Vishy vs Nepo, Magnus vs Alireza | Global Chess League Day 4

Hello and welcome live to Bengaluru. Now today is day 4 here at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, which means it carries us through the halfway mark. The race to the finals intensifies, and with me in the commentary booth, Sagar Shah, Harshit Raja joining us. How are we feeling on this day when you know the teams have played each other once? They're going to orbit each other twice the next time over. Halfway mark, what have been the big takeaways, Sagar and Harshad?

I think overall the Alpine APL Pipers Magnus Carlsen team looks really good. They are in the lead with nine points, but then there's a lot of fight for the second spot. It feels like four teams on six points. And I have a feeling that Triveni Continental Kings are going to make a very strong comeback today.

Oh man, it's going to be this day where I think it's— we are going to get to know whether Triveni Continental Kings will have even a single chance to qualify towards the finals. I have a feeling they're in a must-win situation already, and my feeling is that they are not going to be able to make it.

Oh, hot take today in the studio.

I love it.

Viralpa and Pipers clearly proving that they've become the team to beat every They, they are at pole position. There are 4 teams behind. Triveni Continental Kings have found their pulse, and the format has been a key player in making the standings the way they are. We've got 36 of the world's elite grandmasters right here in Bengaluru for the 4th season of the Global Chess League. 6 franchises, but it's really been about that scoring system, and we've seen that time and time again, uh, Sagar, how much of a role that extra point win for Black means.

Yeah, I think this is what makes this format so interesting. The number of draws between the 2 teams is almost impossible unless all 6 boards end in a draw. And I am enjoying this scoring system.

I love it. I love it. It completely prevents us from, you know, having a scenario where we get to see a draw. And many people want to see decisive games. That's why they come here. The only way they can potentially draw, if we get to see maybe like 2 wins on one board? No, we can't actually.

There's no way.

Only 6 draws. Only 6 draws, man. That's crazy.

And that's, that's not happened until now at the Global Chess League in all 4 editions.

Oh wow, that's a big stat there. That just shows how almost close to impossible it is that the teams do not have a decisive result. If right now, again, coming to the storyline of today being the day we cross over the halfway mark of the league Which player overall has impressed you the most, and which player do you want more from right now?

For me, uh, Vidit Gujarati is someone who's impressed me the most. I didn't think that he would come in such good form. Uh, he won 3 out of his 4 games. And the player who I think could do perhaps slightly better than what he's already doing is perhaps Magnus Carlsen, because He has made three draws out of four rounds, won one game. That too on the clock hasn't shown his best chess yet.

Yeah, and in the first two teams Alpine Pipers and the Czech Muma Masters, I think there is one player for Alpine. As you said, it's Vidit Gujarati. For Czech Muma Masters, it's the surprise element of Pranesh that they've gotten in their team that has been perform who has been performing really well. So I think for the Czech Muma Masters and for me personally, it is Pranesh who has been the star of the tournament so far.

Right, and we also have Polina Shualova, if I'm not mistaken, who's on four out of four.

Three out of four. That hot streak was put to a rest yesterday. Right. Sagar, she had a hundred percent score, and I think for the Ganges, she's such a big player. They need her to find that form again. Right now, the Ganges Grandmaster is on fifth position. I just want to highlight one point that I want everyone watching to take notice of. Triveni Continental Kings currently on 6th position with only 1 match win, 3 points. But notice the game points that they've got— 34, which is pretty much at par with the Fire's American Gambits. The point I want to make here is that 1 match win and it could completely leapfrog, topple over the entire standings. Triveni Continental Kings got their pulse going. Now they need to find full life.

Yes, and actually today they will be taking on Magnus Carlsen versus Alireza Firouzja. And on the first day itself, Magnus said he wanted to flag Alireza just like he did in Ew.

You have to say it the way Magnus said it, Sagar.

Well, Magnus said, "I want to flag the shit out of Alireza." Yeah, that's what he said. I mean, that's what Magnus said.

Come on.

I thought you would at least say beep. You just went all out. But quoting Magnus Carlsen here. It was quite a statement he made. Now, Magnus Carlsen did flag a former world champion yesterday, getting his first win of the league, winning that dramatic endgame against Vishy Anand. He'll be in action later today against the Kings, but we start the day, we kick it off with the Ganges Grandmasters taking on the PBG Alaskan Knights. And I think it's a very crucial match for these 2 teams. Currently, both of them have 2 wins and 2 losses in the league. They played in Season 3 for the fight for 3rd. And it was the PBG Alaskan Knights who took down the Ganjis Grandmasters to finish 3rd in Mumbai.

And the only difference now is that compared to last year, we have Vishy Anand playing for the PBG Alaskan Knights. He was playing for Ganjis Grandmasters this year, and I'm very curious to see if Vishy is going to find his first win of the tournament today.

And how does that feel, Sagar? You know, you've represented a team 3 seasons, right? For Vishy, he wore the yellow jersey Season 1, 2, and 3. And then this time he's leading for the PBG Alaskan Knights, and today they face each other.

Well, I'm— I was kind of looking at Vishy always in this yellow shirt throughout the league, but I think Vishy has started, uh, you know, since this edition has begun, he's like, I'm PBG Alaskan Knight now, I have to play well for my team. And I don't think he'll have any such emotions that, oh, I'm facing my former team sort of name and all of that. I think he's just going to go out and try and win his first game here.

Now, will the Ganges find their flow, or will the Alaskan Knights bring the temperature down in the arena? It's going to be a fantastic battle, especially given the team positioning. One of them potentially could at least temporarily join the Pipers in the lead after this match.

Yeah, and I think these 3 points are going to be super crucial, especially because, uh, you know, so far the PBG Alaskan Knights have done well, but they haven't had this like crushing performance or crushing victory. And I think the Ganges Grandmasters are riding with their experience quite well so far. So we have this youth versus experienced match coming up next.

That's a great way to put it. And we've got some great news for you as our teams have arrived at the Lalit.

The Ganges Grandmasters first to the party with the yellow jerseys, Polina Shovalova leading from the front, and सागर, शीज़ बीन लीडिंग द टीम तू दोस्त टू मैच विक्ट्रीज़ सो फार एस वेल। शीज़ प्लेड वेरी वेल, एंड इनफैक्ट आई वुड से इवन न्यान नेपुम निशी हैज़ शोन हिज़ क्लास ऑन द आइकन बोर्ड। हीज़ बीटन जावोकीर सिंदारोव, यस, ऑन टाइम, बट दैट डज़न मैटर इन दिस फॉर्मेट। इट इ Today they all have to peak.

Yeah, I spoke with Lenier Dominguez just coming into the match for today. He said that he's not super happy with his own performance, but his team is doing well. And as we have heard many times, there is no I in the team. As long as the team is doing well, you are absolutely happy.

And there we've got their opponents who look equally happy, Harshit. There, you know, you've got Lagnu with a little bit of a smile on her face, and there the legend Vishy Anand walking in the middle. The teams have arrived, which only means one thing. Very soon we'll have them walk into the arena. I also know we're setting up for the coin toss here. You know, you mentioned about Levon Aronian. Now I do feel that he did push a lot against Pranesh, overextending. I think those kind of decisions with the black pieces have to be taken care of. You can't just push for the sake of it because of that extra point win.

And you know, I think it's very important as well to keep the game balanced until We reach a very critical moment in other matches on the board because that gives us the flexibility and advantage of taking the decision of turning, uh, the game, uh, turning the intensity of the match at any point.

Turning up the temperature is what the Alaskan Knights will be looking for. We saw them there. How is Vishy feeling on his icon board? He takes on a 2-time former World Championship challenger in Jan Nepomniachtchi. How do you weigh this matchup, Sagar?

Yeah, I think Vishy has Overall performed really well in this one because the two games that he's lost to Sindarov and Magnus, both of them were in the time pressure zone. He made confident draws against MVL and yesterday against Firouzja, he could have very well won. You know, he was so upset at missing that win. I think today against Yan, he might well score his first win. You know, it's possible.

I have definitely seen the spark. in Vishy's games in this tournament. With Firouzja as well, he had a chance to win the game. But I think we can go to Arohi now for the coin toss of this match.

This is the halfway mark, which means every move, every board, every point becomes crucial. And from here on, there are no leeways for any team. You've got to do it, you've got to win the points. And that battle starts right here at the coin toss for the first match of the day. That's match number 13. of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. We have the 2 teams, it's Ganges Grandmasters versus the PBG Alaskan Knights. And before calling upon the coaches, I would like to call upon the match official, fair play officer, Mr. Arasubhi, international arbiter, fair play expert. And now let's call upon the coaches of the 2 teams to make this important decision today. It's Adiban Bhaskaran for the Grandmasters And Abhijit Kunte for the Knights. Who will be taking the call? Knights will be taking the call. Heads is the call.

