know Was left hanging. Black goes king h6. This this I feel is the is an illusion of safety. Like the king के पास अभी कोई checks नहीं है यहाँ पे, but the moment you get on the third rank, for example, this could be dangerous. The moment you play h4, for example, it's a huge problem for Levon. I think we are on the live board.

He's played h4. Sahaj wow! Just trying to open up the black king again. Materially here, Pranesh के पास एक रुक extra है, but black के एक बिशप और एक पॉन है। We'll come back and see if Pranesh can finish this off. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is dominating his game against Jan Nepomniachtchi. दोनों रोक अंदर आ चुके हैं। Deepawn is ready to move forward. सहज पूरा seventh rank in full control of the Mumbai Masters.

Wow! I mean पूरा पूरा match I think is is in their control so far from you know from what we can see. Nepo is completely winning. Thanks to those those rooks on the seventh rank. But no, he goes rook takes h7. That was a mistake. He should have kept the rooks. क्योंकि दो rooks ज़्यादा dangerous थे एक rook से. And now rook takes b7 के बाद at least the bar says it is equal. But you have to convince me here, Tanya. I I do not buy ये position black के लिए अभी भी safe है. I do not buy this. There is no way. आपके पास तीन pawn है, right? You have a6, c5 and d4. आप push कैसे करोगे इसको? Like this doesn't move, this doesn't move, and even if you play a five, rook को मैंने लगा दिया a seven पे। You can't even play a four.

And that's the dynamic of the opposite color bishops, right? White will always have full control of the light squares, and black will never be able to challenge that. So the c five d four pawn that Jan Nepomniachtchi has at the center of the board are not able to get the assist to move over to the light squares, and position back in balance. Jan Nepomniachtchi after the rook trade, the king is at least feeling safe, but practical problems still remain. अगर ये rooks trade हुए Immediate handshake, and he does it. Serge, I will not be surprised if he'll pick up that pawn on a six. It's still three versus four, but in this position, black will be able to set up a blockade. I do not see white winning this endgame, even though you're up a pawn.

It's difficult, and you know, just it's a bit unfortunate for Maxime as well because ये pawn जो है ये गलत color का है because this this is a typical sort of principle. That is, that is the wrong color. Black can actually sacrifice his bishop. But which other game can we go to?

Let's go to Pranesh and Lavon. This is reaching, you know, the climax moment of this game right now. You've got the black king open, the queen and the rook. तुमने कहा था रुक नीड्स टू इन्फिल्ट्रेट ऑन द सेवेंथ रैंक. It's gone there again. If Pranesh, if the queens are traded, Lavon is straight back into it. And endgame you hold with that one extra pawn and bishop against the But is there a knockout move? Is there a check checkmating pattern that you can spot here?

I think यहाँ पे queen takes h6 बे draw ही होना मतलब win ही होना चाहिए because dark squares पे you are just completely busted. Possibly, but Pranesh is going for more. Yeah, he he always goes for the kill.

Yeah, I mean he has. Don't want to take that chance also, Sahaj. कि क्या ये king pawn ये endgames मेरे लिए win होएंगी? Will it be enough? He gives a check and right now queen g6 maybe just to offer another Trade of queens.

I mean, I would love to play king h two there. You know, just अगर trade करना है तो आप करो ताकि मेरा king ऐसे आ जाए and then king f four पे आ जाए. That I feel should be winning if the king can reach the f four square. You know, with ease.

Pranesh will have to be so smart in the moment he chooses to trade the queens. He has to almost calculate that line and know कि भाई ये endgame winning है मेरे लिए. Otherwise, he will avoid the queen trade. Levon, that's why once again offers it.

Boy plays Queen g6. This could be the decider in this match, and Pranesh has to deliver for the Czech Mumbai Masters. Let's switch back to the icon board MVL versus Nepo because it looks like यहाँ पर Nepo has saved oh well MVL has saved the day, and if you take Bishop takes d3 then there is King d5 ये तो direct dead draw है right?

And Bishop जो उन्होंने अभी खेला है stops the h pawn from moving up the board. I think we We're just seconds away from handshakes in this one. This icon board was up and down, but in the end, a peaceful result in this one, which means the pressure is on the remaining boards.

Absolutely. So I think maybe we can switch our attention to, uh, the prodigy board, Tanya, because looks like Dhaneshwar is now— has— he has managed to turn things around. Is he a piece up? How is— how is Dhaneshwar a piece up? Because, oh, I think he sacrificed something and it was a mistake, Tanya. Maybe Queen f1 or Queen c2. And there is no attack. You said the magic number was three, but the third piece is gone.

He's just given that up. Down to two now. Down a piece, and I think a mistimed sacrifice. And suddenly, Dhaneshwar from the Czech Mumba Masters is also making a strong case for his team win. Mendonsa, a huge miss right there. Sehaj, all right. Let's say that now that we don't see a checkmating idea, White just needs to make sure that the queen remains connected to the G two.

वो क्वीन आप हटाओ तू स्क्वायर वेर यू आर नॉट गेटिंग चेकमेट इन वन। एब्सोल्युटली एंड एंड बी केयरफुल क्वीन एफ टू पे देर इस नाइट एच थ्री चेक एंड दैट कुड बी जीजी फॉर यू सो दैट्स व्हाई क्वीन एंड द नाइट इज़ सच अ डेंजरस कंबिनेशन इन चेस बिकॉज़ क्वीन इज़ द मोस्ट पावरफुल To Mamedyarov, Tanya, because look at the move that Shark just played. Shark attack indeed. It was Kasparov who said, give me a knight on f5 and I will give you a win. That knight is on f5. Let's go.

And it could not have been captured in that previous move. If you just go back one move in this position, that bishop on c3 was hanging, would have been picked up with premium against the black king, giving a check. The other knight ready to pounce over to e6 with a fork. Knight f5. Sir, ये एक बारी दिखाना तो बनता है। ये थी position. Look at the x-ray machine that was set up. Shark attack. Boom goes the knight to f5.

What a move actually! What a move! Knight f5. And इसके बाद वो खेलता है bishop e5. And Tanya, knight takes e6 is hanging in this position. Like this is I mean this this is this looks so dangerous. ये हमेशा queen और दो knight king के पास कैसे आ जाते हैं?

But sir, that just means that the Czech Mumbai Masters are completely Whitewashing this match with the white pieces completely. Not a single board are they in trouble so far. Look at the white bars across board 2, white better. Board 5, white better. Board 6, white better.

And by the way, we do have a result on the icon board. MVL and Nepo have drawn their match. I think this is the first result. Solid. Nepo did— MVL did have a lot of chances, but Nepo did survive thanks to that rook trade. You know, towards the endgame. But there are three matches like you were mentioning, Tanya: Pranesh versus Levon, where White is completely winning. And apart from this, Mamedyarov is completely winning. Karisaip is completely winning. And Dhaneshwar is also much better. This looks amazing for the Czech Mumba Masters.

They are about to cash out in this match is what it seems like. And Sehaj Pranesh against Levon Aronian. You know, he's taken down Anish Giri in. Their opener for the Czech Mumba Masters. And right now facing another stalwart of the game with a position of strength, but can he convert it? He needs to find a winning plan, and somewhere it feels like, Sahaj, at the right moment you want to get one of the pawns moving forward. g4 needs to be thought about. You keep the pressure on the bishop. Levon Aronian might start thinking, is the worst over? And he could Consistently keeps offering the queen trade.

Of course, and and and and if you take the queen, then his pawns would be connected. Now if that happens, Levon is saving this hundred out of hundred times. Agreed. So Pranesh has to be careful. This is a this is an extremely strong player in front of him who is who is going to do everything in in his power to save the game. We saw what happened with Magnus versus Nepo yesterday. This is no less than that. So he has to be extremely precise. Goes for King G. Let's give a check.

Well, he's been giving checks, but where is the inroad? That check would force either the black king to go to a separate square. It needs to move to h7 or h5. h5 looks very scary. You can't start playing king of the hill as black. Rook d6. Is Levon going to hide on h7? Pranish thinking, where is the blow coming from here? Said somehow he needs to combine the queen and the rook to get into an attack. Can you go queen to c7? Here, I'm hitting the bishop, taking advantage of the fact that if you go back with your queen to defend it, I have rook sliding over to pin and win.

A bishop e six आ सकता है उसमें maybe. Like rook d maybe queen f six, rook d six bishop e six. But of course, this is horrible.

He makes a different move though.

What has he played? He's gone for rook d six check.

He gives rook check first. Levon, there is no way he's stepping up with the king. I Will not be able to handle it if the king goes up. There's also rook sliding over to f6 at that moment. Absolutely. Go to h5. Yeah, bishop g6 kill king h5.

Better. This looks extremely scary, but also king h7 also looks quite scary because h8.

Very true. And you go back with your king. The rook's ready to go to f6, and Levon's ready to make his decision. He goes up the board. Wow! What a position!

Active defense indeed on the board.

भाई यहाँ कहाँ defense है? मुझे तो कोई defense ही नहीं दिख रहा है। ये king सहज, it looks you know as Peter Leko says, if this is not over, if this is not checkmate, nothing is.

But in this you know time control, I think anything is possible. If if if Pranesh cannot find that breakthrough, I mean I think we can safely say that what Levon is trying to do is he's trying to create a fortress because white is trying to break through and fortress break करने के लिए you either need a sacrifice breakthrough Or a pawn break. That's why I think your instinct was to play g4 because that's a pawn break right there. I think Zuxuan B of course, but he's trying to figure out how can he break through this fortress that Levon is creating.

It's not easy, Sahaj. He makes a small waiting move. I think he wants to come to the third rank or at least keep that flexible. कि भाई I can go into a different mode of attack by rerouting my rook. Also passes a very Uncomfortable ball to live on because it's not easy to find a move for black.

Hundred percent because the moment this happens, you know again he's he's he's just saying zugzwang है board पे any move you make is going to be a bad one and this is how you break a fortress. If black goes for bishop g six for example, then rook c three this is could be a checkmate and then rook g three के बाद ये queen भी trap हो रही है। तो black की best move यहाँ पे is to not make a move.

Unfortunately, that would be illegal, and he's got about a minute and a half to make that move, to find a move. Said so well explained that a zugzwang is a position where all your pieces are already ideally placed, and anything you move creates more problems in your position. And for Levon, that's the dilemma. There are no good moves in the position, which makes the decision incredibly hard. Not just that, now touching the 1-minute mark, I have to say this passing of the ball With the rook slide, a one mover, incredibly strong. Looks harmless, but perhaps was the best move in the position.

Exactly, one mover and also one minute on the clock for Levon as well. I mean, I think he has no chance here. He's go—he's going for a move. Has he played something? He's played e three. Oh, this is very close to being over.

He does give it up. It is desperation here right now. The e pawn moves forward. Sahaj, maybe just. And just as I was about to say it, Carissa Yip has won her game against Stavrula. Carissa scores her first win of the Global Chess League, and at a very important stage. She's propelling the Mumbai Masters towards that team victory right now. Let's take account of their score. It's 4-1 right now. Let's go straight back to our marquee matchup.

Absolutely. And there we are. I mean, what a win! And what— and did you look at that final position? Bishop f6. What a— what an attacking move it was. And now we have this board in front of us. Black has played e3, and Pranesh is thinking, "कि भाई किससे कैप्चर करो?" And Tanya, there is there is a trap here. If you go pawn takes e3, now there is queen h4 check, queen e1 check, and that's a repetition. Tricky tricky. So you have to take with the queen essentially.

Wow! So Levon really setting up ideas here. Very nicely pointed out. Let's just draw that arrow. We don't need to make moves. Queen check again. He obviously sees that trap, does Pranesh. He says, I'm ready to trade the queens now as I've won a pawn in that bargain. Also notice how the white rook cuts off the black king. Levon's trying to get that back into the game. Pranesh will advance his own king, try to activate that, get it towards the center. Uh, Sahaj, he might not be getting checkmate here, Levon, but the problems are far from over.

100%. The rook versus bishop with any type of pawns is just going to be winning. The pawns are equal. In the previous scenario, black kept us a pawn zada tha. That's why it was equal. But now this just looks kind of hopeless. Let's switch to the prodigy board, Dhaneshwar versus Leon, because looks like that piece that Leon sort of sacrificed is now costing him. This is now close to being completely over for Leon.

He's got two pawns for a knight right now, does Mendonsa. But notice how it might appear ऊपर से सहज कि white का king is in trouble. But the black king as well has to be very careful. By white, the queen lands on h6. Nobody is stopping the mate on g7. Hundred percent. So what he set up is rook to h1, hit that queen, and get your own queen to the h-file. Game over. While it looks like Dhaneshwar should be the one in trouble, Mendonsa attacking the white king, it's the black king that's under fire. Wow!

It's a great exercise. Which king is like weaker? And there is a rule in chess: a weakness is a weakness if it can be attacked. Yes. Now, white king को आप एक चेक तक नहीं दे सकते हैं यहाँ पे। That's why it is so safe. And whereas, you know, you have this pawn on f6 which is forever going to create problems along the back rank. I think Dineshwar about to win his match. Um, yeah, I think he's just gonna resign, I think, very, very soon. There is, there is no hope here.

Yeah, what a performance here so far by the Mumbai Masters. And to hide from those checkmating patterns and ideas, just highlight Rook h1, Queen h6. Mendonça might be forced to offer a queen trade, and if that happens, the endgame Game down a piece. You're only delaying the inevitable.

Hundred percent, and I think he is trying to play E five. Maybe you know that last trick. ताकि queen takes E five के बाद आना है. He wants to go rook d two check. The tricky you know like they are all trying to you know that आखरी trick काम कर जाए.

Look at the Mumbai Masters team there in the dugout. They are sitting there with their captain gangs in the middle watching as Karissa Yip discusses. By the way, Karissa's win very key for the team today.

Absolutely, absolutely. And, uh, Dinesh makes a move. He has— I think he has played Queen g5, but that was actually an inaccuracy, Tanya. Queen g5 is an inaccuracy here, and I think Leon might have some chances. But let's switch to maybe Pranesh versus Levon to check out what's happening there.

Well, now he'll have to grind this one down. He still has a big chunk of advantage, but no checkmates happening. And we see there that Harika's game has also ended in a draw. We didn't much miss much action there. I think it was in the balance at the end, a rook pawn endgame. Uh, Sehaj Harika keeps it under control against the hottest performer of the season so far, Polina Shivalova. But let's go to the Pranesh board one more time as we take a look at this. It's still up an exchange.

Where is Levon setting up a fortress? Oh, that was a mistake actually, g3.

Now that, that, that is extremely surprising to me because I think this is quite natural because the bishop was looking at the g2 pawn. But I think Pranesh का idea king उठा के ऐसे करके अब इसको e five पे लेके आओ and then you sacrifice rook takes e four essentially at the right moment. But this is still tricky. Yeah, Levon is still proving कि कुछ है position में अभी भी. Most players would have resigned here by now as as black. But Levon is saying no no no. I have something up my sleeve.

He's fighting to the best that he can. But you know as the scoreline stands right now, by the way, Levon he's fourteen seconds on the clock and we have another Draw on the board. We see that on our bottom left screen there. Lenier versus Shakriar ends in a draw. Lenier, of course, looking at his team result right now, hasn't left the board. He knows that it's not looking good for the Ganges Grandmasters. Six to three is the lead for the Mumbai Masters right now, and another board of theirs in big trouble with Levon trying to survive a very difficult endgame. Sayaj, there are two games remaining right now. We've got Bardia versus Mendonsa Pranesh again. Against Levon.

Basically, one of them have to win the match for them to win the whole thing. But essentially, if Pranesh wins, it's over. But Levon is not making this easy. By the way, Levon has 10 seconds now on the clock. E4, very tricky move to handle with 8 seconds.

There was a pin on that bishop. You could not have taken the pawn. He defends it. But now Pranesh gets a passed pawn at the center of the board. And now all he has to do is remove the rook and get the king up the board. And then check black's king behind, and that's what he's doing. He's going to march up the king to assist that center pawn, and Levon just resigns. Wow, Pranesh OP!

What a what a finish towards the end. I mean, it was a fortress, but you know, he he displayed I think an an insane amount of insane level of technique in the endgame. And we have one last game remaining between Dhaneshwar and Leon on the Prodigy board. By the way, this means that Czech Mumba Masters has have already won their match nine to three. And now it's just about how many game points can they acquire.

And Pranesh is turning out to be quite the giant slayer here in Bengaluru for the Czech Mumba Masters. He's defeated Anish Giri today, he takes down Levon Aronian, and the Mumba Masters get their second team win in a row. This match is still on, but for Ganji's Grandmasters, it's now about the game points. Even if they were to win this, maximum Minimum seven, nine to three, securing, clinching the victory for the Mumbai Masters was Pranesh.

Hundred percent. And what a what a win this was. But still it's not over. By the way, look at the time that Dhaneshwar has. He has five seconds on the clock and Leon having well just sixteen seconds. But I think these seconds do really count at the end.

And let's go back to that other full screen view we have. यहाँ पे थोड़ा board छुप रहा है on the H file सहज. You know I love that view where we Can see the board clock really easily. We see the players in action. By the way, the moves are coming in fast and quick, and we see that extra knight is going to do the talking, assisting that pawn. And there we have it, Sahaj. C7 पे pawn पहुंच चुका है. But Mendonça has his own pawns going up the board.

He's just but he's just way too fast. Yeah, just promotion and knight, rook or king तो तीन pawn को रोक सकते हैं I think. एक अकेला rook maybe can be a problem. Just play c8 queen. You for sure he's going to save. This knight is a very tricky piece. There's there's going to be a check like somewhere in the middle, and I think that would just be five four. Knight d six check played, and I think he's going to go king g four. King comes to e four. He's going to push one of the pawns. Knight goes to f three, and now once again it would be a zugzwang, and that is it. He needs a blunder.

He needs a miracle. He's going to find none. Will Mendonsa? He pushes the pawn, loses that pawn, pushes another pawn. Will lose that pawn, but he's setting up. A stalemate. What a tricky move, but he finds it, gives a check instead and saves. Had he taken the pawn, it would have been stalemate, and he gets flagged with no good moves on the board. Runs out of time does Mendonça, and Dhaneshwar surviving that final trick on the board. Sahaj, the Czech Mumba Masters with a dominating victory.

12-3, what a finish! But you have to give it to Leon. Yeah, What what a great stalemate idea it was towards the end, but congratulations to the Czech Mumba Masters. What a finish! Three wins and no losses.

No losses, and you can see it on the faces of the teams right now. Two very different camps, two very different emotions there in the dugouts. Sahaj, you know they came in, they won the toss. The Czech Mumba Masters actually the Ganges run. Masters won the toss, chose black. Czech Mumba Masters landing with the white pieces and a whitewashing performance there.

Absolutely. Now they, you know, they had whites on, on the first 3 rounds, and now this is the first time that they have black. Uh, good evening everybody. Allow me to give you the result of the match that has just been finished. The Czech Mumba Masters beat the Genghis Grandmasters with 12 to 3. Please give them a big round of applause, and I would like to invite the team captains to sign the match protocol. Please join me on stage. While they are coming, I would like to invite you for the next match, which which will start at half past 6.

2 very good friends, but one of them happy right now with his team performance. I have to say, you know, Sahaj, I've spent a lot of time with Gangs in team events, as friends as well. He's somebody who brings in such a positive atmosphere in the team with the players and always there to support them regardless of the results. But today, with 3 wins and 3 draws. His players have made him so proud.

Absolutely. I think you can't not be happy when your team goes undefeated. And I think they were putting pressure on all of the boards, which is— which was, I think, is the more impressive thing for me. Question for you, Tanya. Do you think at this moment the Ganges Grandmasters are regretting choosing black?

You know, everything makes sense in hindsight, and you can only look back and take these decisions. We were talking about the importance importance of playing with different colors. They've had great results with the white pieces. They played black for the first time and then lost that match, lost the match today. But at the same time, you know, you want to feel your opponents out. I think for the Ganges Grandmasters, there's a lot to learn from what's happened. It started with a day where, well, we felt Ganges Grandmasters in form, 6 match points. Can the Czech Mumba Masters take down the mighty team? And that's what they did. Levon Aronian was all smiles at the start, but very soon against Pranesh, things started to go wrong.

This could be the— I think the biggest upset for me so far, you know, Pranesh taking down Levon in such a style, I mean, no less. I mean, it felt like such a convincing game from Pranesh there. Um, and of course, let's not forget MVL versus Nepo. MVL did put a lot of pressure in, you know, from, from the opening onwards, but Nepo did survive because he traded those rooks on the 7th rank. And of course, Dhaneshwar versus Lyon, the last match to finish, um, where he just dominated, um, from the start itself.

Very controlled performance on the icon board by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, always putting a little bit of pressure and ended in a draw. But this was the match that had us— the game that had us on the edge of our seats, Pranesh. A generational clash against Levon Aronian, but Such a beautiful tactical finish at the end. He never lost control after getting the advantage. You know, Levon tried his best to defend it, but being so precise with that last rook move, and I think that was a beautiful finisher. Harika as well, stopping the powerful Polina on her tracks. There's a little bit of a calling of an arbiter, but nothing happened there. And at the end of it all, Levon Aronian did lose out. Handshakes there, giving Pranay The victory that got the match a win. Now, if you missed this, a final trick set up by Mendonsa walking into a stalemate. Go replay that. This is so crazy.

Ready with the answers? Absolutely crazy. You know, this one capture, rook takes h2, and you know, most players would have fallen for it, including myself. Just take the pawn, but it was a stalemate.

And there we have, surviving all those traps and tricks, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Has to be feeling very proud for his teammates, and this is such a beautiful moment whenever the teams walk out. Says the fans are ready to greet them, ask them for autographs, for photos, and Bengaluru really showing up for the Global Chess League here.

Absolutely. It's completely houseful here, and so many fans have come, you know, to the venue and you know to watch the players. I mean, I'm sure you know MVL has so many fans. In India, same goes for Nepo, same goes for Levon, and of course Pranesh as well. So nice to see this enthusiasm from the fans.

Absolutely, Sajid. Right now in the studio, I'm very enthusiastic and excited to find out who will be the MVP, the player of the match for the Czech Mumba Masters. We see there Lenny signing the autographs as well. You know Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; he's been a former world best champion. back in 2021, and he goes on to prove himself on the icon board. He's been a mainstay for the, for the Mumbai Masters over all the seasons of the Global Chess League, and he's really showing why. And Saj, I can also see Arohi getting ready for the player of the match. Any inclination, speculations who that might be?

I mean, for me it's pretty clear, but I think it's up to Arohi. But I, I will have to give it to, you know, Pranesh, because I think that to me it's one of the biggest upsets. And of course, speaking of MVL, I think he has had a pretty good event so far because he took away Alireza Firouzja. And let's go to Arohi to see who's going to be the player of the match.

Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony of the second game of today played here at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. Well, the Mumbai Masters needed this win. They needed to maintain the consistency, and they've got one. So now to give away the Player of the Match award, we have with us Nithya Krishnan, Head of Marketing, Couchbase. The Player of the Match— when the team does exceptionally well, it's hard to pick one, but we have a name. It is Pranesh from Czech Mumba Masters. Pranish, no, no, I'm not letting you go without having a chat. Firstly, congratulations. How does it feel to come to GCL, play these games, such a competitive environment?

I'm just feeling really happy that I got the last entry and I'm really doing well here.

So, I hope I win all the games and do better than Fedoseev at least. Yeah.

So, you know, today you played against Levon, super experienced player. How were your nerves going into the game?

Not, not much actually.

I was just feeling like I just have to play all the right moves and I was just focusing on moves actually.

You know, we've seen you to be a very cool-headed player. You don't really— it doesn't matter who's in front of you, you give your best and you've got the results that you expected. One player that you're looking forward to play in this season?

Not like that. I just want to play everyone and just have fun. Yeah.

All right, tell me, today's game, super convincing win. Uh, how do you get through with it?

I'm just happy, and I hope all my next games will be like this. And yeah.

Congratulations on today's win. Hope for better games to come.

Thank you.

That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We will head back and come back with the next game. But before that, casters, over to you.

Huge congratulations to Pranesh. I mean, the joy on his face, Sahaj. You know, he comes in and he says, I'm just happy to be performing for my team. A late entry, a replacement for Fedoseev pretty much on the last minute. And what does he do? He comes, banging start, takes down Anish Giri. Comes in today, clinches the victory for the Mumbai Masters, takes down Love on Aronian. Wow!

And of course, has a great game against Wei Yi as well. I mean, this is a spectacular performance from Pranesh so far. I mean, he is he is one of the main reasons why the Czech Mumba Masters did so well, and and and he was a last minute replacement. This is so crazy to think about.

I've noticed this in the chess world very often. You know that whenever we have something like this happen, where a player steps in last minute, feels like the stars start aligning. For them somewhere, feels like the universe is conspiring for you to be there, and maybe Pranesh is feeling some of that lack. Well, from the Czech Mumbai Masters, he definitely cashed in on that win. It's going to be awesome to see what road lies ahead. But Sahaj, what road lies ahead for us and for our chat and for our audience is a rather exciting one.

It is. It is basically the match that I have been waiting for. I would say for three days. Now, and I think we're gonna get to it very, very soon. But we have the standings in front of us. The Czech Mumba Masters are now at sole number one position with four. Of course, they've played four matches. The others have played only three. Two wins and two losses so far. But look at those game points: thirty-six, Tanya.

Said, look at the row next to that. Now, everyone watching, it will be the match points that will decide the top two teams. Every team at the end of it would have played ten matches. They're going to play twice against each other right now. You know, going into match eleven, our eleventh match, day three, we have five teams with six match points, bhai.

You know, I remember last year that after the after day three, we had a similar situation where the top five teams had had six match points and one team had zero. But then afterwards, you know, Triveni kind of really took over and they you know. qualified to the semis very, very, you know, a couple of days, you know, ahead of time. But now look at this, Triveni still at 0.

That's been a shocking storyline. Now everyone watching, I think for right now what you have to focus on is the first row, which is the number of matches. Obviously our team names with the number of matches and the match points that we're on. I think the separator here is that for Gambits, Pipers, and Knights, they have one more match in hands even though they are tied at the same match point. So that kind of gives them a slight advantage. And it'll keep shifting. But by the end, before the grand final, those number of matches will be ten for each of the team. And Sahaj, if more than one team is tied on the same number of match points by the end of it, that second last row of game points is what's going to be the decider. Hundred percent.

And of course, we have an exciting matchup incoming. Of course, between the Alpine APL Pipers and the Fires American Gambits, who are who are just you know fighting maybe for the first. First place at the end of, of course, day three. Of course, we're going to have another match after that. But ये match में भाई दो players हैं who you might know, Tanya. One is the goat of chess and the other is Magnus.

Nicely played, nicely played there. Well, what's ahead is setting you up for the clash between the Pipers and the Five's American Gambits, two of the hottest teams here in Bengaluru. Every single tier list had them right at the top as favorites here. And on their icon board, we're gonna watch Magnus Carlsen take on Javokir Sindarov. This will be their first clash of the season. You got Magnus Carlsen, you know, uh, 5 times classical world champion, the number of rapid and blitz world championship I have lost count of that. And Javokir Sindarov, who's writing his legacy right now, he You know, becoming—he's become the world championship challenger. And I have to say, as we see our Czech Mumba Masters, I think they're leaving the arena. We'll see the other teams walk in really soon. But I would just want to talk a little bit about Javakir Sindarov. He's proving to be, I would say, such a fantastic world championship challenger. He's writing that story so incredibly well, showing that he's strong enough to dominate, but also vulnerable enough with what happened against Jan Nepomniachtchi when it gets too chaotic.

100%, but of course, you know, historically speaking, this guy—I mean, winning the candidates the way he did, as an absolute dominating performance. World Cup, Tanya. एक महीने का event is something that he ended up winning, and of course, now he's going to challenge the world championship challenger. But उससे पहले, he's going to challenge the GOAT of chess, and I'm not even sure if I have a favorite here, Tanya. And I think this is the only match where I. I can say that I don't have a favorite here. What do you think? Predict the result. No pressure.

I'm gonna— I'm gonna hold off on that because I feel like we need to break this down— match down a bit more to really understand which boards are going to perform how. We will do all of that in just a few, but first, let's see which team starts with which color. Arohi, take it away.

The top 2 teams on the leaderboard will go up against each other now. Today, on day 3, probably doesn't matter as much, but if you've got the other one defeated, then you have an upper edge. So this becomes a really important clash, and the decisions start right here at the coin toss. Now, may I call upon the match official, Deputy Chief Arbiter, Alan Atkinson?

Hello.

And now let's call upon the coaches of the two teams. From the Alpine APL Pipers, we have Praveen Dipsay joining us, and the Fires American Gambits, Shreenath Narayanan. Who's taking the call? Heads. Heads is the call. It's tails.

It's tails. Okay, so you have the call. Well, we take tails. We take black.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, so please, we take black. All right, black it is.

Playing the second game of the day. Unfortunately couldn't win the first one. Now, how do you get back?

Well, I think the best way is to fight back.

Yeah. So it's not the color that mattered. It's the quality of play that mattered. And I think that's fine.

I mean, 2 blacks is fine.

You know, you take on the other team, which was on the top 2 on the leaderboard, probably doesn't make a lot of difference right now on day 3. But if you've got a win over them, then probably it makes easier for the team to, you know, approach the upcoming games.

Oh yes, psychologically. Psychologically is very important because if you're leading, then it's sort of putting pressure on the other teams. It's, I think, a good thing to be leading and be— not be complacent, of course, but try to take in, get into lead. I think it's very important.

All right, all the best for the game today.

Thank you.

Happy with the toss? Thoughts on it?

Uh, yeah, uh, we were going to take white if we won the toss. So, nothing to complain. But again, I think color doesn't make a major difference because we are going to play either color. But looking at what we wanted, we have had 2 blacks and now 2 whites. So, we are happy with that kind of balance.

So, the last game, y'all had a time crunch on the icon board. Probably it could have gone your way. However, because of that time crunch and losing out of time, Javokheer ran out of time. How have you overcome that?

Yeah, that was a difficult moment, but I think it's very typical in the GCL to have that kind of moments where games get decided in the last 2-3 minutes.

And, uh, we had a lot of fun after the match.

I think right after the game, as soon as we went to the players' lounge, Javakir told Nihal, let's play some bullet, and they immediately got to playing. And then we had some fun at the RCB Cafe.

We had a meet and greet.

So, uh, Uh, and then we played games all night, so, um, it pained for a while, but then we were back to our normal selves pretty quickly.

He does face Magnus Carlsen today though. Any specific preparations that he must have gone through?

Yeah, definitely. Uh, Jayakir is someone who prepares meticulously in general, and with someone like Magnus, you always have a lot of respect.

All right, all the best for the game Thank you. That is it from the coin toss. The news is that Alpine APL Pipers have won the toss, opted for white. We'll be short after a short 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 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 और हम सब मिलके नहीं करेंगे तो फर्क कैसे पड़ेगा?

मानिकचन ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल पोलो स्टील पाइप्स एयरपोर्ट से लेकर आपके घर तक कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल पोलो बनाता है देश की बढ़ती ताकत एपीएल पोलो देश की बढ़ती ताकत। The chief guests have arrived. Salute! Salute करो, salute करो। Salute हटाओ, ये पिलाओ। Long non-sticky full of veggies.

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पर हम भी जिद्दी हैं। तीस से ज्यादा 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, 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 में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian.

अरे बेटा क्या कर रही हो? पापा, हमारे यहाँ प्लास्टिक रीसाइकलिंग का प्रॉब्लम नहीं है। प्लास्टिक कलेक का प्रॉब्लम है और हम सब मिलके नहीं करेंगे तो फर्क कैसे पड़ेगा मानिकचन ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता जैसे कि एपीएल पोलो स्टील पाइप्स एयरपोर्ट से लेकर आपके घर तक कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल पोलो बनाता है देश की बढ़ती ताकत एपीएल देश की बढ़ती ताकत। The chief guests have arrived. Salute!

Salute करो, salute करो। Salute हटाओ, ये पिलाओ। Long non-sticky full of veggies.

Formality हटाओ, ये पी खाओ। And what a day we've had so far and the action that's coming up next. Next, chef's kiss. Super hyped about that, and to bring in the hype, joining Sahaj and I is Sagar Shah. Sagar, next match एक movie होने वाली है. It's the Alpine Pipers coming in with Magnus Carlsen and the American Gambits bringing in Shafakir Sindarov.

I'm just trying to find कि मेरे पास match के लिए ticket second is sorry guys sold out हो चुकी है ticket. No one is able to get in now. It's a jam-packed auditorium. Bाहर इतना excitement है. I'm also seeing like incredibly young talents who are here to watch the high-quality chess in this game. Magnus Jauki, two of the best players in the world of chess right now.

Well, one man who's going to be trying to claim his first crown, and the other will sit opposite him, who walked away from it after. of winning and doing it all, Magnus Carlsen for the second time enters the arena today. There we have the Pipers, they are ready to go. But let's not forget, it hasn't been a great start to the day for the Pipers. They went down to the PBG Alaskan Knights. How much of a factor is reset right now for them, Sahaj?

Well, I think they just have to, you know, um, not think about what happened in the previous match and, and remind themselves that they were unbeaten until this morning. And, you know, they have the GOAT of chess as their icon, and enough said.

Well, one has nothing left to prove, Magnus Carlsen, but this guy, Javakir Sindarov, has everything to claim right now. You know, he's going to be back in the arena leading that icon board. And what a story it's been for Javakir Sindarov at the Global Chess League. He's played for different teams. He started as a prodigy breakout board, and here Leading from the front. One of the hottest teams that we've seen. You know, a team that we often describe, Sagar, as built for speed.

Absolutely. And if you think about it, Tanya, Sahaj, both the teams were on 100% score, then lost their 3rd game. And now whoever loses will lose 2 in a row. So that's actually going to be a huge hit to them. And both we considered as favorites, right? Alpine APL Pipers and the Fires American Gambit.

So one is going down today. Yeah, only one can emerge winner. Sahaj, you were saying?

Question for both of you: Like whoever wins the match, does that does that team become a favorite?

Oh! Before the game, क्या चल रहा है भाई? जाओ खीर के साथ खेलना है, फिर भी relaxed.

You know, I'll tell you one thing about Magnus Carlsen: He really enjoys the challenge of the younger generation. He wants to say, sure, the future is coming, but not right now, not when they sit opposite me. I think Magnus is. Pumped for this match on his board. At the end of it, it is a team competition, and we see the other, the rest of the team, they go in. Magnus right there, pleasing the fans—not something we've seen often.

मुझे ऐसे लगता है मैग्नस बोला Saturday Sunday को आप आ रहे हो तो you are a chess fan fine I won't give you but Monday को आ रहे हो आप then you deserve it.

So you're a core chess fan yeah let's go wow oh look at that that's Titi, she's the Asian Junior Champion.

She got a photo with Magnus.

Oh, that's so cool. That is so cool.

Just awesome to watch the scenes before the match. And as you mentioned earlier, oh, जाओ कीर बोला भाई Magnus करेगा तो maybe I will also do it.

Aura aura.

Oh, and he just walked past Magnus Carlsen. He said, "I'll sign it before." But yeah, Magnus खड़ा है. I'll see you on the board, Magnus.

Let's go. Why what? Why is Magnus signing?

So much, like wouldn't he get tired? I have never seen that happen before. I'm gonna say this. You know, usually he stops after the match is over. He spends time with the fans.

But before, भाई Magic Monday हो गया ये तो। Yeah, Magnus की वो strategy थी ना कि to show up late for the game. Maybe that's how we can justify it.

कि मैं board sign कर रहा था तो इसलिए मैं late आया। Or do you think it's mind games that Magnus knows कि भाई Ravikant is just about to come पीछे से? Let him see how chilled I'm feeling about. This generational clash. Wow. You know, we say Javokir Sindarov, his talent undeniable, but Magnus Carlsen, a generational talent.

I think mind games have started here.

Totally.

And guys, you know what? Javokir had beaten Magnus just couple of months ago in Hong Kong. Yes, in the same time control, almost 15+10 was the time control there. So a rapid game, which means that Magnus will be itching for revenge. Why?

And both these players have history with Global Chess League. They've played in Season 1, they've played the previous seasons, but they've never faced each other because Shabakir, for him, it's the first time on the icon board. And this is the lineup. Now we've been talking about Shabakir and Magnus, but look at the other faces there looking out at us. It is absolutely juicy on each one of those boards.

You know, I feel this is Team Classical versus Team Rapid, but we are playing rapid format here, so I'm gonna say that American Pirc Gambit have a a really good chance. Of course, we've spoken enough about, you know, Sendarov versus Magnus. But, uh, Nihal versus Anish. Now, Nihal is of course known as, you know, he's known for his speed. He has also recently become 2700 as well. But Anish has had a bit of a resurgence. We could say Anish 3.0 if we can, because he also finished second at the Candidates. Tanya, your thoughts on this match?