Tails it is.

Tails it is. Can you show the coin? All right, Gantas Grandmasters win the toss and opt to Yeah, we'll take white. Back to white they are. Why so?

Yeah, I mean, we tried experiment and it didn't work, so we are going back to the roots.

You know, every point matters from here. You all have tried white. You all have better luck with white than with black so far. Um, you said you go back to what's been working for you. Any other changes in strategy when it comes to playing the knights?

Yeah, also maybe board order we are planning to change. No, we cannot. Yeah, no, nothing else. Yeah.

The mind games have already started right at the toss. I see that, but all the best to the team.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks. Black this time. Are you happy with that?

Yes, I think because we play the next game white. We have two games today, so I think this alternate color helps a lot.

So now that you're playing two games, does it change the mindset of the players? You know, do you come in with a more conservative approach in the first game so that you go aggressive in the second or something like that?

I think the format is such that at any any victory. Any decisive game will give you the results. So like, this format is such that, that all the matches are going to be decisive and you have to play all out in all the matches.

You know, we've reached the halfway mark. The pressure builds on from here. Is the team taking pressure or are they just swinging through it?

I think they all are established players. They have played a lot of tournaments and I think they know how to handle the pressure. And without pressure, I don't think you can become a champion.

All right then, all the best for today's game.

Thank you, thank you.

That is it from the coin toss. The news from here is that the Ganges Grandmasters have won the toss, gone back to picking white.

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The King. Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4 in Bengaluru starts now.

Take your seats.

The stage is set, and on the menu we've got four blockbuster matches for you, starting with the Ganges Grandmasters taking on the PBG Alaskan Knights. Now the Ganges Grandmaster won the toss and have chosen to start with the white pieces. The Knights will have the black pieces, and very interestingly, I loved what Abhijit Kunte there said on the stage during the coin toss that. Pressure does not crush champions, but it creates champions.

Yeah, in the hardest of pressures do we find the shiniest of diamonds. And for sure, the PBG Alaskan Knights are going to try to make their way towards the top of the leaderboard right now.

And they need Vishy Anand to fire today. Also, Arjun Erigaisi needs to play well. He got crushed yesterday against VE. We also have Yaz Khanerdogmus who needs to play well. I mean, all the players of the PBG Alaskan Knights have to raise their game because The Ganges Grandmasters look slightly in better form to me, and especially taking care of their women superstar boards will be key for the night.

For the Ganges Grandmasters on the icon board, we've had a very strong Jan Nepomniachtchi showing there. He hasn't lost a single game, and he's been so fast on the clock. And I think when we look at that icon board, Jan versus Vishy, clock has been a big factor. Vishy running out on time on two of his games yesterday. And Jan, everybody knows for Nepomniachtchi, the clock is his biggest weapon.

You know, when it comes to players who play very quickly against him, I think Vishy Anand does really well. And for some reason, I have a feeling that his intuition is going to be— is going to topple Jan Nepomniachtchi in this match. For some reason, I have this intuition that Vishy will find his first win of the tournament here.

Yes, that could be possible. I just feel that Jan can make some errors. Um, when he's not playing his best chess. But we'll see. I like that clash between Nino and Stavrula as well because Nino is playing brilliantly in this tournament. Just suffered one defeat but has scored like 2 wins. And for her, GCL has always been a great tournament.

I love that you're highlighting that. Nino Batzashvili with 2 back-to-back wins against Harika and Carissa Yip, finding her form momentum. And on the other side, you know, you've got Polina Shivalova in that yellow jersey on board 4, who had 3 back-to-back wins but was paused. Her streak was paused yesterday, uh, on her board. And it just means, will she find her momentum back, or Nino will have more momentum for the PPG Alaskan Knights? I also want to talk about Levon versus Arjun.

Oh, wow.

Harshith, both these players suffered a defeat yesterday. Arjun with a one-mover blunder, Wei Yi never let him get back into the game. Levon over-expanded. What are you expecting from them today?

And these 2 players have so much history between, uh, against each other. They have played against, against each other countless times. Arjun Erigesi has done slightly better, uh, than Levon Aronian, and I think that's going to continue here. Arjun Erigesi is going to show his superiority in quick chess right now.

You know, we saw the pairings, we've got the matchups right here. If you had to tell me which games will be decisive, which end in a draw, I'm gonna pass it to both of you. What's your predictions on that?

Hmm, I think Vishy Anand might beat Yan Arjun. By the way, players entering in by their buggies and right behind each other.

Yeah, today. So maybe they can race against each other in those buggy rides.

Yeah, a lot of definitely race on the board with just 20 minutes and no bonus time there. And for both these teams, a win right now puts them straight into pole position at least. For the time being before the pipers show up, Arjun with Vishy sitting at the back there. Big day for Arjun who's looking for a response after his loss, as is Polina Shivalova looking for that comeback win for the Kanjis Grandmasters.

They mean business. Look at them coming out there. Levon Aronian, always the kindest person out there. I don't think today he's going to sign any autographs before the match.

Yeah, before the match, after the match, you've seen how friendly he is with everyone. You know, there are so many qualities that we can, uh, improve from inside the game of chess from these players. But talking about Levon Aronian, he's just such a nice person outside of chess. Hard to not like him.

Well, there we see 2 teams walking in. Only one will walk away with the points. For Leon Mendoza, it's been an up and down tournament. One, one player in that team who's always all smiles has to be the captain, Adiban. No matter what the situation is, I think having that kind of support, having that cheerleader around is very important. And there we see the PBG Alaskan Knights with the 5 times world champion. It's a big day once again. We will have Vishy Anand twice in the arena today. We'll have Gavakhir Sanderov twice in the arena today. We've set ourselves up for an absolute blockbuster of a day.

Yes, I'm excited today. A lot of people have also come in In spite of it being a weekday. Right now, you can see the fan zone already has some people, but most of the people are in the auditorium for the match to begin. It's going to start soon.

Man, if you have an opportunity to come to Bangalore and to come to this venue, don't think twice. It's such an incredible experience here. Me personally, we also went inside the playing hall once. Uh, was listening to you guys commentate, was looking at all the players, and it was such a nice feeling. I'm hoping more people get this feeling.

Guys, you know what I'm doing right now?

On your phone as always, Sagar Shah. What is happening? I mean, we have a show to run here.

You know, there's this app which is the Global Chess League official app. Wow, it's so beautifully done. In fact, I'm so shocked that I'm seeing it properly right now. I should have done it at the start of this tournament, but you can predict the first move in each game. You can play along. You can also select your dream team. You can do a lot of things here, and it's absolutely open. You get these coins every time you guess right, and these coins can be redeemed against some nice gifts.

Wow! So this is the moment before the games start. Pick up your phones, download the app. It's Global Chess League. Go on, make your predictions, and redeem for all great prizes. Let's see How much on top of the game you are, chat, right now. And Sagar, you can— you've got some really fun questions for today on the app as well.

It actually reminds me of fantasy football in some ways, where you can choose your team and also predict how they'll do. And you were saying—

very nice, bye. Polina Shualova versus Katrina Lagnow. What will be the first move in the game? We have to make it.

1.d4. 1.d4, Sagar. Okay, that's my prediction.

I've made this move, 1.d4, and I'm submitting it. And let's go!

We will do all of that. You guys join in on the party as well. But right now it's time to get the action started as our Rohini is ready with the players.

We have reached a very important point at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. This is the halfway stage. Now every point gets crucial, every board is important, and every player will have to bring their A-game. Now to start today's day, we have the 2 teams who will be contesting in match number 13. Give it up for the Ganges Grandmasters, who will be up against PPG Alaska Knights. With the white pieces in this match, we have the Ganges Grandmasters. Let me introduce you to the lineup, starting with on the icon board, 2 times Candidates winner, Ian Nepomniachtchi. Two times World Cup winner Levon Aronian. Former World Blitz champion Linia Dominguez. Speed demon Polina Shuvalova. Top-ranked Greek women players Travlula Solakidou. Tara Steel Challenger Leon Lukmendonka. And now for the contenders, the PBG Alaskan Knights. On the icon board, 5 times world champion Vishwanathan Anand, world rapid number 3 Arjun Erigezi, youngest 2700 Yagizkhan Erdogmus. Former Women Rapid and Blitz Champion Katarina Lagno. Georgian superstar Nino Batsiyashvili. Youngest Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra. And now the coaches of the 2 teams. For the Grandmasters, Adiban Bhaskaran. And for the Knights, Abhijeet Kunde. The players may now head for handshakes.