Yeah, but for Anish, the big question is what form he comes into for this game right now. He has struggled in the Global Chess League Season 2 so far. The big scorers have been for the Alpine Pipers, Vidit Gujarati and Hampi. But yet for them early on today, these were the 2 boards that went down. So they need to reset, find their form again. I want to bring up that graphic one more time. I want to do one of my favorite games that I call Hot or Cold. We'll go board by board and you guys have to tell me which team— is it the Pipers or the Fires American Gambits— that's hot or cold in that one? Let's start From the bottom there, from the Prodigy Game Six board, Moritz taking on Murzin. Who's hot? Who's cold? I I mean Murzin.

I would say I would go for Moritz. It's very tough. Yeah. Hi, Moritz is in form.

He has had two wins and one draw.

Murzin three draws. But also Murzin is a world rapid champion. I think that just takes the cake. I know. But still, come on.

I love it. There is a split decision here. So this game could go either way. Let's move on to our women. Superstar boards. How do we feel about that Game 4, Game 5?

Humpy, for me, Humpy is a favorite against Sara Khadim, and I think Bibi Sara is a favorite against Divya considering Divya's current form.

I would say Bibi Sara and Divya both are, I would say, hot in this sense because they're both gonna be like super, uh, I think, uh, aggressive. And I think Sara versus Humpy, maybe I will give a slight edge to Humpy there.

Divya has really been questionable with her form in this Global Chess League, and Bibisara as well has struggled in some of the games. So I think for these 2 players, getting a win today is very important. It's sort of just getting your ball rolling, getting the engine started for these 2 players.

You know, recently they played one of those Speed Chess Championships. I think it was the quarterfinals or something, and Arma Gedanta gaya tha match, and it was so, so— I think Bibisara won that. Yes, Bibisara won that match. But let me tell you that form जो आपके पिछले तीन rounds से चल रही है, वो इन दोनों players के साथ नहीं मतलब काम करेगी। Because that form is gonna come back when you when you see that opponent in front of you who you have played so many times, those feelings come back.

Well, talking about feelings, let's talk about our feelings for the men's superstar boards. We've got Vidit versus your good friend Daniel Dubov, and we've got Anish taking on Nihal. Vidit is a good friend too. Fair, we will come back to that because I'm being told the moment is here right now. We've got the Alpine Pipers and the Fires American Gambits ready to enter the arena. Here we go.

The top 2 teams on the leaderboard go head-to-head against each other. Now, when the teams are so evenly placed, there is no chance for any, any, any Any mistake there. Let's call upon the 2 teams, the Alpine APL Pipers and the Fires American Gambits.

Welcome to the finals.

Playing white in this game are the fires American Gambits. Let's start with the introduction for all the players: World Championship challenger Javakir Sindarov, Chesscom Bullet World Champion Nihal Sarin, former World Rapid Champion champion Daniel Dubov. 3-time Women's World Blitz Champion Bibisara Salbaeva. Former silver medalist in World Women's Rapid and Blitz, Sara Khadem. Former World Junior Champion Makandria Moridze. And their coach, Srinath Narayanan. And now the team playing black, the Alpine APL Pipers. Let's start with on their icon board, world number one Magnus Carlsen, the reigning Grand Swiss Champion Anish Giri, Arjuna Awardi Vidit Gujrathi, Arjuna Awardi दिव्या देशमुख, टू टाइम्स विमेन्स रैपिड चैम्पियन हंपी कोनेरू, फॉर्मर वर्ल्ड रैपिड चैम्पियन वोलोदार मोर्जिन, एंड देर कोच प्रवीण दीप से। गिव इट अप फॉर द टू टीम्स प्लेइंग इन द थर्ड मैच ऑफ़ डे नंबर थ्री अट द टेक माइंड्रा ग्लोबल चेस लीग। You may now proceed for handshakes. As the top two teams take their places on. On the board, we'll call upon some guests for the first move. May I call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, the chief arbiter, Mr. Gerd Bayer, and our special guest for today, Mr. Gaurav Gupta, additional chief secretary, Government of Karnataka, and Mr. Nishant Sinha, founder, Roastery Coffee House. A big game here today, this evening. On the icon board, there's Javakhir and Magnus Carlsen. The first moves being made by our dignitaries on the icon board. And now may I also call upon Mr. Venkat Shankaran, EVP, Axis Bank.

And we've got the ceremonial moves on. Anish, too eager to get things started with that handshake, has to just wait a few more 30 more seconds before getting those first moves in. My heart is racing so fast for this one. The matchups that we have right behind Nihal and Anish to start with— by the way, some friendly banter there— but this one, our marquee headliner, you know, what can we even say about it? One man has dominated an entire generation and era, the other looking to claim his own. And we've also got incredible women's superstar action Handshakes. We are off. Divya Bebisara getting the first moves in.

Knight to f3 is what Bebisara chooses. It is gonna be a huge fight across every single board here. What a match! I think this is my favorite match out of all of them. This has to be, bhai. Come on, look at this. No, no, I mean, uh, like team-wise. Yeah, and then in, in terms of that, like, this has to be because I have no clue what's gonna happen, Danya.

I have no clue. So tightly contested in each one of these boards. I fully understand your feelings. All 6 boards equally matched there. And of course, the storyline of our icon board with Magnus Carlsen facing Gavakhir Sindarov. Now this one has started with development happening on the board. We'll come back to this as it's transposed into a Catalan right now. Our other women's superstar board, Sarah versus Hampi. Now Hampi suffered her first defeat earlier on in the day, and what has been her opening of choice Another queen's pawn opening.

Absolutely. Humpy has won two games though with the black pieces, and she has she lost her match against Nino. Basically, she's played four blacks back to back, and we call this the Queen's Gambit Decline. Pawn takes pawn happens, and we switch into the Carlsbad structure, which I which tells me that this might be a solid game. You know, Sara is a solid player, and I think Humpy G is also I would I would call her a solid player as well. So. So I think the opening kind of justifies it.

So 2 very solid starts so far on the women's superstar board. Let's go on and see what's happening on our men's superstar boards. The first moves are yet to be made, but I'm sure we saw Anish there far too eager for the handshaking. He was like, let's get the moves on the board, bro. And right now, Nihal, who's been on fiery form throughout, you know, he'll be playing his first Olympiad for the Indian team 3 days after the Global Chess He's playing against a shaky Anish. I think this one for the fires American Gambit is a critical board. It's handshakes and we are off.

Absolutely. And you said fiery form. He has defeated Wei Yi and Levon back to back. I mean, it couldn't have gone better than this. E4 and Scotch on the board.

Wow.

Anish Giri gets his knight out and we're gonna see a mainline theory here. The knight trades, the pawn's about to move forward.

भाई, I think there is a there is a there is some team preparation going on there as well, Tanya, because Dubov and Vidit is the same opening as Nehal versus Anish. Wow!

So another potential we saw that happen in the previous match with all black boats playing the Sicilian. Are we going to see similar storylines here? Right now, Daniel Dubov again known for his feisty chess taking on Vidit who had a tough start to the day. Has Vidit recently We'll find out. We'll see what his response is. But let's go to our iconic clash there, Sahaj. Waiting for handshakes on this one. Magnus Carlsen, he enjoys and loves and thrives on a challenge like no other. He knows that the next generation sits opposite him right now. He's always eager to assert his domination on them.

Absolutely, absolutely. I think both Both players would have some kind of pressure, I think, because from Sindarov's perspective, he wants to defeat Magnus because he just did it in the World Teams as well, just a little bit earlier in the year. And now, and from Magnus's perspective, even though he's a World Championship challenger, he wants to, you know, prove himself yet again. I mean, he's been doing it for the last 15 years, but he wants to continue doing it. He wants to stay on top for as long as he can. But Sindarov is knocking on that door. That I am here, and he's also playing with the white pieces. You know, so he's gonna put some pressure on Magnus there as well. बहुत बहुत बहुत मजा आएगा यहाँ पे। Match शुरू नहीं हुआ already मजा आ रहा है तानिया। You know, Cinderella might be knocking on the door.

Magnus Carlsen always shuts it down, but will he be able to do it in this format? He scored his first win earlier today against Vishy Anand, and once again we see him employing the Sicilian Defense.

Oh, that is Magnus's like typical response. Remember, this is what he played against Fabi in the World Championship every single game, and Fabi could not break, you know, his, uh, system with the, uh, with the Ruy Lopez. And wait, am I seeing this correctly? Did Magnus just play f6?

And that is no mouse slip. What? There can be no mouse slip. This is an over-the-board event. What? What on earth is this move? Is what Sindarov is asking himself. Is what we are asking himself. Magnus, is he hiding a smile? Nihal Sarin walks in. He's like, "Hey, Magnus, bro, what did you just play?" I उसको E six खेलना था क्या?

As what? I have never seen this in my life before. F six. I mean, it could be that he wanted to play E six, Tanya, or G six, which is which is what he played against you know Fabi earlier in the World Championship. And I'm not really sure what's going on. What is F six?

If Magnus, with some blind spot, instead of e6 played f6, I have never seen that happen. That is absolutely shocking. But to me, it feels like, Sahaj, this is some kind of a shocker surprise for Javakir Sinderov. He's saying, "I don't want a theoretical battle against you. I want to just play this on, get you in an unfamiliar." middle game. Shabakir responds by getting his king to safety. Magnus immediately attacked Shabakir's bishop. We see a trade, we see a sip of water. Magnus Carlsen, after strange pawn moves, no piece yet developed, has the bishop pair.

100%. And after bishop takes c6, black has gone for pawn— well, d takes c6. Generally they say that the pawn captures should be towards the center, but of course this is some preparation by the GOAT of chess. And now we see the idea of f He wants to push e5 and solidify his stance in the center, and, and without wasting a tempo. Had he played e6, then playing e5 would have cost him another tempo. Now, I'm not really sure if this opening is fine or if it's working, but I do know that within just a couple of weeks, everyone is going to start playing f6 now, Tanya.

Especially depending on how this game goes. If Magnus is able to get a good position out of the opening, one would see f6 starting to become a trend like you're saying. Saying, I do like the speed with which Jabakir responded. He wasn't thrown off for five minutes. He wasn't. He didn't let the surprise and the shock value get to him.

Absolutely. मैं तो सोचता था. I like I would have thought about this position, you know, for at least five minutes to try and understand whether it was a mouse slip or not, or whether you know hand slip or not, because it really looked like you know E six or G six. But what a creative idea by the goat of chess!

Sahaj, the fact that Magnus. Makes this absolutely inexplicable move on— what was it, move number 3? 3. And then is thinking, hesitating with his response. It just makes me wonder how much of a prep or over-the-board inspiration is this. What is going on in the genius's mind? Well, he makes one move that can be at least more easily explained. He takes control of the center, opens a diagonal for the bishop, makes sure that Javakhi cannot get the d4 pawn Cannot get the e5 break in. And Javakir says, sure, on the center I can't advance, but guess what? I'm taking all the space on the other side.

Absolutely, putting a clamp on the b6 square. And I think his follow-up could be to play d3, and this knight can somehow sit on the c4 square where it can put pressure on the b6, uh, you know, outpost there. And also, let's not forget, the c5 pawn is a little bit loose because you cannot play b6 anymore. Now, this is a critical idea inside Rosolimo's You want to keep this structure: a7, b6, c5, and this is basically the formation that you want to go for. But since Magnus has committed a6 in this position, it creates some problems, and this is why Sindarov has played a5 to make sure he doesn't get to play b6 anymore.

Too many dark square weaknesses on Magnus's camp, and भाई पॉन्स ही चले जा रहे हैं। What happened to our opening principle of piece development? Said he wants to plant his bishop on the square which has just been vacated by that pawn. He's saying, "I want my bishop to c five. I want my knight to come in front of the black king, and that's how I'll harmonize my pieces." Absolutely.

So far, seven moves have been played, and six out of seven moves Magnus has played with the pawn.

That is insane! Unbelievable! Unbelievable! जब वो के center of सोच रहे हैं कि Magnus का एक piece भी बाहर नहीं आ रहा है. मैंने अपना king safety पे ले आया हूँ। How can I play with efficiency, take advantage of the leading development? Can I get to that c4 pawn? Can my knight attack it? Can my queen attack it? Can I win the pawn against the world number one early on in the opening? Sahaj, as he solves these questions, let's do a quick roundup of the openings on the other board. Let's not forget every board matters at the Global Chess League.

Absolutely. Let's let's go to board number two, Nihal versus This is Anish, and looks like Nehal is in a bit of trouble here. I see the bar has gone down, and oh, he's a pawn down as well. And generally speaking, you're supposed to have some kind of an attack on the kingside. But yeah, bishop h six पे नहीं बैठा हुआ white पे ले। Not really sure how Nehal is going to find his compensation in this position. Looks like just Anish is just just crushing.

Yeah, yes, it does start to feel like that, that Anish has all the trumps in the position. Has Nihal just rushed through the openings? All right, we will see. So for now, for the Alpine Pipers, this board looking like a big chance, a big opportunity right out of the opening. You've got a slight edge with the black pieces, each win worth 4 points. Let's move on, let's continue our tour. Such a dangerous, creative opponent. For Vidit to handle, it started with a Scotch opening. How are we feeling about Vidit's position? It's already very asymmetrical.

Hey, दोनों गेम में Scotch आया और and it looks like दोनों गेम में white की थोड़ी सी खराब आ गई तो it doesn't feel like Scotch has gone you know their way. I mean, I'm I'm not really sure what the theoretical follow-up here is. Knight b4 can be quite interesting since white has sidestepped from the pin. This C4 pin. Let's go to the six board view just so we can get an understanding of what is going on on every single board there. As we can see on top left corner, Sindarov is definitely pushing. Oh, Barne just chalang marithi abhi Nihal ke board pe. But I think that's a bug there. But now I think Nihal is is pawn down. We've we've already addressed that. No compensation so far for Nihal Dubov. Tanya, what do you think about Dubov's position? He has just Played queen to c2, so there is no pin on the c4 pawn. So it hits that knight.

That's the top right board. अभी विदित का knight under attack है. I'm expecting him to jump forward, attack that white queen that has just moved forward. We'll see right now complex battle in that one. जो विदित का pawn structure है doubled c pawns, but also bishops putting pressure on Dubov's pawn. Very double edge middle game. Let's come to the bottom row that we're seeing right now. Bibisara versus Divya Deshmukh. Highly complex for Divya right now. She's trying to strike on the queen side while there's more space for Bibisara. Bibisara slightly better with that space advantage, better pawn structure. Speaking of pawn structure, Sara Ghadim, Koneru Hampi balance में हैं पर Morizzi और Murzin के बीच में क्या हो रहा है?

वही मतलब मुझे Le Levan you know Levan played g5 in the previous game and now this feels kind of similar या g4 f5 just going for the kill. Instantly, but the problem is black has not castled yet on the kingside. So maybe that attack is a bit premature, and looks like white is in a bit of trouble. Actually, I feel that on board two, three, and six, it feels like white is struggling here a bit, Tanya. That's not a great development for the fires American gambits.

Wow! With the white pieces there, the fires American gambits, and some early questions to be answered right now. For the Alpine Pipers, looking good on those boards. But let's circle back to our icon board. The big question on that top left board. Let's dive straight into that. Javokir Sindarov ahead in development. Magnus Carlsen only with pawn moves right now. Javokir has to make sure that over the next few moves, Magnus's king does not get to safety. अगर वो castling करने से black को रोक सकते हैं, जावोकिर, he will have the initiative in the middle games ahead. So one plan that I'm looking as Magnus will take his bishop out, his knight out. Shabakir can also take his knight out eventually right now and then plant his queen on b3. I want to put my queen on that square. Let's just highlight that. I'm eyeballing the b7 pawn, but also you know that long vision on the other side, making sure it's not easy for Magnus's king to get to safety.

Hundred percent. What a nice breakdown! And also queen b3 से अपने d3 के pawn को भी आप यू नो डिफेंड कर रहे हो एंड देन द नाइट गोज़ तू डी टू एंड सी फोर मतलब इसे सो दिस पोजीशन इज़ सो कंफर्टेबल दैट सिंदरोव इज़ जॉइनिंग राइट नाउ अनबिलीव वो बोर्ड पे देख ही नहीं रहा है सहज यू नो फ्रॉम अ माइंड गेम्स परस्पेक्टिव आई सी दिस एफ सिक्स मूव एंड आई सी मैग्नस Absolutely not. I mean, it was Magnus who did the surprise with f6, but it looks like this has not turned out well for him, and I think he's in big trouble. And also look at the time difference. A three-minute deficit already for the goat of chess, and he goes knight to e7, develops that knight. Maybe he's eyeing for knight to g6, and then go bishop को बाहर निकालेगा, you know, with bishop d6 and so on. Tanya, just queen b3 now. Does that seem simple? I like your idea.

It's a move where it Does feel like the queen is quite stable. I'm stopping you from castle. I want to point out what Magnus wants to achieve over the next few moves is plant his knight on G six. He's kept it flexible. कि भाई वो dark squared bishop कौन से घर पे निकलेगा? E seven, D six, C five options होने वाले हैं. But I still see future problems for Magnus to finish his development. Sahaj, I am at a loss to understand that shocker of an F six we saw from Magnus.

Absolutely. I mean. It's it's an it's a good move in principle, but maybe it was just a bit too early to be played on move three. I mean, they call it the golden ball for a reason. And now knight g six. Oh well, he he goes bishop e three. Simple development there. Knight g six has been played. Now queen to b three, Tanya. I really like this move. Yeah, I feel like this move has to be played at some point just to stop him from going short castled. पूरे सपने ही मत देखने दो यहाँ पे। What Sindarov wants to achieve.

After making sure that there's no castling on the right side for now, is an early strike with D four. Sahaj, जब आपने अपने opponent के king को रोक लिया है safety पे लाने के लिए, now the next step is to open up lines towards that king.

Hundred percent.

He set up the bishop perfectly for that D four break next.

Yup, I think उससे पहले knights को भी ले आओ, rook को भी ले आओ, D one play and just push D four. Yeah, just prepare properly because black has basically no way to Kind of develop his pieces. He can play bishop d six. He cannot castle. We already know that. एक आइडिया हो सकता है कि queen e seven and bishop e six, and then he tries to castle. Before he does that, push d four.