Thank you.

First match of today, and for the first move, I would like to call upon our tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter, Gerd Beyer, and our special guest for today, Ms. Sonam Sharma, Regional Sales Manager, APAC, GSI Helix. Hello, everyone.

Set. We had the opening move made. The match is set. We have Depo with a smile, Vishy also with a smile on his face. I think we'll head over to the women's superstar board, board number 4. Polina Shuvalova versus Katrina Lagnaud. And the games have begun, Tanya.

They've begun. It's go time. Polina Shuvalova has been a star player. She's a superstar women board here, but she's been the one who's been carrying the Ganges Grandmasters. For Katrina Lagnaud, again, she's not shown her best in some of the games. And we've got action on. It started with the Spanish Opening and Exchange Variation on the board.

सागर इस दी ओपनिंग ऑफ चॉइस। या दे आर प्लेइंग द स्पेनिश ओपनिंग एंड राइट नाउ यू कैन सी देर दे आर थिंकिंग वी कैन आल्सो गो तू द अदर बोर्ड हियर विच इज़ द स्टैवर नो वी हैव कैटरीना वर्सेस पोलीना शुआलोवा एंड द अदर वन इज़ स्टैवरुला वर्सेस नीनो बात्सियाश्विली And Sagar, that way this is so balanced.

You know, we speak about Polina's 3 out of 4, and then Nino Batsarshvili being the hottest player for the PBG Alaskan Knights with her score right now. We've got the Prodigy board on our camera. The game we've got right now is— we're talking about Nino taking on Stavrula. Sagar, if we just pull that up right now, let's go to that one where we have the Reti opening, Tanya.

Knight to f3. Bishop g2, uh, g3, Bishop g2. And it's a very standard opening that we are seeing here.

Very standard opening. And Black has managed to get the pawns going in the center, which gives you the advantage of having central control. But then White gets the king to safety first, gets the development on the kingside, and eventually Polina will strike with one of her pawns on the center, either with a d4 or a c4, or even more cagey setups where she fianchettoes the other bishop as well. Sagar, as we don't want to miss handshakes, let's move over to the cameras of our men's superstar boards. 2 very exciting matchups in that one, and it's go time as Levon Aronian, known as the artist in the chess world for his creativity, faces the equally creative and chaotic Arjun Erigaisi.

And he plays the same opening that he played against निहाल सरीन लेवोन ही ब्रिंग्स इस बिशप आउट। एरियर आई यूज्ड तू थिंक दैट ओह लेवोन इज़ डूइंग इट सो दैट ही डज़न हैव टू फेस दिस वेरी ड्रॉइश ओपनिंग कॉल्ड द पेट्रोफ, विच हैप्पेंस आफ्टर नाइट एफ थ्री नाइट एफ सिक्स। बट इट सीम्स लाइक दिस इज़ द ओपनिंग दैट लेवोन हैज स्टार And right now he's taken a pause thinking, does he stop Arjun's bishop from landing on g4 with a move like h3 before getting his king to safety?

Or is he ready to go castle already? He does respond with h3 first, taking a pause.

And Arjun plays c6. Tanya, this is the reversed Italian. As we can see, black is playing like white, white is playing like black, and, uh, very interesting.

But Sahaj, it all— Sahaj, sorry, Sagar, it almost— Thank you, Danya, for the revenge against the revenge arc. You know, today for both these players it's redemption arc on the board. For me, the amount of times I've been called Amruta on this broadcast. But Sagar, I was going to make the point, Arjun's already prepared to get d5 in. You know, you have your knight and queen defending it, but he doesn't do it immediately. He first stops Levon's bishop from coming out to g5. Eventually that will put a lot of pressure on those pawns. Are we going to see an early d5 from Arjun here?

Yeah, he could very well do that. He may even prepare it, Tanya. Should we have a quick look at the 3rd board before we go to the icon board? Or let's head over to the icon board first because we will get our moves happening very soon. The chief arbiter starts the clock, a handshake, and off we go.

The marquee matchup, the headliner, with Jan Nepomniachtchi taking on Vishy Anand. And no e4, e5s in this one, no King Pawn Opening. Vishy goes For the Sicilian, and it's not just the Sicilian. Is it going to be a Najdorf? We see an opening, d6 here by Vishy. He wants a full fight, Sagar. It is the Najdorf on the board. Wow!

And look at what Jan has gone for. He plays Bishop e2, which is a very classical opening. I remember Anatoly Karpov championing this system. It hasn't been played so much, Tanya, at the top level because It feels like black knows how to equalize in such lines, but Jan must have some latest wrinkle prepared here.

What does he have in mind? Now, Jan is fully aware of the clock troubles that Vishy has been having, especially yesterday. He is going to try to keep the pace. I just want to make some strategic points in this position that I want everyone to take notice of. Sagar, while the Najdorf is such a tactical battle usually, but it has a very key strategic positional element to it. It all revolves around one square, one spot on the board, and we're gonna go red hot on that one. It's the d5 central square. White wants all the pieces to clamp down on that square to make sure that Black never breaks free with the pawn moving forward. If Vishy is able to strike with d5, Black has no problems out of the opening. If White gets full control of that square, a stronghold on that, positionally White is doing well. This last move by Jan is not only looking at a queen transfer towards the kingside, moving it towards that g-pawn, but also the white rook ready to take that spot that the queen has just left vacant.

Right, and castles here. Jan is playing so quickly, and Tanya, you are absolutely right, the pressure on the d5 point is growing. But Vishy is like, I've finished all my development here, and with knight d5 Now can pick this up either with the knight or the bishop. One is right, one would be very wrong.

One would be an absolute blunder. We'll see the double question mark. And notice how the bishop did not have squares. If you would have picked it up with the knight, Vishy's bishop would have been trapped in that case. So instead he trades it with the right piece. Of course he knows that, Sagar. And now the game will get divided into 2 halves. Vishy will look at an expansion eventually on the kingside. While we will see Jan Nepomniachtchi pushing his pawns on the other flank.

Yeah, very interesting game. In fact, both of them very well-versed with this position. But Tanya, I'm very interested to see who comes out on top. It feels like Black's pieces are all not so active while White has the bishop pair. But this idea which you mentioned of f5, e4, knight jumping in, bishop coming out Would make this a very nice position for black.

It's going to be a fascinating battle. I'm going to make a case for white as well. The white knight will land on a5, push that c-pawn, push that b-pawn, put pressure on the b7-a6 structure that Vishy has on the black side. Completely agree. You know, we've got Rostri Coffee House here. It's brewing up to be an excellent middle game.

Yeah, I love it actually. Oh, and Vishy instantly plays e4. And makes a square here for his knight. And Jan is moving so quickly, Tanya.

There's a pawn! There's a pawn on the board. The queen has lost connection with the speed with which Jan is playing. It's a sacrifice, not a blunder.

Wow, that is insane. And maybe Jan is thinking that he can trap the rook here somehow, but the bishop is hanging. Tanya, what about the move b6? What's happening there?

I think you do end up trapping because knight d4— look at this, what we're gonna see this play out. The knight lands to the center of the board. And Vishy's rook there will be lost, but Vishy in the bargain has also gotten a pawn, a beautiful square for the knight. Sagar, I really hope that this is preparation by Vishy that runs very deep, because otherwise you could be in trouble. Okay, he hits the queen. These are forcing sequence of moves, everything we're seeing before, Tanya.

This has been seen right now. The knight is hanging, this is hanging, and the best move I believe that has been played before is rook Takes pawn on f2, guys. This is amazing. Vishy is right now a piece up, but his rook is trapped.

And we have the analysis board. Show us that line, Sagar. So the stock of the position is currently Vishy has one extra piece and 2 extra pawns. He takes it, he takes it. He's going to pick up the rook. If we do the math, black has 5 points, white has 5 points. Picking up the rook right now.

So here Here, here. And this is the position.

This is our live board. What is the follow-up? Usually in this kind of a dynamic material imbalance, the player who has a deeper preparation and understanding of plans has a huge edge, right?

And oh, Vishy goes with the other knight to f6, not the h-knight. He goes with the d-knight to f6. Tanya, I think Jan is still in his preparation. If we look at the clock timings, Jan has 19 minutes 20 He's just used 40 seconds for 20 moves. That's an average of 2 seconds per move.