And you know we've been talking about how much of a challenge playing against the young generation Magnus Carlsen relishes. But for players like Java Kirsenarov, how many times you've seen them at elite level events saying that the one thing they're really looking forward to is is facing Magnus. You know, very often, Sahaj, Magnus's colleagues, his compatriots, his same generation, we say he lives rent-free in their heads. He has— they have grown up seeing his domination. But for this younger generation, that fear does not exist. For the Fire American Gambits, leading on their icon board, Zavokhir Sindarov, that's not the story. There's respect off the board, but on the They play to win.

100%. I think it's one thing to play Magnus, and I think many also dream about, you know, beating Magnus. And this is the closest I feel, you know, someone has been right out of the opening. Yes, you know, Nepo had a completely winning position, but this feels like a domination from, I think, move 8 or 7 or, you know, something like that. And because look at the weaknesses on the queenside. Yeah, this pawn structure, the b6 square is quite bad. Queen e7, that's an ugly move. I mean, this is not a move you want to play, right? It's a move you have to play. Play, and look at that! D four pushed already. Anya, this is a problem for Magnus. Do you think Magnus goes down today?

I'm never too quick to write Magnus off in any game, regardless of the position. But big pressure on the world number one. This is what we were talking about. Magnus's king is in the safety. He's Magnus's king is far away from safety. His pieces are not developed. Everything is stuck. Now, Javakir Sindarov is opening up the center, opening up the lines. Trying to get his rooks on the open files. एक बारी ये D line खुल जाएगी, जावकीर का रुक वहाँ आ जाएगा. Queen is stopping safety on the right side. The rook will stop safety on the left side.

Wow! What a nice breakdown there. By the way, he goes pawn takes pawn. I think we capture back with the knight perhaps to not allow bishop E six.

Exactly, and I love that. I love that you're stopping that development. I think Javakir will take it back with the knight. There we see it on our camera. He barely takes any time. You know when you're playing against Magnus, you have to put pressure on the board and the clock.

Yup, he has eleven minutes on the clock already. Four and a half minutes difference. बन चुका है. And if you go queen takes c four, good luck to you. Oh wow!

Sagar bhai, Rakesh bhai sitting and enjoying this iconic clash that we have between these two teams. Sahaj, let's quickly do a roundup of all the other action that we have. Let's go board by board. Starting from the men's superstar board, and take us through where are the chances for these teams.

I think Nihal versus Anish looks like this is going Alpine APL Piper's way with the black pieces. I think because he's just a pawn up for essentially no compensation whatsoever. I think something went wrong in the opening here for, for Nihal. Now I'm not really sure what that is, but being a pawn down, no compensation, Anish is expected to at least press and If Nihal puts up a really good defense, he can maybe hold the position. But so that's the best result.

Pipers on this 100%. Yes. Let's say advantage Pipers on this one. Let's go to the second superstar board that we've got now. Daniel Dubov versus Vidit. I will say though, out of the opening, this is a more Vidit position than a Daniel Dubov position, and that's something that again for the for the Pipers is big news. Vidit just lost early on. Look at his development already, and that's what Dubov is trying to complete. Get his rook into the game. But it just feels that Vidit has no big problems to solve out of the opening. A lot of trades have happened.

Tanya, I feel this is more like a Dubov position to me because he's gonna go Rook e1 and Rook takes e5, and, you know, he's gonna just, you know, completely demolish on the— you know, I think Vidit likes these solid structures, you know, closed positions more or less. In this structure, White has already sacrificed a pawn. Black's king is a bit exposed. And these pieces, the bishop on a six and the knight on b six, are completely out of place, right? So it's like the king is kind of alone.

I'm not allowing that. It says no sacrifices there. Speaking of sacrifices, board पे तो नहीं होने वाला, but Sahaj, how awesome is it to see our crowd that might have a lot of them have sacrificed a working Monday to come and see the biggest names of chess fight it out in front of them. They can hear, watch our commentary in the playing hall. They're seeing the icons of the game, right? Battle it out head to head in front of them. And Sahaj, not a single ticket left. A completely packed house sold out here showing up for chess.

Wow! That's the power of you know chess. That's the power of well Bangalore in this sense. Thank you for you know showing up on a Monday and watching this match. I mean, I think Sindaro versus Magnus itself is a treat. But you know the other matches do both. You know there's Nihal and I think we should check out Bibisara versus Divya as well. There there must be so. So many fans who are, you know, waiting to see what, you know, what happens between these 2 players because they have played against each other in, you know, so many times.

Mm-hmm.

And just judging by the position right now, it feels like Bibisara is a bit ahead because, well, Black's bishop on b7 is kind of bad. But wait, she makes a mistake with knight e5. I think we came at the perfect moment. There is something tactical happening here, Tanya. I'm not sure what that is. Is it c5 at the right moment?

And that right moment might be right now. In these kind of positions, black has to break free. But there is an x-ray on the queen under d-file. So c5 wasn't possible, which is why Divyani अपनी queen हटा ली है. Setting up the idea of c5, also x-raying that pawn on a4. So let's highlight c5 right now. It is going to come given the opportunity. Opening up that queen diagonal, queen and knight will combine to attack that a4 pawn. And Divya is ready to strike if she gets that moment to do it. So here things are pretty complex for both these teams. Let's get an update on Hampi's board, and then we'll move on to Prodigy before circling back to Magnus versus Javakir.

This looks like a typical Raghuzaan type position where you know I'm just gonna predict like an equal game. I feel like the players are you know being told okay try to be as solid as possible because अब दूसरे गेम्स में तो आग लगने वाली है। आग लग चुकी है। सहज यहाँ पे तो बहुत टाइम है आग लगने को.

We'll check out on the Prodigy board later, but let's go to Magnus versus Jabuki.

He took the pawn. He took the pawn.

No. सहज, can we backtrack? Can we backtrack and just see the last few moves how we got here? Get everyone up to date. Magnus Carlsen is the king of chess, but right now his king is about to come under fire.

He took pawn takes pawn, knight takes pawn, and now he plays the move c5. एक नाइट को लात मारते हुए नाइट गोज़ तू एफ थ्री एंड नाउ यू नो वी आर टॉर्ड डेवलप योर पीसेस एक पुट योर किंग तू सेफ्टी कनेक्ट योर रुक्स बट मैग्नस सेज़ नो नो नो गिव मी द पॉन द सेंट्रल पॉन जिससे ई फाइल भी खुल रही है आई मीन वी ऑलरेडी नोट कि ब्लैक का किंग इज़ यू नो इज़ This definitely is not a psychological move. Magnus has calculated, as you can see on the bar as well. The position is largely equal, but it is incredibly difficult to play this for Magnus in comparison to Sindarov. It's always, in my opinion, I think it's always easy to play with you know initiative rather than material. And Sindarov has all the initiative that he could hope for. He could, he could. I mean, he has everything that he could. Just for the cost of a pawn. Your thoughts, Sanya?

Queen takes pawn feels like the most non-human move that a player will make. Your king is in the center. आपकी development नहीं complete है and you're allowing the white rook to start lining up against the queen and the king. But Saj, get this: it was the best move in the position. Wow! Magnus Carlsen takes the bait, makes the number one move there. And says, "Show me what you got." Essentially, what Magnus is saying is, "I'm ready to even sacrifice my queen." Something we've seen Magnus do time and time again. If we can have our analysis board really quickly, I want to show one potential line that could happen in this moment right now. Javokir Sindarov के radar पे चल रहा है. Bishop takes pawn clearance tactic here. The rook coming in to E1 is the big. And Sahaj, it would go completely wild. You could potentially take up the bishop, but that loses the queen. Instead, you have to use that moment to get your own bishop out, hit the white queen via the e6 square, and now you're making the case that next I'm trading off the bishops and getting my king to safety. Exactly.

And this bishop is now putting interference on this pin, taki vo queen trap na ho. So you might go queen to c3. Black can maybe play rook c8 as well. But by kitna calculation karna padta hai? सब यू नो फिगर आउट करने के लिए, because सानिया बिशप सी फाइव इज़ वन एग्रेसिव मूव। There is knight c three, knight d two, rook a four, rook e one मतलब आई एंड बिशप सी फाइव एज़ल पाँच चाले हैं इस पोजीशन में। I have five different यू नो एग्रेसिव मूव्स that can force black to make यू नो an only move essentially and Magnus has looked at all of That's ridiculous.

And you know what is even crazier is that both these players have to solve this position right out of the opening with 10 minutes on their clock. They've already used half the time that they have in the match. Wow. And the questions are just starting for both of them. Magnus has taken the bait. He's saying, I am going to go up material, which means that if you're not able to get to my king, I will be just up a pawn. Give Magnus a little time to consolidate, and Ravikir is in trouble. Sinderov is trying to find the right response here. Sehaj, he does it. He comes out with the knight. He immediately puts pressure on that black queen.

He's playing for piece activity. Absolutely. And now the queen has so many squares to go to. c6 is one. Queen b4, I guess, is another one. And I'm also looking at bishop e6, because why not, right? Because, um, I mean, you were playing after bishop takes c5, you were playing bishop e6 anyway. So why not knight c3 and then bishop e6 too? But Queen B four also looks a bit tempting. I think Sindarov B उसको choices दे रहा है. Like you know he's not he's not saying play only moves. I think he's also giving him multiple choices so he can you know get maybe take advantage of the clock there. How about Queen C six as a move?

Options for Magnus Carlsen, but the questions will continue after that. Serge, I like the idea of offering a queen trade as well, like you're pointing out. But I think we're going to take a pause from this because you want to take us to another game right now. Absolutely.

It's Mauritsi versus Volodar Murzin.

Because look at that knight on e six, knight on b five, and both of the knights are poisoned. If you go queen takes e six, GG my good sir. And black be knight c two check. खेल सकता है. This is a nightmare.

Absolute nightmare in the position. हर knight को देखिए knight takes pawn, knight c seven भी highlight किया जाए. It is left, right and center checks आ रहे हैं. Knights are coming into the attack. And we saw there that Volodar was getting ready with his response. Not easy to find one. I would be tempted to try to stop that knight from entering into the game. Say it's such a tricky position right now. Seven pawns for white, six for black. White already has an extra pawn.

You know, if if we didn't have the bar, I would say that white is winning. But somehow it is black who is winning in this position. I see that. I see it shows you. You can see the bar. It it it's Dropped quite a bit for white, and I think tactically speaking, because perhaps you are you have some pressure on the rook and the bishop, and maybe you can stop the ideas with something like rook c eight. It is a bit tough for white to continue his attack, and white का king भी बहुत exposed है इस position में. So you know, Murzin could be giving a very crucial win to the Alpine APL Pipers against the Firs American Gambits. This could be a key match at the end of the.

Sahaj, the feeling in this position is that if black is able to stop that check coming from c7, from one of the white knights landing there, which he just does. Now look at the number of threats. Queen takes knight, idea number one. Knight takes rook, idea number two. Knight takes bishop, also hanging.

And pawn takes pawn as well. There's like 4 ideas in this position. And also a6 is another one because queen b2 भी मरेगा उसके बाद। भाई कितने आइडिया सब बचाओगे यहाँ? Is he lost? Yeah, he's just lost in this position.

I guess too many pieces are hanging. You know, it feels like one by one, like you're saying, everything will fall. And also the king on f2 has lost its right to castle. By black, just moment castle करेगा उस king पे automatic check आ जाएगी। Hundred percent.

And also, I mean, I'm just thinking in in a scenario like this, we just have to go all the way. I'm thinking bishop d3. You take back with the queen. You go for some queen g6 check के idea. That could be a way to play in this position, and that might be the only way to continue here. And look at Moritzzi.

Look at him on the camera. भाई board देखने की ज़रूरत भी नहीं है to understand which player is under pressure right now. For fires American Gambits, this board is burning up. Absolutely, absolutely.

And actually, let's let's you know speaking of burning up, it looks like you know fires American Gambits are not having a good day. Look at our bars.

Look at the नीचे जो हमारे सब boards की evaluation दी गई है ऑन सेकंड बोर्ड फाइज़ अमेरिकन गैम्बिट इन ट्रबल अल्पाइन पाइपर्स बेटर विद द ब्लैक पीसेस विदित अगेंस्ट डूबोव स्लाइट एज़ फॉर विदित फॉर द अल्पाइन पाइपर्स एंड आई थिंक दैट्स वन बोर्ड दे वांट टू कैश इन ऑन बट गो राइट नेक्स्ट तू दैट बोर्ड नंबर फोर अगेन वी And six, all of them.

I believe oh, I mean now Sara Khadem also getting into some trouble as well. That would be five boards with the white pieces that they are struggling on, Tanya. That is not what the Five American Gambits had hoped going into this match.

Absolutely, Sahaj. I want to come back to our icon board because it feels like the dust has settled there somewhere. The queens are off the board. That's the top left right. There, bottom right. तो पूरा आग ही लग गया है. What is happening there? But the only player having fun is Volodimerzin in that one. Let's see the clash between Cinderov Magnus again. Let's backtrack just a few moves, and I believe that the queens got traded off at the exact moment we left it.

Absolutely. He played this bishop e six, which was I think a very critical move to find here. To you know, if you attack my queen, I attack your queen. Quite simple. White plays queen b six, queen c six आता है and And then the queens get traded. And Tanya, did you see something? Or well, this is also quite I think simple enough. I still think that Sindarov is going to put some pressure here because black does have these double pawns c six and c five. एक तो मरने वाला है यहाँ पे। It's a question whether you take with the bishop or the knight. I think दोनों cases में Sindarov will try to you know put some pressure because of the c six pawn.

It's six versus five. Magnus has an extra pawn. He's about to lose that extra pawn, and there might be pressure on the other one. But look at the pressure on Vidit Gujarati's He's better on the board, but he's down to 50 seconds.

Oh wow, that was the strategy all along. Yeah, but he's completely lost.

Dubov is lost in this position, and Vidit has to play 5 moves in 50 seconds to reach 40th move, to get to that 41st move where you get 2 extra seconds. 5 moves remain, but the nature of the position is quite simplified right now. You know, Vidit is stopping that B7 pawn. वो block हो चुका है। उनका plan clear है। Look at the way the bishop highlight the bishop controlling the B1 square. Wow! Vidit wants to go with his king to C7 to B6, kick that knight, win that pawn. And right now Dubov is saying, भाई तुम left जाओगे, हम अंदर आएंगे रुक के साथ giving a check on E7, but it's not going to be enough. Once the rook lands there, the black king will step up, kick that knight. Out, pick up the b7 pawn just in time.

Absolutely, but I still think it will not be enough. I mean, for example, if White goes Rook e3 and Rook a3 and just holds the knight on a5, very soon Vidit will be in a situation where where he would have to play under seconds. Now, I am not arguing whether the position is winning or not. I mean, hundred percent, I think Vidit is completely winning. But that time situation, thirty six seconds on the clock, Tanya, and right now no increment.

But he's there, he's there. Just one more move is what Vidit needs. Move forty eighth पे पहुँच चुके हैं. He trades, he gets those extra two seconds. Now the position says let's do a quick count. Seven pawns for Vidit with the tower of terror on the C-file. Tीन pawns आ चुके हैं। उनके पास दो extra pawns हैं। पाँच pawns हैं Dubov के पास। उनका knight फंसा हुआ है pawn defend करते हुए। Dubov का rook फंसा हुआ है knight defend करते हुए। Rook is essentially trapped in this position. Domination on the board by Vidit.

Absolutely, but his last move was a slight inaccuracy, Tanya. King b5 would have been GG in this position, but bishop d5 के He allows Dubov to take this pawn on c4, and इसी के साथ-साथ रुक भी खुल जाता है. But of course, you're going into a rook endgame where I'm not so sure if it's so simple to win this because simply because of the time. Again, I agree it's it's winning on paper, but because of the time, I'm not so sure if Dubov is gonna make it that simple. Twenty-seven seconds he only has in in this position.

And Dubov, on the other hand, nine minutes on the clock to try to find those tricks and traps to save the game with it fully locked. For now, Dubov's thinking, "Do I pick up that c4 pawn?" The problem of picking up that pawn is that you are essentially simplifying the position for black. Knights are tricky pieces. अगर आपको कोई trap set करना है और आप Dubov हो, you really don't want to trade that minor piece.

Hundred percent knights are the trickiest, and he does not do it. He plays g4, expands on the kingside. I think at some point he would have to take on c4, but before that he wants to you know get into the best situation possible. He plays king d2 to get rook h3. In and black to go his rook here, trying to get his rook on the open file. And now rook h3. Is that the move? Black can play king b6 maybe. No, you have to keep the rook, you know, and and you have to defend the knight on a5 as well.

So swiping the rook all the way around will not help Daniel Dubov. A full defensive mode में है अभी, but उनके पास इतने resources नहीं है to keep this endgame together. Vidit has to find a breakthrough, and the feeling is at some point he has to break the pawn structure on the right. Create more weaknesses around the camp that Dubov has on the right flank. Sayaj, let's do a quick check-in with our icon board and we'll come straight back to this one.

Absolutely. By the way, pawn अभी भी Magnus के पास है. We were thinking that he had this knight takes c5, but I think Sindarov trying to you know complicate things here because had he taken on c5, it it it would be one piece less.

Which is why he has to go back. Pawn takes pawn. अगर king आगे जाता, that would have been checkmate in one. In with a head nod, knows that this is close to over right now. So I have to say, just get the bishop out of the way, castle, get the rook into the attack.

Exactly, king safety is the first priority always. I mean, I mean, you can see the problem with the white's position. Yeah, the king is definitely not— it's the only active piece, but you don't want to activate the king so early on in the game. He takes the bishop on d3 and knight takes e5, and I think we are about to see a resignation very, very soon.

Fire's American Gambit struggling on this board right now. Queen under fire, pawn on G four under fire right now. The queen tries to stay connected to that at the moment, and where is the other piece of the attack coming from? Murzin.

I mean, I think he can play bishop d six perhaps, and rook f eight का जो threat है ये तो बहुत ही ज़्यादा dangerous लग रहा है। इसपे queen पे हो जाएगी, and you just have no no ways to defend anymore.

Even just something something simple like queen f seven तानिया। सहज there is so much action on on the other boards. Look at what's happening on the Nehal Sarin. Right now, this one it feels like Volodimor Zin will get the job done for the Pipers. But here, Nihal Sarin का king also in the open. He has an extra exchange. Anish Giri trying to get to the king. What is happening here?

Nihal Sarin के पास एक past pawn है a file पे। But Tanya उसके पास repetition है। Anish probably is thinking all of my teammates are doing so well. Should I repeat here or not?