That's Nihal for you. The clock again is something that Nihal uses over and over against his opponents. We've seen him do it. And you know, while, Sagar, that is his biggest strength, it's also something that has rushed him into decision-making where there's been brashness by him. So sometimes that's been his weakness as well. Vishy glances up.

You know, Vishy looks at Jan and is like, okay, my friend, how much have you prepared? Tell me, because this is now already move 21.

Another move in 2 seconds, by the way.

Is, is Jan sometimes bluffing, or do you think he's really prepped here?

You can just never tell with him. But we have seen Jan so many times blitz out, even in classical chess, make so many moves quickly but then land up in big trouble, right?

And I think, Tanya, it's the perfect time to tell our viewers, if Director Saab can show us. I want to show the app of Global Chess League here because I have it open and you can actually guess the moves. Look at this. You can guess the moves on this. Like, what is Vishy going to play now? And Tanya, it's so beautifully made. Please guess what is Vishy's next move going to be and we'll make it here and lock the prediction before he plays it. Tell me.

All right, Sagar.

So the knight on H five is hanging. I can't move my knight. I can't move my bishop.

Wait, wait, wait.

It has to be rook or queen. Oh, you. It was the queen.

He played it. Queen C five. And you see the move is already made. So now I've actually chosen Vishy's side as black. So I have to keep guessing his moves.

Wow!

It's beautiful.

I love the app.

I think it's brilliant, guys. Go to the App Store if you are on iOS or Android. Download the app and play along. You will enjoy it. You love this experience even more.

So they can watch our broadcast. They can watch the players live, and they can guess their move. I made you lose on time in that last guess, didn't I?

Yeah, I wanted to make a move, but I don't think I would have played Queen C5 Tanya anyway.

Well, at least we got one bit right that it had to be the queen or the rook, and I think it will be the rook next, Sagar. Now that the queen has moved up, Vishy is setting up that C8 square to get his rook into the game. Once again, let's just take stock of the material balance. याना पम्मशी हैज वन एक्स्ट्रा रुक वर्थ फाइव पॉइंट्स, विशी हैज वन एक्स्ट्रा नाइट एंड टू पॉन्स आलसो वर्थ फाइव पॉइंट्स। हाउ वर्डेड आर यू अबाउट दैट नाइट दैट यूव हाइलाइटेड इन रेड?

आई थिंक दैट नाइट इज़ फाइन तानिया राइट नाउ बिकॉज़ इफ यू ट्राइ टू ट्रैप इट विथ ग And I can take this pawn on d5, which means it will be the 3rd pawn that I'll win.

And that's 6 points to white's 5 points if you get that pawn at the center. And I don't really see a happy way to defend that pawn. Also, the tactics that exist here, there are sort of these red flags in the position. You know, Vishy's bishop is x-raying the white queen, that d5 pawn hanging, the knight in the center pin. And this time there's no move coming in by Jan Nepomniachtchi in 2 seconds. He's out of his preparation. It's all on-the-board action now.

Yeah, sometimes when you've prepared very deeply and then your preparation ends, you feel like, I just don't know what's happening because I was playing from memory and now I have to think. And I think that could be a very crucial moment because there are 2 good moves here now, Tanya. King h1 and rook f1. These 2 moves are playable, but the position is around even. It's not better for white.

I see the idea of putting the rook on that f1 square. Let's just highlight that, Sagar. I think what you're threatening is to slide the rook over to the 5th rank eventually, hitting that knight that we've been talking about, which looks a bit trapped. Vishy's 2 knights in chess are what we call superfluous knights. They are defending each other, but they're also coming in each other's way right now. One can't move, the other can't move.

Yeah, I think it's that typical thing where sometimes there are 2 people in a team and they both can do only one task well. And I think these 2 knights—

Why do I feel like this is a personal attack?

No, no, not at all. I think it happens in many organizations. It happens in many places. People will relate to it. But when you have a setup like this knight and a bishop, they both can combine very well. So I think these 2 knights need to get their act together.

Yes, I completely agree with you. And it will also mean that Vishy's bishop that's on e7 will get free as well. So all the pieces will start coordinating well. सागर मटेरियली तो देसन इम्बैलेंस बट देसनो डेफिसिट हियर फॉर विशी। ओह बाय द वे किंग ह वन हैज बीन प्लेड एंड नाउ विशी गुड और बैड मस्ट टेक दिस पॉन अदरवाइज़ द नाइट इज़ जंपिंग इन एंड अटैकिंग हियर। कैन वी ब्रिंग अप आर एनालिसिस बोर्ड जस्ट तू हाइलाइट व्हाट आर द पॉइंट The concept of the rook sliding over and the rook going up the board. Queen takes pawn, rook to f1, and now the threat of rook f5 is so dangerous that I think Vishy will be forced to stop it with a move like g6 that potentially creates weaknesses around the king. Highlight that bishop, the sniper on c3.

Yep, this bishop, this queen. But you know, black has the material— 3 pawns here, beautiful pawns. Maybe the rook slides in, Tanya, and the game remains very sharp and very exciting. I think this could very well happen. How about we make a tour through other boards?

We will do just that. Before we do that, decisive or draw on this board? I'm not going to ask you who wins, but will it be decisive?

Decisive. 100% decisive, Tanya. Come on.

You know what, this one I'm with you. I think this one, looking at the position we have, very likely an iconic clash that will be decisive. सागर, व्हेर डू यू वांट टू गो नेक्स्ट?

आई वांट टू गो तू द गेम सेकंड बोर्ड बिटवीन लेवोन आरोनियन और अर्जुन एरिगाइसी बिकॉज़ दिस गेम वी कैन सी इज़ क्वाइट एक्साइटिंग। अर्जुन सीम्स तू हैव ऑलरेडी गोटन अ वेरी गुड पोजीशन। कैन वी कैन वी लुक एट अर्जुन एंड एंड लेवोन?

This game, but a spicy middle game already. Like you said, what is this pawn formation that we are seeing by Levon? Again, it feels like the same storyline against Pranesh where there's been an overextension.

Yeah, I think Levon is playing very creatively here. He's not holding back. He's not saying like, "Oh, let me keep a very fixed pawn structure." वो बोल रहा है भाई अपुन खोल देंगे पोजीशन देखेंगे क्या होगा वो होगा. We will figure it out as it goes. But Arjun is like, "भाई, this is also how I play. This is how I roll and this." is dangerous when you do it against Arjun. I like Black's position, Tanya.

It is Arjun's turf, this one. Already the, uh, the 2 knights versus knight and bishop on the board. We look at the pawn formation. White's king long-term unsafe because Levon has pushed the 2 pawns in front of him. Oh my God, and we've got huge breaking news coming from the icon board. We're gonna go straight into that. Vishy Anand with a huge blunder has resigned, Sagar. Wow, what just happened there? And Levon Aronian's looking back, he's asking what just happened there. We have to do a quick action replay. We will get this board up. Jan can't believe it. Vishy just gets up and leaves.

This is the biggest blunder we've ever seen, Tanya.

Sagar, we left it last when we saw King to h1. What happened? Take us through. Jan Nepomniachtchi in 23 moves clutches the icon board.

Yeah, unbelievable, because Vishy had to take this pawn, and maybe in his mind he took the pawn, Rook f1 and g6. Remember, we were talking about this, but he suddenly played g6, which is an insanely huge blunder, Tanya, because after Knight c6, the bishop is hanging. You can't move it away. Even if you move it, I take it, and then this knight hangs, and you're simply a piece down.

You can't defend the bishop because of the same problem. If you defend it with your rook, that bishop's going anywhere. Everything falls apart. And Vishy, did he just mix up the move order in his mind?

I think, I think something went wrong where Vishy thought he's already played Queen d5, Rook f1.

We saw that line.

And then g6, and he just played it ahead. And huge, huge mistake. I think Vishy— I have never seen him lose this way, Tanya. It was just, uh, how do you call it, a blank spot, blank spot, or whatever this is called. I'm Very upset right now at this what has happened.

But it's a moment of blindness because otherwise how do you explain sort of mixing the move order? Sagar, I just also I think we have to mention that when an icon board goes down like that, it just reverberates through the rest of the five boards. The pressure is now on on the PBG Alaskan Knights on the remaining board with the black pieces to score.

I agree, I agree.

And you know, Tanya. Vishy didn't even sit at the board for more than a few seconds after Ian played his move. He just resigned, which means that he knew that what he has done is a mistake.

A blunder that you can't come back from. It's the sort of mistake, Sagar, where you're losing huge material. And that was the end of it. We left it for just a moment, and right there the blunder happened. Chess is brutal like that. One match down for the PBG Alaskan Knights, 5 games still on. And Arjun Aragaisi is giving them some hope right now.

Arjun has to strike, and the thing is he's black, so his win will count for more than Yan's win on the top board. So if Arjun beats Levon, he'll get four points.

I'm not sure who's going to win, but here in the commentary desk, Sagar Shah is definitely winning. He's got his chocolates in front of him. He's playing on the Global Chess League app, trying to guess every single move.

Hi, man. कभी I could not have guessed the move that Vishy played. Because you know I had my move Queen takes d5 put in. I was wrong, but guys, do download the chess Global Chess League app. I'm saying this again and again because I just love the experience that is there. Oh, by the way, look at Arjun. His pieces are crowding around the white king, and look at Arjun's face, right? He's like, "Hi, I'm here.

I'm almost going to checkmate." And Levon was forced to give up that bishop for the knight; otherwise, it would have been checkmate. There were all kinds of attacks around the king, the central pawn as well. And now I wonder if we're going to see Arjun pick up that bishop with his pawn, Sagar, open up the h-file, push his g-pawn one step ahead, push his king one step ahead, line up the rook, and then go for that checkmate idea.

That's a very good idea, Tanya. I think I like it. I feel like this move strengthens your control on the dark squares. My only problem is you should not get your queen trapped somehow with Knight f5. And perhaps that is what Arjun's calculating.

Knight f5 would hit the queen, would hit that pawn. Arjun, will he recapture with the queen? Feels a bit more safer, more healthier for the pawn formation. But Arjun, you know, he's a dynamic player. He loves to sort of throw a googly, right?

And I think he might just do that here. So right now we leave this position as slightly better for Arjun. How about we go to our 3rd board, the Men's superstar board between Dominguez and Yas Khan Erdogmus, as we love this new scene that we have today where Lanier Dominguez takes on Yas Khan. And there was another game that was placed there. Okay, this what we have right now is Erdogmus versus Lanier Dominguez, third board clash. And Tanya, what What are your feelings here in this position? Is white better? Is black better?

Dogma, someone needs to tell him to wake up his pieces on the queenside. You know, it's 3:50 in the afternoon here in Bengaluru and they're taking a nap there.

Afternoon siesta.

It's— it really feels like siesta, but you know, for siesta you got to be in Spain. Right now you're in India, so those pieces need to come out into the game. सागर फॉर अडोगमस, essentially that means half of his army is on one side, the other on the other side. लेनियर has full coordination. Look at the way he's already going. Huge lead in development, and he's already striking on the queen side. If you're counting on all hopes, if you know you put all your eggs in one basket, the basket being लेनियर's king, a kingside attack, you don't have enough firepower. The queen and the rook are not going to be enough. White will simply guard the g2 pawn by pushing it one step forward and keep everything safe and strike on the other side.

Right, so that means that Lanier might be able to beat Yaskarnerdogmus here if the youngster doesn't do something quickly. Would you say an edge for the Ganges Grandmasters here?

I would say that definitely this is a very promising middle game for the Ganges. The white rook coming to the b-file next Pawn takes pawn, rook infiltration lined up. Uh, this feels like trouble for the young Yagis.

Okay, so he's thinking here. And Tanya, very quickly updating you on board number 4 between Polina Shualova and Katerina Lagno. This one over here is looking very even. I would be surprised if this ends decisively. If there's someone who's playing for a win, It should be white because black pawns do look a bit weak.

I completely agree with that. It's just so much easier for white to have a pawn formation, a pawn passed, uh, pushing that on that right flank. For black, very difficult to make a passer on the other side with the 4 versus 3 and a doubled pawn on that c-line that, uh, Lhagno has. We will have the player's camera And we see that last move by Polina kicking that knight away. If you go to the wrong square, the white rook is ready to come in. I also want to highlight a path for the white king— g2, h3— start going up the board towards the kingside pawn, gobbling them up. And Sagar, the knight tries to attack b2, but the rook can simply slide back, keep the second rank completely guarded, and continue with the king march.

Right, and as of now Black's activity is keeping her in good shape. Let's go to one more board. That's board number five between Stavrula Solakidou and Nino Batsyashvili. It does feel like Nino once again is the one for choice here. She's better. Her pieces are well placed. Tanya, more space.

Very cool.

I do like what Nino has done. You know, Nino was on the winning side of season three as part of the Alpine Pipers in that team and played a key role. And right now she's playing. A massive role in the PBG Alaskan Knights as well. She's had 2 back-to-back victories. Finding his momentum, she becomes quite unstoppable. I've seen her do this at the Olympiad as well for the Georgian team. Once Nino gets on a roll, it's hard to stop this girl.

Correct. Yeah, she's looking already very good in this position, and so that's an advantage to the PBG Alaskan Knights.

And let's just point out that yes, we love a bishop pair, But there are no open diagonals in the position. White's light-squared bishop next to the king is blocked behind his own pawns. Nino, the way she's placed her pawn, she's completely blunted— apart from the space advantage, totally taken away all the activity from that dark-squared bishop. And I think that's the reason why that last move has been given a question mark. It does allow White the opportunity to get rid of that bishop.

But you know what, Tanya, if you take here, you would be left with a very poor bishop anyway. And I would be winning your pawn here. So maybe Nino has thought through this.

And she's also hitting the pawn on c2. Comes with a double attack. I was wondering if you don't take, what are your alternatives? Because a5 is anyways hanging, Sagar. c2 is about to fall. I don't think you can defend both these pawns with a single move. Nino with a big advantage. Sagar, it feels like if we get our bars across the boards, you know, of course, even for the fans who are here to watch Vishy's game end so quickly has to be disappointing.

I agree.

They would have come today to see Vishy fight it out against Ian, and then in 23 moves the game just got over. But if the PBG Alaskan Knights continue the way they are doing, like Nino's playing well, Arjun's playing well, they could still win the match.

Exactly, all the players with the black pieces. And that's the point I wanted to make. If we can have our 6-board view right now, we'll see that one board is down. Ganji's Grandmasters with an early celebration in that one. But the bigger picture is it might still be too early to celebrate.

I agree with you, Tanya. This match is wide open. There are these very interesting battles, and there we have our boards here. White has won the first board, but Tanya, board 2, black looks slightly better. Board 3, white is slightly better. Board 4 is equal. Board 5, I think, is a crucial one for the PBG Alaskan Knights. While board six between Leon and Abhimanyu are equal.

And a big reminder here: if white, that's the Ganges Grandmasters, are able to get two wins, and black, that's the PBG Alaskan Knights, also get two wins, the other two end in a draw. Because of the scoring system, Sagar, it's the Knights who take the day.

I agree. I agree. And this is the beautiful scoring system of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. Tanya, should we turn our attention to the? Board number 2, where Arjun and Levon are fighting amazingly well. It's a crazy position.

That's the top center board right there. By the way, he did take it with the pawn. King of Chaos, Arjun Erigaisi, creating those imbalances. Sagar, let's go straight to that. We see what Levon did yesterday with black. He had e5, f5, g5. Today he has these 3 pawns: e4, f4, g4. Let's highlight them so everyone can enjoy this view. With the white king without a pawn wall right there, and we will also have the right cameras.

Yeah, knight takes f four, Tanya, and now rook takes f four might well happen, and then you pick up the rook on e eight. That's the plan here. It seems Levon has to sacrifice his rook; otherwise, he would be utterly lost. I don't see why he's thinking. Guys, if you are on the Global Chess League app, just predict the move Rook f4. Oh, you're too late. Rook pawn takes. And now, Tanya, I think Levon Aronian has somehow managed to get out of the woods because look at this. Knight takes. Oh, you don't take on e8. Knight e8, Rook e8. But Tanya, there is Queen f7. I just missed that.

And that is huge because that queen doesn't just come with a check. Then when you capture the rook, It's supported. Your knight is supported on that square, and you're threatening a check on f8. You essentially— but, Sagar, e4 is hanging. Queen takes pawn. The line does not end.

Can we have the analysis board? I think this is worthy of deeper look because Levon, you can see, he has his head in his hands. He's like, let me think it through whether I should pick up the rook or the pawn. And yeah, okay, maybe we'll analyze it deeper on this board itself. Let's look at it. Queen takes f7, Tanya.