Anish might take the repetition at this moment. So if this ends in a draw, we'll keep an eye out. But Let's go over to the Vidit board right now. Vidit crushing it on his one. We've got a result coming in already. Sahaj, Kunairo Humpy scores the first win for the Alpine Piper. She's back in it. Wow!

So that's the first win, and this wasn't even the match that was completely winning. Yeah, let's we are on Dubo versus Vidit right now, and and and in on this match as well, Vidit is completely winning. We just saw Volodar is completely winning against Mauritsi as well. भाई क्या चल रहा है black Say teen games and not a single position where you know the Alpine Pipers have to be worried. Not a single board.

The fires American gambits were not able to put a pressure, put pressure on any one of the boards, at least not so far. They need a miraculous save. Sage, this is our position. I think Vidit's doing a fantastic job of converting this endgame. Do the math: seven pawns versus five pawns. Better pieces that bishop. dominating the knight, the king dominating the rook.

भाई Dubov का rook trap हो चुका है वहाँ पे। उसको knight भी trap हो चुका है। Knight के पास कोई घर ही नहीं है। अब सिर्फ king के साथ खेल सकता है। हाँ वो वही तभी तो वो भी नहीं खेल सकता क्योंकि king b4 आ जाएगा। h3 h4 भी खेला ना उसने? अच्छा हाँ ये भी trap है। Wow Tanya wow that was a great great point there from you because even if you play king c2 king b4 भाई king knight rook तीनों pieces trap हो चुके हैं पर Daniel Dubov pawn की वजह से knight trap नाइट की वजह से रुक ट्रैप्ड है, रुक की वजह से किंग ट्रैप्ड है। Exactly.

सहज, the geometry that Vidit has created dominating play there and we have a result where Volodimerzin has converted that position putting pressure from the start and that means the Pipers get their second win. सहज, it's eight to zero. They are crushing this one. Let's go to our icon board.

Absolutely. Let's go to Centaro versus Magnus because it looks like Magnus भी endgame में कुछ tricky tricky चीजें कर सकता है. Of course, he has no pressure whatsoever because he wow. We have another result. Bibisara has drawn her match against Divya Deshrukh. So that would be nine to one. That is the first point that the Firs American Gambits have scored in this match. Very very tough. And looks like Nihal and Anish have also finished their match. And was it a draw? Yes, it was. It looks like it was a draw as well. So that makes the result ten to two. Let's go to Javokir versus Max.

To see what is happening there, and this one remains in the balance. I think this will go on for a while, but Vidit's game is absolutely not going to go on for a while. Magnus Carlsen, looking at the other boards, can feel quite pleased with the performance that he's seeing all across that the Pipers are producing. Bye! Let's have Vidit on our screen right now. Both Vidit and Humpy lost their matches earlier today. Humpy's made her comeback. Vidit's about to make his.

Bye! Vidit is. Just on another level. Yeah, I mean, if we look at his performance, win against Mahmedyarov, win against Lenier, and now, I mean, if he wins this one, that would be win against Dubov. And Tanya, all of the games were played with black.

Unbelievable! That's incredible. The one game he lost.

Yes, one game he lost, but all games were played with black. I mean, imagine आधा आधे से भी ज़्यादा tournament पड़ा हुआ है and he hasn't even played a single game with white. That is incredible, I think.

And I want to point out that the one game he lost, he lost on time. Yes, exactly. The position was still fine for Vidit. And here we've got rook to d8. Kela gaye. Sehaj, he's putting immense pressure. The problem is that Daniel Dubov has run out of moves. Like we pointed out, सारे पॉन्स बढ़ चुके हैं। Vidit just has to keep passing the ball to Dubov. Dubov का king hill नहीं सकता, rook नहीं जा सकता। कई the knight is trapped at the edge of the board.

बोर्ड बीप ऑन बढ़ेगा मरेगा कहाँ कहाँ बढ़ेगा भाई कुछ कुछ भी नहीं हो रहा है इस पोजीशन में तो आई मीन यूअर राइट यूअर यूअर लिटरली पैरालाइज्ड इन दिस पोजीशन फ्रॉम द व्हाइट साइड यूअर कंपलीटली पैरालाइज्ड यू शुड हैव टेकन दैट पॉन ऑन सी फॉर अरियर एंड आई एम शुरू हीज यू Next win in.

Let's go back to our icon board because both of them are now under 2 minutes and it's still an endgame. Magnus Carlsen is incredibly dangerous in these endgames. He's hung on to that extra pawn. Sayaj, are they just going to completely crush this and win on every single board? The few draws that are given, we already have a 10-2 score.

Yeah, I think they've already won the match essentially.

We are potentially looking at an 18-2 win here, which would be our biggest margin Well, if Magnus well, this right now is in the balance.

I doubt if Magnus is going to win this because knights are extremely tricky. And let's not forget that time pressure dono ko hai, but Magnus ko bhot zada hai. Magnus has one minute and you know he has fifteen seconds or so. And Javokir had just about two minutes or so or something like that. And that does count in the long run. And I think Magnus, अगर कोई एक weakness है Magnus की, if there is anything like that, it is to get him under you know ten seconds or so.

And Vidit Gujarati showed no weakness at all as he converted. Did it flawlessly against Daniel Dubov, paralyzing him into resignation. Gets the win with it, scoring it one more time for the Pipers. Now it's all eyes on our icon board right now. Saaj, agree that even when you look at the position, it feels that the white knight's ready to jump to c4, ready to jump to e4, the rooks about to line up. Shabakir Sindarov's position looks very healthy.

It looks healthy for sure. And I think another reason why I feel Shabakir has a chance here is simply because of the clock. I think, I think he tends to manage his time pressure really well. जब वो किरा we've seen it so many times and knights are extremely tricky pieces. Yeah.

This is Magnus simplifying the position. अगर वो pawn मारा तो then the b2 pawn remains weak. We'd see a couple of trades and more pawns off the board. I think Magnus would be happy to navigate this towards equality. He knows his team has done it. But there's another side to the story. 14 to 2 score के साथ does that motivate Magnus to do Magnus things in the center? He said there's no risk for me anymore.

Yeah, he doesn't have any risk. But at the same time, Jabokir को भी तो थोड़ा लग रहा होगा ना कि I mean, I mean, you know, he has to score for his team here because otherwise it could be, as you mentioned, an 18 to 2 loss. I don't know. I feel Jabokir has some motivation. He would have looked at the, you know, the results over there and okay, I think he, I think he would try to win. I think anything but a draw. That's what we can agree on here, right, Tanya?

Absolutely, Saj. I think this story is far from over. This one. 14 to 2 is already the biggest margin we've seen in the Global Chess League Season 2 for any team to grab that win. Massive game points coming in for Pipers in this match right now. Javakir's knight steps up the board. Magnus looking to put pressure. Look at that, he comes in with the rook. He's attacking the weakness. This is not over.

Oh my God, Bishop f6 happens, and that's a great move by Magnus, you know, kicking his knight to c4. And now Rook d3 happens as well. Tanya Is it at all possible that one player is going to get flagged? Is it at all possible?

It is always possible. There is barely any increment. Both players now touching the 22nd mark. Look at the way Magnus has improved his pieces. Rook अंदर आ चुका है, bishop centralized हो चुका है for the Pipers. Sinderov running to get his king to the defense. The one thing for Sinderov is his knights are beautifully coordinated, defending each other. Magnus trying to outmaneuver him, get him low on the clock. He's playing against the clock. He's playing against the position. The bishop about to come give it. Check. This is turning around. Magnus is doing Magnus things here. And now Bishop d3 as well.

Oh, Rook takes b2 was a mistake. That was a mistake. Takes, takes, Knight takes c4. And now I think it is Sindarov who has a chance again. Oh, he just looked at the score there. He was not happy with the result. Bishop a3 happened, and now he has 5 seconds on the clock. He has to make a move now.

3 seconds. Magnus will make Sindarov sweat for this draw. If it ends, it will end with liquidation, not with a draw offer. I will be shocked to see if these Both two players shake hands and agree for a draw unless the position forces it.

Absolutely, they have to play H four or F four. Let's go! Oh, that was a mistake. That was a mistake. Bishop B five. Now the position is equal. Oh, pieces flying around.

Let's just in time. Pieces.

Oh my god! Pawn takes G four and he pushes the pawn on C four. Now the question is: Are two knights or two bishops stronger? That's the question. Knight E five check incoming, Tanya.

He stops it. He says no checks for you. And Magnus has to be careful on his clock as well. Cinderoff playing with so. So much speed and so much accuracy attacks that c4 pawn. Anything can happen. Magnus now bailing out, more pieces coming off. This is what we were talking about. You need to earn the draw here.

Oh yes, I think it's going to be a draw. King g5 and king f3, and there it is. Wow, what a match! Mazahi a gaya. I mean, especially the Sendaro versus Javakir, what a match that was. Beautiful. And of course, a crushing victory for the Alpine APL Pipers with the black pieces, winning three games and drawing three.

They lost the first match of the day to the PBG Alaskan Knights, did Alpine Pipers, but they come back in the strongest way with the best response—one that's over the board, getting all the wins, not a single loss, and a dominating scoreline. Wow! Wow!

And वो भी चार पॉइंट या फोर प्लस Basically, they won with black, and that, that means each game gave them an extra 4 points. That is insane.

I am absolutely in shock with what we've just witnessed right now. Let's go to the stage. Let's hear it from our arbiter.

Good evening, everybody. It's my pleasure to announce the result of this match. The Alpine APL Piper beat the Defiers American Gambits with 15 against 3. A big round of applause. Thank you. Can I please ask the both team captains on stage to sign the result, the scoresheets? Thank you.

It was 3 wins and 3 draws for Srinath's Alpine Pipers, getting it done in big style with the black pieces there. The biggest scoreline that we've seen in the season so far, a 15-3 win again. The American Gambits. And I have to say that, you know, the Faiz American Gambits has been one of the biggest threats in the circuit right now. And joining us is Ketty here. Ketty, what a match! Just lay the stage here for us. How were you feeling watching it and calling it?

I loved it. I was just sitting over here listening your commentary, guys. It was so exciting.

I'm gonna just Expect. Yeah, just let's have your mic. Yes, Kati.

And I, I think that this is really best gift you can have for the birthday.

Absolutely, absolutely. My birthday is complete. I mean, I'm so happy. This is the best present I could have had. Two knights versus two bishops also it happened. I mean, it is so rare, you know, as a chess fan to see this. And you know, between Sindarov and Magnus, मज़ा ही आ गया। I mean, this was so much fun.

You know what was fascinating? We were talking about the icon clash, right? Sindarov versus Magnus. Magnus. But the drama on the other board— wow— was absolutely mind-blowing. 3 wins. And Teddy, I don't even know who's going to be the performer, the player of the match.

That is really tough, really, really tough, because Vidit and Connor, they both managed to come back. So I think maybe it's something between them too.

We'll find out right now. A very happy Humpy, she's there with the fans Signing the autographs. The day that we've had earlier for the Pipers coming back, winning this match again, taking down the Fire's American Gambit, setting the house on fire were the Pipers this time. Fantastic performance there. Anish as well, a very happy moment for the team.

And also Hampichi has performed exceptionally well, I think, in this event so far. 4 blacks and 3 wins. Yeah, just 1 loss. That is insane. And look at that, Murzin all smiles here. Everyone is Happy, I think, after this match. I mean, especially the Alpine APL Pipers with that win.

And when you saw the players walk in, Katty, did you have a favorite going into the match before it started?

I thought American Gambit was the favorite because the the other team has already played this day in the morning, and they lost the match against QPG Alaska. And I thought that they had a bad day, but maybe not.

And we thought it was going to be a very closely contested battle when the handshake started. Every game so evenly matched in strength, but it was anything but even right from the start. The icon board was the one that Javakir managed to keep in balance for the most part of the game. The biggest shocker arriving on move 3, right here, right now. That move, f6.

What was that? That was f6. Katie, have you ever seen this move in your life? There is no chance. What was that?

No, I have never seen, but I loved our video. So close-up of Jamal here's reaction.

I was like, what? And there it is. Of course, uh, you know, Dubov was caught in some kind of a zugzwang. He was not able to move his pieces, and he had so much extra time on the board, but, uh, it just wasn't enough.

Well, we saw the fans smiling there. In this game, only Vidit Gujarati would have the smiles. Daniel Dubois was fully dominated, not a single piece moving by the end of it. And then we saw the end of the icon board. Both players playing it out, fighting it out till nothing was left. And right there, handshakes. Vipers clinching a big victory.

Absolutely, what a big win that was, and a Of course, it just proves, yeah, Magnus Carlsen, the GOAT of chess, once again strikes again. You know, the moment you ask who was your favorite, on the screen we could see Magnus smiling, and I was like, this has to be like, you know, some kind of a message. It's always whenever he plays, I think his team just gets this extra motivation, and I think that's exactly what it is.

What a fantastic performance. What a match to watch that was. Domination there by Pipers. And now the question on everyone's mind, who is the MVP? The player of the match for the Alpine Pipers. Arohi, tell us who won.

That's a correct question to ask, Tanya, because I'm here to answer exactly that. Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony of the 3rd game of day 3 of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. Well, what a game this was! The 2 table toppers played against each other. Crucial game, although early on in the stage, but we finally have a player who stood out today. To give away the Player of the Match award, may I call upon Mr. Dipanjan Basu, co-founder and partner, Fireside Ventures. And now for the award, the Player of the Match is Vidit Gujarati.

Thank you.

With it, congratulations. So glad to have you back. Firstly, before we talk about this game, tell me what had happened in the last one. You and Humpy were winning throughout for the Did not win your last games, but you all have made a comeback.

Yeah, much needed. Um, in the morning game, it was equal and I got flagged, so that was disappointing, but happy to make a comeback. Although I wouldn't say it was easy, there were a lot of nerves today.

4 blacks, 3 wins out of those. Is this a strategy you all are going with? Play the blacks first, then you go to your comfort white?

I mean, when it works, you can call it a strategy. So, yeah, I would say that, yeah, it's a strategy and it's working out fine so far.

So far so good, no changes to make because why change something that works for you, right?

Yeah, I mean, these things are very random. You can play white, black, it's a coin toss literally. So, but we thought like, okay, why not to take black today? It would just be fun to play 4 blacks in a row.

Well, definitely, and it paid off as well with this win, that a much-needed win. And good thing that you all lost on the same day, won on the same day, so the spirits must be high at the end of the day.

No, it's not a good thing.

We would have preferred to win both, uh, but, uh, this was a big, um, win as well. Like, um, in board points, I think this would help us, and also, uh, the morale. Like, if you have lost the game earlier You want to, you know, go back home with good spirits. And yeah, we did it today in a convincing manner.

That's that's exactly what I meant. That when you lose, you want to win quickly, and that's exactly what happened. But congratulations for today's win. Thank you so much. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We head straight back to casters because another game coming your way.

What a match that was, Arohi! Fantastic to watch, fantastic to witness. And with it, Gujarati there saying, "You know what? It wasn't easy." But the Alpine Vipers made it look so easy and effortless almost.

They made it look so easy, but like we are chess players, we know how does it feel to lose the match and then wait for a few hours and then to play another game.

But for sure today they will celebrate. You know, Kathy, I think on the Vidit board, getting the player of the match, it's something that now this is, I believe, his second player of the match of the season already. So he is one of the key performers for the Alpine Pipers. He had less than a minute, his clock went red, I don't even know how many moves ago. So keeping those nerves, that tension under control was so impressive.

Very impressive. And I think he was trying to control his time better than the previous game because remember, he lost on the time.

He did get flagged against Erdogmus. None of that today against, uh, Daniel Dubov. And that means the Alpine Alpine Pipers have propelled themselves to 9 match points, and at the end of the day here, Ketty, they are going to be on the pole position going into day 4.

Yeah, and Tanya, you know what, we have, uh, last match coming up, and unless PBG Alaskan Knights scores the point there, they can be the sole leader going to day 4.

That's absolutely true. So Triveni Continental Kings and the PBG Alaskan Knights, we see them currently 5th and 6th matched up against each other for our final blockbuster of the day is not only going to decide Triveni Continental Kings' fate because they are on 0 points, but also whether the Pipers will be running away there with that extra match points. You know, coming into this, we were talking about how stacked the Pipers were.

Yeah.

Their board 1, their icon board Magnus, up to their prodigy board having a former World Rapid Champion there, everyone in the middle. So far, Do you think they're proving all those tier lists right?

Ah, I think, I think the other teams, other players are just also quite packed. So far, I don't really see that happening. Yeah, we'll see in the next two days.

Well, we will find out. There's a lot, and of course, it's about making it to those top two teams right there. But what a day of chess we've had here at the Lalit, and again, Magnus, Anish, Vidit, Divya. Yeah, Humpy, Volodymyr Zin with the biggest scoring win, the biggest margin we've seen in GCL so far. With the final match coming up, Ketty, and you will be calling the action on that. I'm super excited to just sit in the playing hall and experience it live as I hear you and Sagar on the call. It's the PBG Alaskan Knights taking on the Triveni Continental Kings. Do you think the Knights will join the Pipers, or will TCK finally get on the scoreboard?

Well, I kind of have a feeling that PBG Alaska Knights will join Pipers leading first place. So, so we will see. You know, you can never expect here anything.

You know what is crazy, Katty, is that if the Alaska Knights win their match, they join the Pipers going into day 4. And this was the clash at the start of the day. PBG Alaska Knights with the first big upset of taking down the That's actually true.

We're coming back again to the back.

It's been a full circle right now. And Divya—

oh wow, what a move!

Yeah, not chess, she would have been a cricketer with all those catches right now. Fantastic reflexes there. Look at the fans there, they're waiting. Divya doesn't know which board to sign first, and she's had a long day in the office. 2 matches there, bit of Of course, fans are such a big part of the chess world. Here showing up in Bengaluru and showing up in our studio is Sagar Shah. Sagar bhai, क्या ही मैच था वो?

था one crushing victory for the Alpine APL Pipers. What a match! I want to say मजा आ गया, but Ketty, do you know what मजा आ गया means? No, you have to tell me.

It means we had a lot of fun. Yeah, tell us how How was the experience in the playing venue?

I enjoyed it. I was actually, uh, trying to listen into the commentary, trying to understand what all is happening, how to kind of make it more exciting for the people. Uh, and I was actually on the edge of my seat thanks to the commentary by Tanya and Sahaj. It was super.

Yeah, we saw you, Sagar, you and Rakesh having fun. Well, the fun is not over because we have a big matchup coming up.