Only move for black.

Yes. King h8. Knight takes e8 is a blunder because after queen takes, where do we go?

King— it doesn't matter, Sagar. You just pick up the knight at the end of it. You can give a couple more checks, but the idea is to eventually pick up the knight and make a case for your extra pawn here. And white's king is so exposed.

I mean, this king is getting mated. So Levon needs to then find an incredibly tough Which is either to take the pawn here or play Queen f5 and try to say that, hey, if you take here, I will take back with my g-pawn.

He's ready. It's happening. So Levon cannot pick up the rook. Arjun has instantly— let's have our live board— instantly moved the king. He mustn't take that rook. If Levon picks up that rook, Ganji's grandmasters go down on this board. But Sagar, I think he, he knows this.

Knight e8 is very similar to what Vishy did in his game. like a one-move blunder, and Levon is not going to do that. He has 5 minutes, roughly 5 minutes on his clock, and he goes— wow, Queen f4, showing his class! That's a good move, Tanya.

He is a classy player, and it comes with a big threat as well. That knight is about to give a check on f7 and reroute towards the g5 square on the board, highlighting that for you. The queen will be attacked, and I think Arjun should stop that check. He does it by hitting the white queen. And now for Levon, which square will he choose? Will he go forward or will he retreat?

Many squares are possible here. It's a tough moment for Levon, but I think, Tanya— oh, nice view! I love this one because here you get a top-down view of the clock, of the board, everything that's happening. You have the digital board here.

Beautiful. The black rook for Arjun hitting the white queen right now, as we see that Levon Aronian down to five minutes, Arjun about six minutes on the clock. I believe, Sagar, you said it earlier that this one very likely to be decisive, but it's a game for three results.

Yeah, I think so, because this e pawn, Tanya, if it starts running down. The knight is already covering the queening square.

I will point out Arjun's plan once the queen was to move away. Sagar, I think he wants to get the other rook into the game. You start doubling up on the f-line— rook f6, rook f8— and if you push that e-pawn forward, always watch out for the queen infiltrating along the diagonal, hitting that king, eyeballing all the pawns on the left flank as well.

Somehow, Tanya, I do feel that this position is Slightly easier to play for black than white because the king on G2 looks a bit more exposed than the king on H8. And Levon there, water, getting you know that last bit of energy before the time pressure sets in.

Analysis board, Tanya.

Any analysis that's coming to your mind now?

Well, one thing is clear. Unfortunately for Arjun, he can't put his rook attacking the queen because the knight on d6 protects that e8 square. And I think it's absolutely key for him to find a way to get that rook into the game. Sagar, I'm still looking at ideas. Suddenly it feels like the black queen— what is it doing on that square? Yes, and you want to take us to another game?

Take you to board number 5. I want to take you to Stavrula versus Nino because this is where the PBG Alaskan Knights are winning their game. If we can go to board number 5, this is an incredible, incredible game that could be very important from the tournament's— like, the match perspective.

Let's go over to our women's superstar board. Right now, as you said, Nino Batya Shavili looks like she's about to win her third game in a row currently, and that would be huge for the Knights. The last move has been given a question mark.

And there we see, by the way, Arjun and Levon Aronian, they are thinking for their moves. I think somehow this game is so exciting that it refuses.

Sagar, look at this move. Look at this move. He is threatening the queen to come in, start giving some checks on that white king. Not just that, I love this idea because with that he also wanted to get his rook into the game via that f6 square.

Okay, and there we see right now the game between Stavrola and Nino. I think, Tanya, this game is going to go in the favor of The PBG Alaskan Knights, although there's still some fight. Opposite colored bishops, and Solaki Du did give up that bishop.

She did lose that pawn. Right now, Nino has an extra pawn, the better bishop. Compare black's bishop to white's counterpart. No future. There's absolutely no way that Stavrula's bishop can come into that game. Sagar, just do a pick and drop. You put that bishop on d5 or f5, and suddenly we're talking about a completely different game.

I agree.

I agree. The bishop on f3 is a big pawn there. Can't do much, and Stavrula has to find a way to save herself, or else Nino will score yet another victory. Tanya, you were talking about this game between Yaskan Erdogmus and Lenier Dominguez. Can we get board number three? Now this one is looking so good for Lenier. He has completely made inroads on the queenside. Let's go to board number 3 between Lennyir and Yaskhan. Yes, there we have it. Exactly what you said has happened, Tanya. White has infiltrated on the queenside.

But I have to say that Edogmus has also made a lot of progress on the kingside. Sagar, there are big threats on the board. That f3 knight, it looks like it's defended by the white pawn and the knight, but the black queen has a solid pin. So always watch out for a rook takes knight, the black knight jumping into an f4 idea. With Leinier's big army on the left flank, I think our dogmas is looking for tricks. Yes, if the engine was to play with white, it crushes black in this position. You'll make all the right moves defensively, the a-pawn will become a queen one day, and you're completely winning in this position. But with threats along the white king, I think our dogmas is going to try to push for some traps in these positions.

सागर स्टार्टिंग विद द विद the fact and the reality that रुक टेक्स नाइट इज़ अ थ्रेट इन दिस पोजीशन। राइट, रुक टेक्स नाइट कुड हैपन, सो दैट्स व्हाई लेनियर इज़ राइट नाउ थिंकिंग ही गोज़ रुकी थ्री। ही सो सो गुड हीर। ही सो सॉलिड। ही ब्रिंग्स हिज़ रुक अप तानिया। but look at एरडॉग्मस ही गो to g four। he wants to attack the g two pawn। and maybe if you go g three, तानिया sacrifices on No, he goes back.

He goes back with the rook. That is the opposite direction of an attack. But, you know, he's setting up that attack. The black knight is ready to pounce onto that square that the rook has just left. And suddenly the queen and the knight combo start looking pretty dangerous. Right.

And so Yaskhan Erdogmus here has some chances.

And Sagar, has he potentially in some positions also cleared the path for his bishop? And it doesn't work right now, but I want everyone to watch out for the move bishop to g5 at the right moment.

Nice, nice, with the discovered attack here and attacking the rook.

The knight comes in. A Dogmas is bringing firepower here. The PBG Alaskan Knights attacking with their knights.

You know what, Tanya, you can be as cool as you can be and push the a-pawn down the board and just ignore this knight completely.

Just find the flow on the left flank. He doesn't— he's gone into defense.

Beautiful.

Understandable, Sagar. He wants to keep that h3 square under check so there's no check on it. Oh, look at that! And he's reinforcing. The queen moves forward now. I don't think the attack works. Yes, but it's definitely looking terrifying, and that's what plays mind games when you're on the board.

I agree, Tanya. And I think, uh, Lanier needs to have belief in his position and in himself to start pushing his a-pawn, because, you know, Yaz is now getting 1, 2, 3, 4— 4 pieces in the attack. Go for it, Lanier!

a5!

He has to do that. He has to just start pushing it, try and distract Black. Black has his entire army on the other side, but Leinier is distracted with his own attack on the king. And that's what happens— nerves, tension. When you see the queen and the knight and the 2 rooks coming towards you, Sagar, it's so difficult to stay cool.

He's hesitating. Leinier does not have the confidence here because he hasn't had great games in this tournament. And I hope that he's able to find those key moves because Yash is already equal now.

And what our Dogmas has set up is, first of all, he's paralyzed that white knight which can never move now. And with under 2 minutes on the clock for Dominguez, this is going to be a difficult task because he hasn't even touched that a-pawn. It's like he's forgotten about the biggest strength in his position.

Sometimes you just worry about your king so much that you forget that you can make a queen here. And now Yas can push his pawn here and stop the pawn itself. He does it! He's so talented, Tanya.

That is full board awareness. Yaz Erdogmus, he just puts so much pressure on the kingside and then just completely turns his attention into defense, from attack to defense at the right time. He's saying, you did not use your opportunity to push that a-pawn. I will not allow you. You shall not pass.

Right. And while this game is very complex and brewing, I want to show— take you guys to board number 4, which is between Polina Shualova. And Katrina Lagnau and what looked like a draw, Tanya, is suddenly a completely lost position for black.

He just she just takes it. She just takes it. It is one extra pawn, and Katrina Lagnau has miscalculated this. She blundered into something.

I mean, it was already a tough endgame, perhaps at some point this night endgame. But check here. And this is just lost because now White has an extra pawn.