It is the PBG Alaskan Knights, headed by the 5-time world champion, the legend of चेस इन्हें चेस है आनंद विल बी टेकिंग ऑन अलीराजा फिरूजा ऑफ़ द त्रिवेणी कंटिनेंटल किंग्स आरोही विच टीम प्लेस विच कलर दैट्स एक्जैक्टली व्हाट वी हियर टू नो विच टीम प्लेस विच कलर एंड फॉर दैट लेट्स स्ट्रेट हेड ऑन टू द कॉइन टॉस नाउ टू कॉल अपऑन मैं प्लीज कॉल अपऑन And the coaches of the two teams are going to be playing in match number twelve of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season Four for the PBG Alaskan Knights. We have Abhijit Kunte and for Trivani Continental Kings, Luke Van Vele. Who's taking the call?

You've did.

The knights will be taking the call. Tails is the call.

Tails, tails.

Yeah, thank you. Please, you win the toss and choose.

We choose black.

Now that is surprising because y'all have had a good run with the whites. Why change?

I think, uh, there is a mixture of colors. It's good sometimes. So let's try.

And here we are to play with both the colors, so we are going with the black.

You know, a great start of the day. You won the first game. Uh, Anand running out of time, everyone's eyes were on that बोर्ड। या इट वाज़ डेड्रॉप पोजीशन एंड वी वर होपिंग दैट यू नो इट विल बिग मार्जिन विन, बट इट्स पार्ट ऑफ़ द गेम सो वी आर होपिंग दैट द गुड रन विल कंटिन्यू। ऑल राइट, ऑल द बेस्ट तू द टीम। थैंक यू। लुक, वी आर बैक हियर, यू विद द व्हाइट, थॉट्स? वेल, इट फील्स ल Well, but it is day 3 and putting some points on the board is crucial.

Well, we've been in this situation before, you know.

Season 1, we were also in dire straits, so we know how it feels, you know.

And well, of course, it's time to make our comeback. And last night we had a serious training session till 3 AM.

You know, because, you know, 3 losses for Triveni is actually not acceptable.

But yeah.

Hope the players did get enough sleep though, so that they're fresh and rejuvenated for today's games.

Well, you know, we had the late game at 8 PM, so, and we had the team lunch together. Everybody is still in high spirits, although, you know, our standing in the tournament doesn't, you know, Doesn't really justify that, but but still, I mean we are we know that we can we'll be fighting back.

Well, new day, new opportunity, new chance to get back. All the best for today's game. Thank you very much. That is it from the coin toss. The news is that the PBG Alaskan Knights have won the toss and picked black. We'll be back after a short.

Break.

जब 11 इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, इंडिया क्रिकेट के मैदान में वर्ल्ड चैम्पियन बन जाता है। सोचो, जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, इंडिया और कितने मैदानों में वर्ल्ड चैम्पियन बन जाएगा?

इसलिए योनो देता है, हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर, the all new योनो। Power to every Indian. Manik Chand Oxirich, proudly 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 पोलो स्टील प 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 पिलाओ। लॉन्ग नॉनस्टिकी फुल ऑफ़ वेजीज़। फॉर्मालिटी हटाओ, ये पी खाओ। आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूटेट मैं सोच चुकी है, जिसकी वजह से पेनल्टी चार्जेस की सीटी बजने वाली है और क्रेडिट स्कोर के गिरने की वजह से आपके यानी कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है। Credit payments की चिंता हमेशा सर पे? आओ check पे। सारे credit cards के bill एक click में pay करो और one percent वापस पाओ। Redeem करो for vouchers या सीधा cash discount। Credit card है तो check करो। Five rupees, that is the whole difference. At fifty orders a day, five rupees becomes sixty thousand rupees annually. With five prime every order costs you ₹15. Lower cost and unlimited platform access. So get Fyers Prime at just ₹499 a month today. Investment in securities markets are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing.

पर हम भी जिद्दी हैं। तीस से ज्यादा क्वालिटी चेक्स, विटामिन ए और विटामिन डी से युक्त और खाना भी बने स्वादिष्ट। खाने में समझौता नहीं, अच्छा खाना शुरुआत से ही। इंडिपेंडेंस And today's game, the last one of the day, Ketty, we are going to break it down. It's going to be an epic encounter. It's the PBG Alaskan Knights led by Vishy Anand taking on the Triveni Continental Kings led by Alireza Firouzja.

How are you I am super hyped and excited because I would love to see the game between Vishy Anand and Alireza Firouzja. Uh, and also the fact that, uh, Tribhuvani has not scored yet, maybe this is a time that they start to score.

You know, just before this match, when the game of the Alpine APL Pipers and the, uh, Fires American Gambits was going on, I went to the lounge. Yeah. And there I met the team of Triveni Continental Kings, and they told me that the team was practicing until 3 AM yesterday.

That is a team spirit, you know. And I loved how the team captain Luke van Velie said that it is not acceptable to lose this much of the matches, and now it's time to score.

Yeah. And today— but it's not easy because they are taking on the team which is in form. The PBG Alaskan Knights just took down the Alpine APL Pipers in the morning.

Exactly.

And this team had a struggle to choose which one was the best player of the match. Was it Nino, or was it Yagiz, or was it Arjun? And here we have both teams on the screen.

Very, very exciting match. You can see there, these are the superstars Of both the teams, on the left is the Trivani Continental Kings. On the right, the PBG Alaskan Knights. Very exciting match. Let's bring on the individual encounters in a bit so that we can actually analyze each one and see where are the possibilities. So firstly, Firuja Vishyanand. Then we have Wei Arjunarigaisi, Arvind Yas. Khan, Zhu Jun'er, Katrina Lagnaud, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Nino Batsyashvili, and Pranav versus Abhimanyu Mishra. This— these are the pairings, Katie. I want to go through each one with you. Let's start off with Alireza Firouzja and Vishwanathan Anand.

Oh, that's going to be so interesting match. Uh, Vishy Anand lost the game earlier today against Magnus Carlsen on time. but he played really good. So I, I believe he would push himself to play a little bit faster.

Yeah, and I think Firouzja is an equally tough opponent for Vishy Anand. It won't be easy for him, but I think Vishy is in good form apart from those last few seconds where he's making those errors. He's playing really at a high level.

He did. And also, I love the opening choices to how he try to surprise. Oh, Bishop c4! Yes, yes, yes, yes, that was pretty cool. But also the other matches are very interesting. For, for me in particular, Arjun Agarwal against Wei Yi, I think that's a big fight.

Do you think like Arjun will have the small edge in this one? Uh, because I feel that Arjun is playing well. Wei Yi hasn't found his rhythm in this tournament. That does make me feel that Arjun will take this chance.

I had the same, same feeling. I still have the same feeling before we start the game. But you know, like, this is chess, right? You might be in a good form and then suddenly just something happens and you are in a good mood. And we know that, uh, Triveni had this team gathering, uh, spent really good time together. And as Alireza said, they're— they have real connections, not the fake connections.

Oh yes, in the opening ceremony When Anish was praising Magnus, he was like, "No fake, fake relationships and stuff like that." And there we see the PBG Alaskan Knights team coming in. Vishy Anand is sitting on the back seat there with Nino Batsyashvili, and Nino is from Georgia. And Ketti, who is our co-commentator here, is also from Georgia. So I think you know Nino. very, very well, Ketty. I want to ask you one question. What is it about GCL that brings out the best in Nino?

Uh, Nino, like, she loves this tournament, you know. We talk a lot about it, uh, throughout the year. Like, when she gets the contract, she's like— she calls and she's like, I just signed the contract, you know. Like, are you coming? So this is like, for both of us, this is like Really more like festive event, chess plus festive event. So she loves to play at GCL.

Right, and there we have the Triveni Continental Kings coming in, uh, serious look, but at the same time I do feel they are confident after really working hard. And they also had this team bonding going to the UB City Mall nearby, like a lot of time they've spent with Each other. You have the Luke Van Veli, the coach of the team. Wei, Alireza Firouzja, Zhu Jin'er. Oh, what a team this is! You know, I can't believe that they haven't won a single match till now.

No, this is not acceptable, as Luke Van Veli already said it. And let's see.

Here we have the mascot as well. Yes, I think the name of the mascot is mascot. Got is Striger, the tiger. Something like that. Striger or Strider. I keep missing that name, but it's beautiful. You know, they have a lot of soft toys, by the way, and they give it to a lot of kids out there.

And look at that little boy dance.

Beautiful. Yeah, let's go. That's in.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh man! This guy has got good. Good moves here. Yeah, I need to kind of learn from him. Oh yes, and this is exactly what the Triveni Continental Kings need to do on the board. Yeah, get the energy rolling.

I love the moves, I love the moves. Yeah, let's go! I love the moves.

Yeah, like, you know, there's so much right happening for the Triveni Continental Kings. They have the, the great team, they have great support, they have everything in place. The only thing is that it's just not clicking, right?

Yes.

And so today is the day when it has to click, or else if you lose 4 in a row, there's no chance— I think almost no chance to reach top 2. You're almost out of the event.

Oh, that— like, who would imagine this, right? To be so close. Triveni, the team that all the 3 seasons have been always in the finals. Uh, yeah, and as you said, they have it everything.

Yeah. Okay, and so by the way, the next encounter that we have and we were looking at is Erdogmus Yazgan versus Aravind Chidambaram.

Oh, this is another another incredible matchup. Aravind is very experienced chess player, and he's very very sharp as well and very strong. Erdogmus His young talent. Genius. He, he started to score, and I think he beat with it today.

Who's the man in form? He's 3 out of 4, only losing to Yaskar. Yes.

Yeah, so this is very interesting clash for me.

I think here, here Arvind has to be very careful. Well, we're going to break down the match fully, but now it's time to see all the players walk in. Over to you, Arohi.

Hello and welcome to the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. This is day 3, but the last face-off has all the ingredients that one could ask for in an action-packed face-off. It has drama, it has surprises, and it has battles. Let's call upon the 2 teams who are going to be fighting it out on the boards. It's PBG Alaska Knights versus Triveni Continental Kings. Let's start with the kings. They'll be playing their first and only face-off for today. Let's call upon and introduce the players: speed monster Ali Reza Firouzja, World Cup runner-up Wei Yi, Indian superstar Arvind Chidambaram, Chinese women superstar Zhu Jina. Former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, Indian rising star Pranav, and their coach Luke Van Baarle. And now the team who's already played a game today and the spirits will be high— PBG Alaska Knights, 5 times World Chess Champion आप विश्वनाथन आनंद, वर्ल्ड रैपिड नंबर थ्री अर्जुन अरिगेज़ी, यंगेस्ट 2700 यागस्कान एडोग्मस, फॉर्मर विमेन वर्ल्ड रैपिड एंड ब्लिट्स चैम्पियन कटरीना लाग्नो, जॉर्जियन सुपरस्टार नीनो बात्सियाश्विली। Youngest Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra and their coach Abhijit Kunte. All the best to the 2 teams. You may now proceed for handshakes. The teams are ready. Now let's move to the first move of the game. For that, I would like to call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, the chief arbiter, Gerd Beil, and along with them, our special guest, Mr. Madhukar N., appeal committee member, Karnataka State Chess Association president.

And we are now ready for this big encounter between the PBG Alaskan Knights and Triveni Continental Kings.

And the first handshake on the board of Nino Basiashvili and Alexandra Kostyunik. They have started the games. The Icon board starts the last—

yes, it starts after a couple of minutes here, and we already have action on This board. Alexandra Kosteniuk in this tournament hasn't particularly played great. She did beat Carissa Yip yesterday. Well, they are hoping for her to repeat that result.

You know what is the other here? The other players like Nino or Koneru Hampi, they are playing so well, right? Also Polina Shovalova. That players like Kosteniuk, who has this quite decent tournament They kind of make it look really like you know low, right?

And so right now we have an Italian here, which is a very common opening. But this move little move a three feels a bit different by Alexandra Kosteniuk. Maybe she wants to take Nino out of theory. Let's look at the other game between Zuzhiner and Katerina Lagrave. No. And here we have a very interesting opening, already an imbalance right out of it, Ketty, with Bishop takes on f6.

Yeah, that's very interesting. Uh, maybe it was Trompowski variation, maybe it was just Knight f3 variation, but White decided to give up the bishop pair for the double pawns. Uh, and yeah, I wonder What is Georginair's preparation here?

I, I think this is a very risky position for both sides because mainly I feel like Black, if they aren't careful, their king could be left with no good place to go because short castle leaves it with slightly exposed. Long castle is also a little bit exposed position. So, but there are benefits of this. You have the bishop pair, you Put the rook on g8 on the open file. Very exciting game.

Very exciting game. And black can decide also where to just bring this king, as you mentioned. Maybe keep it in the center. Maybe castle and then step aside in the corner. Other two boards have also started. Board two, Wei Yi against Arjun Erigaisi. They are playing Sicilian.

This is going to be very interesting because. Because Arjun has gone for the Sicilian Najdorf here, and Wei Yi has to find a way to put pressure against Arjun because Arjun has such good preparation, Ketty. He's one of the best prepared opponents out there, but he doesn't play the Najdorf so much. So Wei Yi is like, hmm, let me think from my entire repertoire that I have, what should I do that Arjun wouldn't have prepared Yeah, when you are preparing your game, you're not—

you, you're not only looking what you like to play, but also you're looking your opponent's games, right? What— where is the mistake, or where you can get something out of the position? Uh, they had a little bit of pause, Sagar, at the very, very beginning of this Sicilian. Uh, and oh, they have some— you see, some people are adjusting the camera, so we're gonna have a better view of the players. Interesting. And so far, this is standard Sicilian. Shall we take a look at the board three?

Arvin Chidambaram versus Yaz Khan Erdogmus. Very interesting opening here as well. Another Sicilian. What's up with so many Sicilians happening here, Katie?

Starting with Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, they started it today.

And this is the live board position. White has space. Black has the development. This is going to be very interesting, Ketti. I don't want to miss the handshake and the starting moments on the icon board. There you see Alireza Firouzja and Vishy Anand about to begin. Alireza will have the white pieces, and off we go. Let's go!

And here we have the handshake, and it is 24.

You know one thing about Vishy that I have always admired. Is oh he plays the London system. Let's go, Ketti!

Let's go. Vishy takes some pause here. See, he's not playing right away.

Vishy is like, okay, Alireza, you want to play this kind of coffeehouse chess with me? Well, to be honest, London is now a respected opening. It is played a lot, but still, in the sense that Vishy may not have faced London so much, is my.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, he's not playing recently that much of the games, uh, and what we can notice was a pause there. Obviously he took a pause there to figure it out what move he wants to play and what kind of setup he wants to play.

I think London System is one of those openings when Vishy was kind of at growing ages, it was never taken seriously Yes, and then now it has become the mainstay opening out there. So clearly Vishy has seen this era of how things change in the world of chess.

Yes, that's actually a good point, uh, and Sekhar, um, because Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand had this match in Chennai. Yes, right, the World Championship match. And I just looked a little bit of the statistics, and at the time Vishy she was 43 years old, right? And so much time passes. And after that, a few years after, he stopped playing professionally, right?

Well, in general, I think Vishy is playing still at a very high level. Yes, but he stopped playing these Candidates or the qualification tournaments to it. He's no longer fighting for the World Championship.

But what he's fighting for every single year is the GCL. He always plays.

of his favorite events. And by the way, here he has played a very interesting decision to get his bishop out to g7. Now, for all the newcomers to chess, if you do not know what the London System is, it's very simple. You build some sort of a triangle, Mm-hmm. you bring your knights out, you put the bishop outside the triangle, and then you bring your other bishop out and you castle. It's a very solid opening. In fact, this simplicity is the reason why it has become so popular at the club level.

And if you don't know exactly how to crack it, then you can get some serious attack with White. Knight e5, centralize this knight, and then pawn push on the kingside too. So g4 sometimes, h4. The chess world is divided into 2 groups, London lovers and London haters, right?

What are you, Katie?

I love London. Oh, you're a London lover? Nice. I love to play. I don't necessarily love to face it, but okay.

So while Alireza Firouzja has played the London, he also has been thinking. You can see his clock shows 18 minutes 30 seconds. He makes a small little luft. It's called a luft here, space for the bishop to drop back. Very cool. How this game is developing slowly and steadily. And Vishy may bring out his bishop here to hit the queen.

Yes, and, uh, this queen has to move on c1 or b3, otherwise the pawn on b2 might hang, right?

It's very important to preserve this pawn here. So while Vishy is thinking about this, should we go to other games? And maybe the— we can start from the prodigy And move upwards.

Let's do that.

Oh, he plays, by the way, Bishop f5. He plays this move. Oh, oh, and look at Alireza, very quickly he takes. What's happening? It seems like some prep. Yeah.

Wow, he plays really fast this move. And now Queen to b3 attacks the pawn on b7.

Attacking here.

Oh, you know what, I would just—

Could you long castle?

I wanted to short castle, but—

Oh, so you're Saying just sacrifice, and then if you take the pawn, then I play e5. Sagar, not Rook b8, the bishop is hanging— I mean, the rook is hanging. So first e5. Yes. And then maybe you lose another pawn.

Yes, because they are not mine. It's really bad move though.

Um, but do you know what Ketty, uh, Mag— um, Vishy did? He attacks the queen with the knight and also defends the pawn. We wanted to move to another game, but there's so much action here now. There can be a check here, there can be a check here as well.

Yeah, Queen a4, Queen b5. And I like Queen b5 move actually, just to trade the queens. Yes, trade the queens, and the black knight will be in the edge of the board.

So maybe you can then play Knight d4 and try to just centralize Right, look at that, uh, on your screen you can see Vishy Anand kind of relaxed. And you know, every time I see Vishy, he's a bit fidgety, you know, he's like doing this, he's like, he's sometimes even biting his nails. And so when I first started watching him play, I used to think, oh, he's so nervous, and so on. But no, it's not. Internally he's calm. It's just that there's some reflex actions which keep happening to every chess player. Like for example, if someone saw me playing chess, I'm all the time shaking my foot. And it might seem like I'm— I've gone crazy, but it's just something that I've been doing since a young age.

But you have no idea?

No idea. I don't even realize until someone comes and tells me, hey, what's wrong with you?

Okay, yeah, right. He likes to also shake the leg constantly.

Exactly. But just that I couldn't ever reach his level, Ketty. I mean, shaking the leg, not enough, not enough.

You need to be Good. That's right, Sakar. Shall we take a look at the board?

Six. Pranav V versus Abhimanyu Mishra. And guys, we have a Sicilian Dragon here. Let's take it. Actually, it started off with a very weird line because knight came out first.

It was close Sicilian. Yeah. F three kind of you see go takes us to the Standard type of setup of the Sicilian. I like this smart way of how Pranav is playing here with white.

Pranav is saying essentially that, Abhimanyu, you are too solid of a player to try some well-known theory, so I'm going to try something a little bit weird with you. And actually, it has worked out because right now Pranav has a serious edge with the white pieces here. Ketty, there's a famous saying that Bobby Fischer—

So how I—

do you know, push the pawn h4, h5, take it, like open up the h-file, check it, check, check, and checkmate.

Yeah, sack, sack, and mate. Yeah, like go here, boom, bring your queen, oops, like that, and then checkmate the king. And so this is exactly Pranav's playbook. He's going to go g4, h4, h5, and open things up.

Yes.

Uh, what is the black's plan here. Black has— look at him, he's played it! Yes, that's a beautiful move, Asagar. There are like few ways how Black can play here. First, to stop with h5. Second, to ignore it and to play something like Knight c4, maybe to start the queenside attack as well, because Black also has this dragon bishop and can try to open up.

That bishop is spitting fire on the long diagonal. That would be interesting to see. By the way, I look at Pranav, he's looking at the big screen like, guys, I've got things under control. Yes. How are my teammates doing? Let me check out.

Yeah, I kind of have a feeling that this is the starting position of his, you know, homework. So like, he has seen this position already several times.

Like he was seeing this when they were practicing at 3 AM yesterday.

Oh, definitely.

I don't know how much 6 amazing players can prepare when they sit together for 3 hours or 4 hours in the night. It's just insane. I think even if, you know, Triveni Continental Kings don't do well or, you know, something like that, it's just the fact that they are trying so hard is going to be helpful to each one of these players.

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like emergency meeting situation for the team. Yeah, they are actually quite nice team.

You know, while we are streaming this, people are following this entire event in multiple places. There are people inside the arena, you know, uh, the audience who are listening to the commentary with the headphones. There are also people in the chat, and I want to read out a comment that's written on the live chat. It's written by someone named Mahajan who says, GCL is amazing, never thought I would be watching chess on stream for hours. And I think that It's just incredible that people are enjoying this edition so much. Exactly. Everyone's saying things have gone up a notch. They're enjoying it a lot. So kudos to the entire organizing team of the Global Chess League.

That— I agree with that, uh, Sagar.

And if you guys have a chance, just come over here and you're gonna have the best ever experience that you can have at the chess tournament, because play— being in the playing That is actually just super hyped.

You came all the way from Poland.

Yes, people can— 24 hours. It took me 24 hours.

Okay, back to the game. Now, uh, Abhimanyu did not play his pawn forward. He brought his knight here, and Pranav was like, I'll take it, take it. And now he pushes forward. Bobby Fischer.

Bobby Fischer style. Yeah, it works always, right?

No, no, you're doing it right. Okay, just to show our viewers what can happen when you take, I go g4, you go back, I go Bishop h6. Now careful, there are tactics in the air. You can't rush it because black to play now. What is the amazing move in this position? That's why Dragon is so good, you know, there are all these little tactics there.

Yeah, yeah, and you just need to know several Patterns, and then you can easily like find a lot of tactical motives here. So we can maybe show this beautiful little tactic here.

So knight takes pawn is the move. Well done for all those who have found it. And after you take here with the knight or the pawn, I simply take rook takes attacking here with the defense of the bishop. So clearly don't rush it. Don't go too soon. soon for the Bishop h6 move, but we'll see how Pranav continues. Let's go to the next board. Alexandra Kosteniuk versus Nino Batziashvili. Lot of action has happened here, Ketty. What is your take on this final position that we have?

In the final position, we have rook from c3 queenside jumping to the kingside, and the pawn on h6 now is hanging. So Nino to take care of that. What we can see is this beautiful knight placed on e5, but this knight can be kicked, right, by the f4. Or maybe sometimes you can play bishop to b2 to control the long diagonal. So I think white is now trying to— yes, trying to push a little bit on the kingside.

So good news for the Triveni Continental Kings on this board as well. So we have board number 6 in their favor. प्रणव, here also small edge. Okay, early days Nino is in good shape. You cannot say that she's losing or anything, but we'll see. Let's go to the fourth board. This is where the Triveni team is going to be worried and the PBG Alaskan Knights are going to be happy because Katrina Lagnu is really pressing with the black pieces.

Yes, both kings are still in the center, but somehow black has a better coordination and the space as well. Look at the center. Uh, Black already pushed the pawn on d5, and the other pawn on a5 wants to go forward and kick the knight. So Black has this space advantage here.

Yeah, in general, I just feel that Zhu Jin'er is just off color because, you know, this is the position. The main move here is c4, or, you know, such. She went Knight d2, just allowing E five and this position, and you know she got nothing out of the opening. In fact, black got every single thing: center, bishop pair, and then she's playing this a bit passively. A five beautiful move.

None of the knights move to D two was good, right? She tried both knights to go there, and they did not work well.

Yeah, I think Zuzina has to kind of put her head down and say I'm. Worse, but I will have to defend this for my team. Otherwise, I'm in trouble. But Katrina Lagnu is not an easy opponent. So here, two positions good for Trivani Continental Kings. The third one looking good for the PBG Alaskan Knights. Let's go to the next board. We have Arvind Chidambaram versus Yas Kanerdogmus. Hmm, Getty. Too many positional things happening here. The knight on an outpost cannot be. kicked by any of the pawns. White knight sitting pretty in the center. What's going on?

Like, honestly, I don't really often see this kind of, uh, setups, Sagar, and I think, uh, you need a little bit more time to, you know, dive into this position. It's not very tactical, but still there are lots of pieces, and our players, they have only 20 minutes from the start, and they have no increment until Until they reach move forty, and we can see here that Erdogmus has less than ten minutes on the clock, and Aravin has always takes a lot of time.

Yes, Khan takes time, and so Arvin is right now not only having a nice position, but also five extra minutes on the clock.

Oh, that's a lot! Five extra minutes. I'm just looking at this position. What do you think about move like f five? Shall we think about something like that to spice up a little?

Getty, that's Just the move in your playing style. Yeah, aggressive. You want to just get in. F5 could very well be a nice move, or the other option is keep waiting a bit. You know, maybe Rook E8, just defend this pawn. So let's see what Yas Khan does. But clearly the pressure is on him. And now coming to Wei Yi versus Arjun Erigaisi board. Whoa!

Wow! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! How this pawn ended up on H3?

Little pawn on H3 went all the way, saying that, "Hey, I'm going on an expedition here alone." Hari hari. And kind of created some weaknesses in the white camp.

Yeah, and I I love this bishop on B7 for unknown reasons, but I have a feeling that this bishop can play a big role at some point.

I agree. And also the knights are well positioned. I think it's a kind of position that Arjun enjoys a lot. It's wild, it's crazy. I don't know how Wei enjoys it, but I think he's also very good tactically, so it'll be a fun, fun fight.

Yeah, and like, you couldn't ask for any better position. This is total mess here what we have.

Yeah, it's also one of the positions very difficult to analyze.

Yes, let's move.

It's like, oh, we can play g5, f4. What else can we do? Can we move our bishop? Here, too many options here. So let's wait for what White does here. We will go to our icon board where Vishy Anand seems to be taking over against Alireza Firouzja. What's up, Ketti?

Oh, look at this, right? At some point, I thought that Alireza might get an advantage on the board, right? He started to play very fast, but looking at this position, I think Black is ready even to. start the, like, e5 and get some space advantage in the center.

So we, we left it off when Vishy played the knight here. Yeah. And your advice was to trade the queens, but Alireza said queen is something that I like, I'm going to give a check. Vishy went back, queen came back, knight also went back. And now after Bishop d3, castles, the knight jumped in, the queen went back Here, and after rook c8, he took here. And this is the live board position.

Yes, this black queen ended up on the starting position but made so many moves around. Although looks like fine square for for the moment, right? On d8.

Yeah, and now your idea e5 can happen, but there's also another. Oh my God!

I love it.

What a move this is, Ketty!

I love, I love this. Actually, I was just thinking about this move with the idea of Bishop a4, but it's, it's nothing because you have b3. But yeah, Sagar, pawns never go back. After b3, I'll get my bishop back, and then you have a weakness on c3.

That's a lovely idea. You kind of provoke a pawn forward to create a weakness on c3 with the bishop and the rook. This is pure class by Yeah, because you know, my, my first instinct was why don't we push the pawn here? But then after this, if you try to do the same idea, this pawn could potentially become small weaknesses. But for now, Vishy first goes here.

Love this. Very, very classy.

And I think Alireza Firouzja has to be very careful now. He's already 2 minutes behind on the clock. Vishy has 12 minutes and he has a slightly worse position if we can get that view, uh, you know, that full screen.

Oh, Tanya on the screen!

She's asked a heart.

Tanya, can you show us how much are you enjoying there? Well, she's been an absolute machine in the commentary box. She commentated on the first 3 games of today and now enjoying the action there. That's literally a chess lover.

Exactly.

You know, spending all their 6 hours, last 6 hours following chess.

Yes.

And she was like, you guys, you're saying that, you're telling me that it's so good that I'm going and going to see what is happening there. And like, I kind of had a feeling that she had this face that she really enjoys, you know.

I mean, Tanya has finished her day of commentary. She could have gone back to her room and relaxed. Relaxed, but she's like, "Let me watch Vishy versus Firuja. Let me watch PBG Alaskan Knights versus Triveni Continental Kings." Amazing. I would love if we can go full screen with that clock view, you know, to just see, get that angle of the full screen video so that it would be so much fun. It just feels like we are there watching that game.

Yes, I agree with that.

Okay, Firuja taking his time. He's down to eight. 3 minutes 35 seconds and action is boiling.

The full screen. Yeah, do you see Vishy is looking at other boards, right?

Absolutely.

This happens when you are very much sure in your position and you feel safe and you're like, okay, let me check my teammates.

Okay, Firouzja is very tricky, so clearly it's not so easy to beat him or something But Vishy is definitely making a strong case for it. Okay, this position looking good for Vishy. We'll come back when Firouzja has made his move. Let's go to the Prodigy board. We spoke about this amazing Fischer idea of pawn pushing forward h4, h5, yes, and going all in. So Pranav tweaked it very well. He pushed the pawn and Abhimanyu did not even take it.

He brought his queen Out takes f takes because you know if you take h takes it's like suicidal yes exactly better to take with the f pawn and knight from f six guards the pawn on h seven maybe we can get back to the actual setup because now we are cutting the h file which we need this works this works actually everyone can see it okay yes bishop at six By the way, not the best move, Ketty.

There was a tactical idea which was e5. Okay, and the point here is after pawn takes pawn, knight c5. Yes, you know this?

Yes. No, I've never seen it.

I mean, this is very powerful, your double attack. And this is what was missed here, pawn to e5 by Pranav. I mean, he's very strong tactically, but he went bishop h6, which is not a bad move. Takes, and now he's thinking whether he should take—

Take by the queen or take by the rook. If you take by queen, then you have this knight d5 ideas to distract the knight, or you have e5 ideas. Yes, and then rook to d7.

Agree. Yeah, so clearly the queen coming in with knight d5 and e5, very powerful. And he takes it. Boom! Takes with the queen. Very interesting. Now, how is Abhimanyu going to save himself in this position?

Is it Rook f7, maybe, just to be sure that h7 pawn is guarded by the rook?

Absolutely, Ketty. What a nice bit of analysis. WGM for a reason. Thank you, I take it. Yeah, very nice play. Rook f7 is actually the best move here. And we hope that Abhimanyu is able to find it. But he's right now thinking he's down to nine minutes while Pranav has eight minutes fifty-five seconds.

Very close time time situation here on this board.

Can I tell you something very shocking? Yes. Let's go to the icon board because here, guys, believe it or not, Alireza Firouzja has not made his move yet. He's down to five minutes. Am I right? Am I seeing this right?

Yeah, I can see on the on the clock that we have on the screen. We have full screen. He's shaking, right? His leg and he's also shaking his head.

Look at that! And she has twelve minutes. So Alireza Firouzja something's wrong with him because he could have played something. He has to move his rook, but he's like, ah, this is the kind of move. I would never play. He played. You saw how he played it. He was like, okay, what else? Yeah, I have to play something.

I have to play something. And then he moves the rook on the e-file. This is not creating any threats, but kind of avoids some pin on that bishop a4 can create. I think Vish is quite happy to see this move.

Yeah, you know, Katty, I just want to while we are looking at this game. Vishy is thinking about whether he should push his pawn forward now, play Bishop a4, play Bishop b5. These are the few options. He's getting ready, and you know, you can sense him. He, he already sees the move. And I think Vishy made a conscious choice in this game— let's play fast. Because when it comes down to the last 10 seconds or so, I have no chance against these youngsters.

Yeah, they're faster.

It's too fast, and, and I cannot handle my nerves. So let me play faster.

Yeah, that's a very good strategy, and why not to do that? Uh, Sagar, here in this position you mentioned about pawn e5, and looking now how active Vishy's pieces are, he's going bishop to a4, and I love this move. You know why? Like, for instance, Alireza doesn't want to play b3, right? We know that the pawn on c3 will be terrible. Yeah, uh, then weakness.

But if you step the queen back, there's a small tactic as well. Oh, look at And Rook takes c3, attacking here and here.

Such a beautiful one. And he plays Queen to b1. This is very important square for the queen. Vishy goes Bishop to b5, and I love that move because after trading the light square bishops, then there is a hole on d3.

Wow. So basically, let's say take, queen takes, and now the knight is coming in, the queen is coming in, man. If I can ever, you know, be as good as Vishy at something in my life at 56, I would be so happy.

I don't say that. Come on, you're running the biggest and the strongest YouTube channel.

20 years later, I don't think I would have the same energy and love for chess as Vishy has. This is just—

I'll tell you one thing, I agree with that, but you are the person who brings all these stories to everyone who cannot travel or who cannot go for the tournaments and see all this greatness that Indian chess creates, right? So I think you have done a lot for the chess community.

Yes, but just 20 years down the line, guys, I'm going to get inspired by Vishy Anand. Yeah, you, you guys can also. All those who are watching, if you ever want to find Someone who loves something really deeply and is good as— good at something because of that constant work they put in. It's Vishy there.

Yes.

Should we look at Wei Yi versus Arjun?

Let's go, we have to do that, uh, because this pawn on h3 created so much space on the kingside, and White has also pushed the pawns forward. Pawn f4, pawn g5, uh, This is a bit mess to me.

Don't you think that Black is the one having the more compact structure? And look at Arjun, he's pushed his pawn forward, and now Knight takes e5. He's going to jump in with the knight. And you remember this bishop you were talking about, Ketty? Yeah, that might play a very important role. The queen is looking here. I think Black king in the center is safer than the White king that has castled.

I agree with This king on e8 holds some, some of the things together. Knight on d7 is not, uh, not got— it's guarded. Pawn on f7 is guarded. And now, uh, after f takes on e5, knight takes e5 I think is the move. You want to distract the knight from f3, right, to, to take the pawn on g5.

So if you take here, I can even take this with a check. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, yeah. And if you take with the bishop, Sagard, then Then our bishop on d7 will be like a. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Monster here.

Yeah. And Wei has to be very careful. Arjun is coming at him. He even took with the pawn directly here. This is looking dangerous for white, but I think there's a small thing that has happened here, Ketti. There seems to be a tactic. If Wei is sharp. Enough, he may spot bishop a seven.

And was the idea if I move queen to b seven?

Queen b seven and oh by the way he didn't even do that. Yeah, he just came back. Bishop e three.

Yeah, that's bishop a seven is a little bit. Oh, but he took the pawn now.

Oh, what? Queen b two is on the board. Oh, oh, greedy Arjun. And did he take it?

Rook d7! Brilliant move!

No way! What the hell? Okay, just to break this down, what has happened, Ketty, is he brought the bishop back, position was equal, moved the knight, it's all fine, but he goes pawn grabbing, pawn grabbing, greedy Arjun. You— we know this from a long time. Arjun sees a pawn, he goes for it. Wei is like, boom! And what's happening? Can we have the analysis board? This is the right moment to dig in.

Exactly. Uh, I think now Black's position can just fall apart.

But take— yeah, right, okay, 2 moves. You can take the knight as well as the rook. If you take the rook, I go boom.

Yeah, check.

King, where does it— if it goes here, you take this pawn So you need to come out. Queen takes.

Oh no, and the bishop is hanging.

There's a pin.

No, this is not good.

I mean, even if you kind of take this, it's just a mate in 2. Bishop b7 checkmate. Oh, that's so pretty. That's so pretty. So okay, this is not happening. Look at Arjun, by the way. Look at his expression. He is stunned there by the way he's If queen takes knight, Wei is ready with another bone crusher. Boom! Rook takes bishop. King takes and bishop c5. You know, I could see Ketty's expression. It was like, don't be so violent.

Yes. Check.

King e8. And now the most incredible move. I want to throw it across to our viewers here. White to play and Wei is It's just brilliant, Katie.

Oh, I think I see Bishop b4, and you're trying to trap the queen, but queen has on b2. Yes, square. And Queen a7 checkmate! Checkmate! And Black cannot just guard the king. Rook is just stuck on h5. The queen is stuck on b2.

Wow! This is another Wei masterpiece that we are seeing, guys. All those who want to know what a beast Wei is, just search Wei versus Bruzon Batista 2015. Insane game, Ketti. Insane. And this is exactly what he did there. He sacked a rook, and here he's doing the same. It's peak Wei.

It is.

It is amazing. And Sagar, sometimes you blunder some. He's not even thinking, right?

He knows it. He's like, "I know everything." Bishop c five.

Do you think he has seen checkmate already? Yeah, I think Arjun is done.

Oh no for Arjun! This is brilliant play, guys. This might well be the contender of the best game of GCL. That's how good this is.

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that.

I think Gotham Chess would do like, the rook! Because the rook kind of sacrificed like knight, bishop. Wow. Yeah, okay, he gave up the, uh, rook for the queen.

I don't know, then this bishop on a7 might, might be captured with a check.

Yeah, yeah. And just maybe just moving the rook here would be enough, right? Getting Just queen and rook will finish off the game. Possible. King here.

Shall we play rook to b1 as well?

Aha, nice. Rook b1 or rook d1? Yeah, win here. And, uh, Wei has 3 minutes to work this out, guys. All other games are roughly around even. We'll, we'll look at these games, but for now Wei is doing it. And yes, he's Done it. Rook to d1. And look at this, exclamation! One brilliancy after another.

Yeah, no, he— this is the way you win now, right?