And Sagar, it was already gone even if you don't give up that pawn in that moment. White's king was ready to go through all the light squares and it would have fallen apart. Just a badly timed knight trade by Lagnu will cost her the entire point here. Now an extra pawn, and all White has to do is get the king towards that left side. She first pushes on the other side. She's making 2 passes. Because the black king will be overloaded. Also, a very direct way to win this. Yeah, you will have the f pawn. You will have the b pawn. And if we just highlight those two pawns, only one defender on the board, and the king will be overstretched by the end of it. Lagnor tries to create her own chances, but look at this. Polina has calculated this. She said, "I have seen it." भाई मैंने calculate कर लिया कि मेरी queen बनने वाली है, and your queen will be nowhere in sight.

She pushes the pawn even one step ahead. It's going to be a race here. Meanwhile, we have a result that has come.

She's gonna push the— she gives a check and now she pushed the other pawn. After the white, black's king has been put on the last rank. You queen with a check.

And she takes the queen and Katrina resigns. Polina Shualova gets the second win for her team. But remember, Nino won her game, which means the PBG Alaskan Knights have gotten 4 points. The score is 6-4 with 3 games to go.

Such a close match this one will be, Sagar. Let's go to our live remaining board. Every single board matters, and we are on our men's superstar board, reaching the culmination here. What is going on? Levon has a knight and 3 pawns for a rook.

Yes, but these pawns are all falling, Tanya. It's like the b2 pawn is falling with a check. The a4 pawn will fall, which means that we will be left with 1 pawn against 2. It could be a fortress, but the engine says Arjun is winning.

Now, if you were to vacuum, magically make all the pawns from the board disappear, rook versus knight is a draw. So Arjun, for any winning chances, has to make sure that the last remaining pawn he has does not get traded.

I agree, Tanya, and that is actually going to be really tough for Arjun to do that. But if he plays this carefully, his game might be the decisive one for the team.

And Saga, just behind them, I see Lenier coming up with the speed. And we were talking about the attack that Erdogmus has. He's turned it around on his board.

To that board, because this endgame might go on for a while. Let's go to board number three. Yas Khan Erdogmus is playing an amazing game. He's pushed his pawn to D four.

He's got nine seconds on the clock. He's got nine seconds on the clock. Oh, look at that! And that is panic right there as the pieces fall.

Oh, and Lenier is winning now.

This is what happens. This is the clock talking. Offers a queen trade. He's got 3 seconds.

Make a move! The a-pawn is pushing forward and Lennyar is winning now. He just needs to make a queen. He moves his rook to a3 check.

Oh, he picks up the knight!

Rook a8, and you can see Yaz there. He's gonna lose another game. Everything's defended. Lennyar just needs to play this carefully. Takes with a check. Rook goes back, and look at Yaz. He's so unhappy, Tanya.

You don't even need to look at the board to understand what just happened. To make sure that he didn't lose on the clock, he lost on the position. A huge blunder at the end of it cost him the match, and disappointment, and on a dog miss. And this means the Alaskan Knights for now take over the match with six to eight.

But Tanya, it's not done. And by the way, Arjun Levon. Levon has lost. Arjun wins. He gets the win for his team, which means that the score is now nine six. Nine six in the favor. Everything turns to the prodigy board. Can we have Ganji's grandmasters? They've won three games. There is Nepo winning. There is Lenier winning, and there's Polina winning. So nine eight is the score. Last, everything depends on the prodigy board now.

Nine eight. Oh blunder!

And it comes down to this board, and will he capitalize on it?

अभी मान्यू Can just push the pawn to H four, Tanya, and it's game over.

There's too much attack for the Alaskan Knights. They are a point down in the match right now, but winning this finds it, finds it.

Abhimanyu will get the point.

Everything around H four, Sagar. He's doubled down on that G three pawn. He's coming for the white king, Abhimanyu.

Beautiful chess by Abhimanyu, and you can look at Leon. He knows that he's in trouble because next move. Rook takes g3, two rooks and the queen like the sniper sitting in the corner.

And both players know that it's down to this match. If Leon can save it, if he gets the draw, the Ganges win the match. But right now he's getting crushed on the board. We've seen miracles happen.

Tanya queen sack, queen h1.

But will he find it? No, he goes g2, which is very strong. Sagar, you go with the rook in. But what is the line? He has to give up the queen. Queen takes rook is the only way Leon saves the game. Does he find it? He has to give up the queen. Pick up that queen, take the rook, and the Ganges would have won the match. But he misses it.

He comes back, and now rook f1, game over. He takes, and oh, he blundered!

No, he's, he's claiming. Leon's claiming because he did not complete the move, but he had 1 second. Abhimanyu Mishra had 1 second on the clock, and without putting the queen on the right square so he doesn't get flagged, Sagar, he pressed the clock. And Leon stops it.

And now what will happen, Tanya? Will Abhimanyu be given a loss, or will they make him play again? What's going to happen here?

He's going to show— he's going to show what happened right now. Let's just watch.

So the arbiter comes in, he tries to understand what the case is. Abhimanyu says he picked up— oh, they're going to give extra time to Leon, which is fine for Abhimanyu because all that he needs is to make his move.

He's going to resign. If he didn't get the point because of that claim, he'll just resign because the position's lost for Leon. And we'll see that happen. Extra time doesn't get him anything.

And you can see Leon there, he's smiling. He's like, okay, what, what can I do? This is getting my— giving my opponent extra time to even think. And I think Abhimanyu, all that he needs now is to just complete his calculation, which he's winning totally, Tanya.

He gets a time penalty, but the position completely winning for Abhimanyu Mishra. And look at the scoreboard on top, 9 to 8. If he gets the move in in those 3 seconds, Sagar, if he gets the move in, Abhimanyu, with 3 seconds on the clock, Leon will resign.

And Leon is saying that, by the way, you made the move and got 3 seconds. Now you're giving 3 seconds to him. You should give him 1 second, which then he— Abhimanyu has to physically make a move while the arbiter—

he doesn't only have to make a move, he has to capture a piece, replace that with his own queen. One second will not be enough.

Is it? Is it true? Are we going to witness this? No, wait a second. Can we ever look at the clock?

One second.

One second. Okay.

How is he going to make a move in one second?

No, you can't do that. You can't do that. I think Leon is winning.

Leon, if it's one second, Sagar, I've never seen anything. This is unprecedented in chess.

Yeah, and I think this is just complete.

He's getting ready.

Let's just watch this.

Off the board action.

And he gets flagged, and he gets flagged. Of course he gets flagged.

Leon wins. Leon wins. Insane is the word. Insane, guys. This is not chess. This is something else. Abhimanyu Mishra is like, "What did I just do there?" And Leon, well, he won it fair and square. It's by the rules, and the arbiters, well, they also had to do that. Like, and look at the team of the. Can you? These grandmasters, they knew that they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Tanya, that was dramatic. Sagar Mendonça claimed that presence of mind that he has as we see the team analyzing there.

Oh, they can actually make an appeal.

Tanya, they might make an appeal. The thing is that Abhimanyu was penalized on the clock.

Look at Vishy there. He's like, oh, what? What the hell is that? Can we look at the PBP? जी अलास्कन नाइट्स डगआउट, इफ इट्स पॉसिबल। दे माइट इवन आस्क फॉर अ वीडियो रिप्ले ऑफ़ व्हाट जस्ट हैपन्ड। या एंड वी हैव इट ऑल ऑन रिकॉर्ड। वी हैव इट ऑल ऑन रिकॉर्ड। इट वाज बाय द रूल्स। अभिमन्यु हैड वन सेकंड। ही प्रेस्ड द क्लॉक विदाउट रियली रिमूविंग लियोन्स रुक, pressed it before he did that. Yes.

Now Leon, presence of mind with— and we will get a replay for all of you to watch what happened in those final moments, so stay with us. Presence of mind claimed it to the arbiter. Good afternoon. And let's hear it from the arbiter first.

As chief arbiter, it is my pleasure to announce you the result of this match. The Ganges Grandmasters beat the PBG Alaskan Knights with a score of 12 against AIDS. Let's give them a big round of applause. I would like to invite both the team captains to sign the results. Meanwhile, I would like to invite you all for the next match, which will start at 5 PM this afternoon. Thank you. You still have a good big smile on your face. Yeah, we got lucky again. Again? Yeah, again.

And the captain signing it means that they have accepted this result. There's going to be no appeal that's going to be made. Tanya, what an incredible finish we had there.

Rules are rules, Sagar. You have to complete a move before pressing the clock. And Abhimanyu Mishra was not able to get that final move. And the saddest, most heartbreaking part for the PBG Alaskan Knights is that that was the winning move.