And, and the thing is, if Arjun takes, queen takes f3, which is like now one move mate. You're just a bit too slow. Queen check, only move.

Yeah, yeah, beautiful.

I think Arjun may well resign here. His rook on h5, which looks really nice, is actually just misplaced.

It looked nice. Yes, just one mistake capturing the pawn on b2 and the game is done.

You can take risks in life, Ketty, but maybe queen takes b2 is the kind of risk which you shouldn't take.

No, like, it never— like, it never works. Never take the poison pawn.

Yeah, and so this will give 3 points to the Triveni Continental Kings. Very important. But Katrina Lagnu on board number 4 is saying like, guys, I'm there for my team of the PBG Alaskan Knights. I got you guys in here, and she's going to win the g2 pawn. She's already a pawn up in a queen endgame, and this looks— and maybe another pawn.

She takes another pawn, I guess, on h2 as well.

Yeah, and there's no perpetual because check. Yeah, she takes it. Check.

Maybe, Katie, you just go King f6.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's true.

Wow, so the match is neck and neck right now. Neck and neck, guys. 3 points for Wei, for the Triveni Continental Kings, and I think 4 points coming in for the PBG Alaskan Knights Oh yes, they, they choose black pieces for a reason, right?

They knew that they wanted black pieces in this match.

But Alexandra Kosteniuk on board number 5 coming in with the goods here. She is completely dominating against Nino Batsyashvili. Can we have board number 5?

The, the pawn on a Knight a6 seems to be quite tough to stop for Nino.

Yeah, it's over, it's done. This pawn is too strong. She takes on e5. Alexandra Kosteniuk, look at her game face there. Nino, well, she's been playing so well, but this is not going to be her game.

Yeah, 2 connected passed pawns on the queenside, they are so tough to stop.

And that means the Triveni Continental Kings will move to 6 points now. 6-4 would be the score in our head right now. Should we check the icon board, uh, Ketti? Like, uh, yeah, let's, let's go there because something crazy is happening there. Alireza Firouzja is actually getting the better position against Vishy Anand. Wow, look at That he's moved his king to the side. Oh, we have a result here.

Katarina Lagnow actually won.

Katarina Lagnow won her game. The score is now four nil in the favor of PBG Alaskan Knights. But guys, don't be fooled.

Alireza is looking at the screen.

Alireza is like, "Oh my God! What's going on, guys? What's going on?" But Alireza is only forty one seconds, Ketti, and we are on move number thirty five. Yes. To make 5 more moves and then 2 seconds increment only. Oh, we have the result here! Alexandra Kosteniuk wins here, pulls one back for the Triveni Continental Kings. 3-4 is the score now in the favor of PBG Alaskan Knights. Okay, Vishy goes Queen f5, he's offering a trade of queens.

Yeah, that looks actually good for, for Black to trade the queen and to keep the knight on d3.

Yes, beautiful knight here putting pressure on f2. He takes the queen. Oh, he takes the queen. Pawn takes. No, no, no, guys, that's not the— there's some broadcast error. Takes, takes, and then what happened? Alireza. Yeah, we are back here. f3 played. f3. Yeah, the pawn was hanging on f2, but Vishy is better again, kind of.

Looks like a risk-free for him this endgame, right? With the knight on d3.

And also extra time. I think Vishy may win. Oh, and Wei Yi does it, guys! Wei Yi wins! We knew it. He played a brilliant game. Six four is the score in Trivani's favor now. All action on this board. Meanwhile, huge news. Should we check board number three? Arvind Chidambaram is winning his game against Yas Khan Erdogan. Wow! Oh my goodness, he has played this amazingly well. Arvind Chidambaram is so close to mating the white— black king. And look at Yas.

Yas, yeah, he's, he's just jumping on the seat. He's so nervous and he has no time. 1 second.

Oh, and Arvind has 1 minute. He goes Rook d8. I think he might well resign. h4. And look at Arvind. He's like, "Where's the mate? Where's the mate? Show me the mate." If Arvind wins this, it will be nine four.

And Bishop F seven, Rook F eight.

Yas fighting on. I love this young youngster who's fighting on. But Arvind is so good.

What's the move, Sagar? It's Rook takes.

Bishop takes. No, he goes bishop b6.

I like this.

Wow, rook c5! And now queen takes e7 wins the day. Takes it. And look at Yaz, he's like, oh, where have I gotten myself into? Rook d8, it's game over. It is.

You can take this rook with a check and Then take another rook on c5 with a queen, maybe even with a bishop.

There's only one check. You covered that check. Yeah, takes, queen check. Arvind is going to get the 3rd win for the Triveni Continental Kings. And Vishy, who was winning the game against Alireza, or clearly better, is now equal, Ketty, which means That the Trivani team has a huge chance of winning this match.

Yes, yes, this can be the first score for them.

Goes back here. Yas Khan is still fighting. Is there any twist left here? I doubt. He's offering a trade. He's oh Queen B five was down to a second and and now F five.

Oh, I love that with Bishop G six idea. Me.

That's a checkmate! Arvind with the 3rd win. 9-4 is the score. Let's go to the Icon board. They are pushing the pawns, both are about to queen, and a draw!

Wow, beautifully played by both players.

And look at Vishy showing the moves there. 10-4 is the score. And on the Prodigy board, we've just finished the game. What has happened here? It's a draw.

No, no, they're, they're playing.

Oh, look at that! Draw, draw, draw has happened, which means that the Triveni Continental Kings have gotten a huge win here.

Wow, the first victory for Triveni! Congratulations!

Yeah, well done! 11-6 win, and the team in the pink is coming back in this tournament. I think that's great news for all chess fans because we didn't want one team to be out. And look at that, we have the manager of the team, Akash Premson, and the coach, Luke Van Wely, very happy.

Yeah, and this is the smile that we want to have on the faces of these people.

I think the only player who is a bit unhappy in the Triveni team is Sujinna. She didn't play particularly well, but I think a team victory mattered more than an individual win today.

I agree with that. I agree with that.

And thing is, everyone rose to the occasion today, Ketti. Wei with a classic win, Arvind showing his class, and then we had Alexandra Kosteniuk also winning. Let's go to the arbiter to hear the result.

Okay, good evening. One minute, please, to announce the result of this match number twelve. The Treveni Continental Kings beat the P the PBG Alaskan Knights by eleven to six. Big round of round of applause, please. Can I invite the two tip captains on stage? To sign the results. Meanwhile, I would like to invite you for the next match tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon at half past 3, match number 13. Thank you so much.

And we have the signing of the results by the team captains. You can see the smile on Lokwan Veli. Abhijit Kunte Well, today was a mixed day for him. One win and one loss.

Not a bad day for them.

Not a bad day at all. A very important victory in the first match today against very strong, uh, team of Magnus Carlsen, right? Yeah, that was a really, really important victory.

I agree. I agree, Ketty. And now I think, uh, it's clear that today the player of the match has to be वही वे आई मीन नॉट वेर लिविंग द स्टूडियो लुक एट द हाइलाइट्स प्लेयर्स कमिंग इन इट वाज अलीरेजा वर्सेस विशी ऑन द टॉप बोर्ड विथ दी एंटायर टीम इन द ग्रीन फेसिंग दी टीम इन द पिंक एंड कैटरीना लाग्नो वेल शी प्लेड हर बेस्ट बट कोस्टेन्यूक वाज द वन वो रियली क्लिंच्ड इट टुड What a trio!

Yeah, this— it takes to win this match to have some of the players in a good shape and to have a player like Wei and Kostya playing their best game right now. Alireza on the screen, he also actually hold his position quite nicely.

Yeah, I think that was very important because Alireza was about to lose his game And if that would have happened, it would have turned things around. Also, Abhimanyu Mishra at some point started to get an advantage against Pranav V, but Pranav also held his own. So I think what really worked today for Triveni is that their good positions were converted and the bad ones were defended. Exactly, that's true.

And this is the moment when Arjun took the pawn on b2, and there was the biggest blunder of this match. And here, Katarina Lakhno won actually the first game for PBG Alaskan Knights, but that was not enough, right?

And there you see the edge pawn queening. Dujinar shaking her head and she resigns here. And with that, the PBG Alaskan Knights win. But that was the only victory for PBG Alaskan Knights because here you can see, by the way, Vishy Anand drew his game against अलीरेजा फिरूजा डेट वाज एन इम्पोर्टेंट ड्रॉ फॉर अलीरेजा तू मेक शुरू दैट हिज टीम वाज द विनर। या नॉट ओनली द टीम बट आल्सो लाइक इट्स एन आइकन बोर्ड सो मेनी प्लेयर्स आर लुकिंग एंड डिपेंडिंग ऑन द आइकन बोर्ड यू नो इट काइंड ऑफ़ डिक्टेट्स द एवरीथिंग एंड हियर वी हैव व Icon of Indian chess. I mean, he played so well today. He would have loved to win his game, but I think winning on the Icon boards is a bit tough, you know. You have to play well every single move. And Vishy's like, okay, okay, calm down, I'm here, I'm here, I'm going to give time to all of you. And this is what Vishy's been doing for over 3 decades now, and I think he's really happy that Indian chess has Grown this way.

Yeah, exactly. And I love how people are just looking at him. Yeah, this, this beautiful, uh, moment of just staring at your icon player.

By the way, look at that book. It's the famous Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. It's the book written by Bobby Fischer, and Vishy's favorite player, the GOAT, which he believes has been the GOAT of chess, is Fischer.

Yeah. Wow, beautiful.

Yeah, and, uh, you see in the end, Vishy was like, okay, I can't sign everyone, but he did good enough. He, he gave his autographs to many players. What a day of chess we've had, Ketty. I think the tournament, the Global Chess League, is wide open now.

It is, and I kind of have a feeling that it was a good day for everyone.

Yes, somehow, somehow everyone's happy.

Yeah, I think so.

Maybe not the Firs American Gambits, right? They lost today both their games. I mean, they lost yesterday one, they lost today one. Yeah, so for them it's a little bit like 2 setbacks. They want to come back, but I think you are right, kind of like mixed there. PBG Alaskan Knights are happy, the Czech Mumba Masters are happy. The Triveni Continental Kings are happy, but of course there's always the other side which is unhappy, like the Ganjis Grandmasters. They lost their game, the Fires American Gambits. Now it's time for us to look at the player of the match in this amazing encounter.

Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony of match number 12 at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season For what a game this has been. Triveni Continental Kings finally find themselves with some points on the leaderboard. A much-needed victory there. And finally, we have the player of the match. But to give away the award, let me call upon our dignitary, Mr. Praveen Kumar, Head Asset Manager, Bank of Baroda. The player of the match goes to Wei Yi from the Triveni Continental Kings. Thank you. Firstly, congratulations! Finally some points on the leaderboard. Must be feeling good. Thank you, thank you. Talk us through your game today. A complete performance. Great defenses, perfect attack.

Yeah, I think it was, uh, complicated again. We got a clear position and, and I had less time, but I think White should be I was better because his rook was misplaced. Yeah, and I think after queen f2, I decided to sacrifice the pawn. But maybe queen takes b2 was the blunder. Maybe, I'm not sure about knight c5 with the idea to take the pawn on e4 or knight e6. Yeah, but I think still white has better chances, but I had less time, so. So maybe it's toward the better try.

Yes, you took the game, that's what matters. But congratulations on this win. Hopefully this acts as a launch pad for the games to come for y'all. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We will be back with more action tomorrow. As of now, let's head back to the casters.

Okay, we saw—

I have to say something, the interview with Wei never Goes wrong. I love to interview Wei.

And why do you love love to interview him?

He's so smart, you know, like and like you have a lot of energy. You're like oh big congratulations and it's like thank you.

He just you know like you know next time I'm very happy in life and I want to calm down. I'll go to Wei and I'm like you know what I just did this and he'll be like congratulations. Good for you.

Thank you. Yes, but did you see his analysis. It was so accurate, right?

Perfect, perfect. And I think Sahaj bhai played an amazing game today. We'll tell you about it, but first let's have a look at the standings here. Now Alpine APL Pipers are the sole leaders because this scorecard has all the teams having played 4 games, which is actually nice.

No zeros anymore on the first. Yes, yes.

So Triveni Continental Kings still at 3 points, but with this win, look at the match points. They are higher than the Ganges Grandmasters as well as PBG Alaskan Knights. So one more win and they can actually jump up. So Czech Mumba Masters, Fires American Gambits, PBG Alaskan Knights, and Ganges Grandmasters all on 6 points. What a close finish here.

Absolutely, very, very close. And, and, and what a win From the from the Triveni Continental Kings, and just you know those game points just tell the story that we all want to see that all matches that have not gone their way were extremely close. Yes. And I mean it just shows one one win and they could be just bumped you know to number three or number two or something like that.

So, भाई मुझे तो डर लग रहा है अभी Triveni Continental Kings. I'm afraid of that team actually. Now if I were an opponent facing Triveni Continental Kings, I'll be Like okay guys, they started to play. You guys are out for revenge here. I'm not so happy to play you.

Yeah, Sagar shall we call the icon? Not icon. Oh, icon. Mascot of Triveni here to give us the winner's dance.

I think it's very difficult to get the icon inside our studio, right?

No, no, no. The mascot to give us a dance.

Oh, behind me. I was actually just.

Can we do that?

I was actually just dancing with. Mascot just now, just like behind you guys.

Should I bring him? No, like you will dance with him.

Yeah, I can, of course.

Can you please do it?

Should I bring him? Wait one second. No, just here behind, not inside because there's no space.

But here he will be seen.

He will be seen. Okay, I'll go.

Can you also dance?

I, I'll dance. Okay, let's go!

The birthday boy, let's go! Sahaj bhai, 21, not just that age but 21 at heart. Going to get the mascot of the Trivani Continental Kings. What a performance here! Requires a dance, and Sahaj is going to bring in that one. He's trying to find, and and she's like, oh get get get that one. Okay, Ketti.

What what's in store? What an end of a day, right? Beautiful games.

Oh look at him! This is the winner.

Is there Sahaj? Is he sent right?

No, that's not. Oh, Sahaj is like, "Aja, aja, bye!" Come for us. This is going to be epic, guys. Please don't fall. Please don't fall. Strider the tiger. Tiger. Tiger. Sorry, the name is Tiger, guys. Tiger. Tiger the tiger.

Yeah.

Well, you can't really hold Tiger. Tiger. He's like on his. He's like Alireza Firouzja, can't be stopped.

Each year they have their own Alireza Firouzja, right, in the team.

Yeah, I think overall just this energy is what Triveni Continental Kings needed. And guys, remember, they could have very well been out of the tournament if they would have lost this, which means that this victory means so much. They practiced until 3 AM yesterday night. They went to the mall together as a team today, and whoa, let's go, let's go!

Show us some—

wait, oh yeah, let's go, let's go! Oh, it's so good! Love it, love it! Send Setting the floor on fire, Tiger the Tiger. Let's go! Amazing, amazing, guys. I think all the other teams, guys, please find a mascot for yourself.

Please, we want it.

We want mascots to kind of dance against each other. Yes, yes. Let's get tomorrow's fixtures here to know what's going to happen tomorrow. What are we waiting And there you see tomorrow, Ganji's Grandmasters take on PBG Alaskan Knights, both teams on 6 points. Fires American Gambits against Czech Mumba Masters, again both teams on 6 points. And then we have the Triveni Continental Kings on 3 points taking on the Team Magnus. Oh, that's going to be a big one. Alpine APL Pipers, and finally the Fires American Gambits are taking on the PBG Alaskan Knights.

Packed day tomorrow, guys. It's going to be a very, very tough day, I think, overall for all teams. But I have to say, the match between Triveni and Alpine APL Pipers is going to be like a very, very difficult one.

Remember what Magnus said at the start? I want to flag the beep out of Alireza. It's going to happen tomorrow. It's Alireza. He did flag Vishy today.

Yes. Yes. So, so, you know, if, if that actually happens, it would would be crazy. Wow, epic.

By the way, Sahaj, great dance. Loved it. Loved the energy. He's still going, he's still going.

Let's go! I think he—

if you, if you told him that you need to dance all night so that Triveni wins tomorrow, he would do it.

He will do it. He will do it.

He is just filled with energy. He's so happy. He's so happy.

Let's go! Give this guy a raise! Let's go! Yes, yes. And so that is what we had today. Today, that is what has happened. I think we had an incredible day. I want to ask all of you in the chat: How did you enjoy today? If you have any feedback, please leave it to us in the comment section. We read them very closely. We want to improve our broadcast every single day. I think today was a wonderful, wonderful day.

Yes, Agar, and I saw in the comment people were asking: Is there another match? Oh yes. So they want to see more, right?

I also want another match. Actually, because all the matches today were just so incredible. I feel that I got the perfect birthday present that I could have, you know, hoped to get, uh, to have. It was such an amazing day.

Yeah, well, on Sahaj's birthday, on a beautiful day with Tiger on the back, it's goodbye from us here in Bengaluru. See you guys tomorrow.

Bye-bye.

Fan zone, ये fan zone जिसके बारे में इतनी चर्चा हो रही है। Because everybody is coming here, they're enjoying, they're having a good time. So is Riya Kartik who's joining me in the fan zone. Firstly, welcome to Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season Four. How's your experience been? What have you done today? Give us a detailed orientation of everything.

I watched the matches and it was epic and.

I came here and I played a few matches and lost.

Actually, I lost all of them, but it's fine.

I had a great time, and yeah, it was fun.

Yeah, and people have been so accommodating and stuff.

Yeah, you know, if I'm not wrong, you watched the Vishy versus Magnus Carlsen game, which was insane. कोई अगर टीवी पे देख रहा हो, they would have gone crazy. But you were watching it in the arena. Tell us, how was it? It was epic.

I had to switch between the commentary and the live, and it was so good.

Yeah.

Who are you supporting in that game?

I, I don't know, actually. I like both of them. Yeah.

But basically a very great game to watch, and we're so glad to have you here. Now tell, tell us, when you played your games in the fan zone, uh, did you play Simuls?

What? I don't know what that means.

You played those games, uh, in a tournament, or were you just playing with random—

Random people, yeah, without any clock timer, and I just played casually.

How was your experience of that?

I mean, it was good.

I had some helpful tips from higher-rated players, and I lost to one lower-rated player, but it was good. All right, the ratings mean so much, right, in, in chess. But at the end of the day, it is at platforms like these that you get to play against so many players, get to learn so much. Thank you so much for joining us. Will we be seeing you on any other days? Probably every day.

No, actually, I, I was just free this one day, so I took the chance.

Thank you so much for coming to the Global Chess League, and we hope to see you more. Thank you.