Yes.

That move would have ended the game, ended the match in the favor of PBG Alaskan Knights. But he made it a bit too slow, did not place the queen. Leon took advantage of that. And what Leon said was that he has to be penalized on his clock. I should not get extra time.

I agree.

You have to reduce the time on his clock.

No, and Tanya, the thing is he got an extra minute, but when he made that move, g takes f1, he had 1 second. So you cannot have 3 seconds because that was the 2 seconds that had increased after he had pressed the clock.

So they reduced it.

Let's— we are going to have the clip. We're going to replay the final dramatic moments of Ganesh versus the knights in just about 20 seconds for all of you. So stop whatever you're doing and watch. In a slow-action replay of those final moments. Sagar, because it wasn't just about the result on the board.

Yeah.

It was a match-deciding game.

And in some ways, I think Leon was very alert, Tanya, because if he hadn't claimed there, then he would have lost the game. And so him claiming got his team the victory. Now, some would say, should he have done that? Should he have not done that? But as you rightly pointed out, a rule is a rule. And when there are rules, you can stick to them.

You have to stick to them. Otherwise, why make the rules? And you can't hold it against the player. Everything matters. Clocks matters. Flagging is absolutely, you know, a part of the game. And you have to finish a move before you press the clock. And at the end of it, Abhimanyu was given one more chance. In one second, can he capture the rook?

Can you ever do like a touch a pawn, take a rook, get a queen, press the clock in one second?

Guys.

That's when you know that one second is not a lot of time. Yes, I mean, you can't do all of this.

Nothing.

It's absolutely nothing. It's barely enough to get a full move in, let alone replace another piece. Put that and Abhimanyu tried. Yeah, all the workouts he's been doing were put to play. And this, you know, I think they're still discussing. And I will not be surprised, Sagar, if we do see an appeal by the Knights.

But I think, Tanya, if they wanted to appeal, then maybe the captain would not have gone and signed there. But maybe he just did that And now is still discussing. Maybe they want to see the action replay. There's a video there. Maybe the audience can see that and draw their own conclusions whenever the video is ready. Maybe we can play it. Look at Yaskan Erdogmus. He's also not happy, Tanya, because he lost his game as well.

And Erdogmus was putting so much pressure. You know, he was first worse, then he managed to get some counterplay, but it became a time scramble. And I think Lenny was the one who kept his control on the nerves better. And these were the final few moments, 4 seconds. And Sagar, watch what happens on the clock.

Right, so Leon's time is running down. He has 11 seconds. He brings his rook, and Abhimanyu now has 3 seconds. He takes there but does not remove the rook from the board, Tanya.

He doesn't remove the rook. He doesn't place his own queen at the right spot, and that is an incomplete move. Can we get a slower action replay instead of a fast-forward one?

Right, let's just go very slow there if possible.

I want us to slow the last second of that last move down.

Here, exactly at this point after g2.

Let's just slow this down.

Let's slow it down. Let's not go in the fast-forward mode because this is where the game changed totally.

And Sagar, this is in real time. We see Leon's time tick down. He plays this move.

And now Rook f1, Tanya. Best move, by the way.

Best move, winning move. And this is Where it happened, he has three seconds. He picks up the queen, takes it, doesn't move the rook. The queen on the wrong square, and he pressed the clock.

You know what happened, Tanya? He was going to take the rook and place the queen, but the rook fell from his hand.

So the square got occupied. His queen moved on the side, and Leon immediately claimed and rightfully claimed.

Well, that's bad luck. But guys, the thing is, Abhimanyu knew that was his mistake. That his rook fell from his hand. If he didn't do that, he would have won the game and the PBG Alaskan Knights would have won the match.

It's—

it was touch and go, Tanya. The score was 9-8.

And that is the heartbreak for the PBG Alaskan Knights, that that piece drop dropped the match for them. Correct.

And look at Arjun and Vishy. Well, they would have wanted to go back home as winners, but not today. The Ganges Grandmasters have taken this match. This was actually so exciting, Tanya, because it was not just chess that decided this result. It was also some very technical rules of chess that came into play.

And you know, Sagar, I know that this is up for debate in the chess world always, but I often see that people start blaming the players for following the rules, right? And I personally feel that That is not the whole story. And that is not the right approach. What Leon did was very much in his rightful capacity.

Exactly.

And then it comes to the arbiter, what decision they take.

I agree.

I agree.

The rules are made for a reason. And I think Leon stuck to it. He called the arbiter. The arbiter took the decision. Made Abhimanyu play with that 1 second. And he couldn't make the move. Actually, we should see that. In 1 second, how much he could do.

Should we see it one more time?

No, we haven't seen the one where he makes the queen and, you know, the arbiter comes in. We've seen till there, but after that, when he was given that 1 second to make the move— yes, that part.

Maybe if our production can actually have that up, that when Abhimanyu got that second chance to complete the move again, if he gets that move in, chat, PBJ Alaskan Knights win the match. If he presses the clock just one more time, he gets an extra 2 seconds and Leon would have resigned.

You know, Tanya, this exact case is something that I've seen happen before at one of the World Blitz Championships. It was not between top players. This exactly was the case. And in 1 second, you can't even make a normal move, leave alone a promotion move, picking up your opponent's piece.

It's not even a normal promotion. You have to capture a piece, remove it.

It's very unfortunate.

Very un— it's a very unfortunate time to make that move. What I want an update from Uh, are from anyone who's in the arena is also, are the PPG Alaskan Knights planning to claim this after the decision?

Are they still there in the dugout? Ah, okay, let's, let's see. Now, when the arbiter came in and put the clock, he had 1 second, and then Abhimanyu was like, make the move in 1 second. He went with his hand, he picks the rook, plays it, and it's already 0, and he can't even place the queen well. It's too tough then. Maybe, guys, try it at home if you can do it in 1 second and tell us if that's possible. Do you think anyone can do that?

I actually think physically it's impossible. In 1 second, again, to pick up a rook, put your queen, get the rook out of the way, get your pawn out of the way. You need to pick up the pawn and also keep that. You need to pick up the rook, keep that away. I think just physically it's impossible to get that move in. Sagar, in 3 seconds, It would be. And this is how it started. I don't think anyone could have predicted at the start that that is how it would end.

That's, that's the beauty of the Global Chess League. You come here, you come to Bengaluru, you come to Lalit Ashok Hotel, you sit in the auditorium, and you don't know in the next 1 hour what amazing ride you're going to go on. And today I think we had the most insane ride with Vishy blundering, Arjun beating Levon, Some crazy games, and then the final—this clock thing which happened. Oof! Crazy, crazy.

A 23-move winner by Jan Nepomniachtchi. A one mover blunder by Vishy Anand saw the Ganji's grandmasters take the early lead. But Sagar, it got so incredibly close on the other boards. This one was a roller coaster—an up and down battle for Lena Shivalova. On redemption arc after her loss yesterday, taking down the 3-time World Blitz Champion. It was Nino Batzia-Shivili for the BBG Alaskan Knights who continues her hot form and gave her team hope in the match. It all came down to a 9-8 score, right, to a final, final board after we saw Leinier Dominguez beat Dogmis as well. This a dramatic moment, and the end—

Their pose expression—

Equally dramatic.

Nepo was like, what, what the hell, Vishy, did you play? And I think this is the moment which we had missed. Kudos to our team for capturing that where Vishy resigns.

Vishy resigned and Harshit comes in. Harshit, I think this has been the most dramatic match of Season 4 so far.

Witness in front of us.

Yeah, I think our our chat entirely is still discussing the case of Leon and Abhimanyu. By the way, Nino won her game here. She is proved to be an incredible player. And meanwhile, Yasgan Erdogmus he could have won his battle against Lenier. That game ended in the favor of. Ganji's Grandmasters. And look at Yas.

Yeah, he carries a lot of expectations on his shoulder. Magnus Carlsen has given him a lot of praise, but in this event, somehow he has not been able to find his momentum. And what happened here?

This was the most dramatic moment of the match. Harshit, did you miss that moment?

I saw it now.

Oh my goodness. And Harshit, I think that has been the moment of GCL so far.

Harshit is like, the entire story has ended, and like, oh, who was the main character?

It's like world championship. ख़तम हो गई, जीता कौन? Well, we'll discuss and break that down with Harshit in just a few. But first, it's time to reveal our player of the match.

Let's go. Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony. Well, let me tell you, it is going to be a party out here because this time we're doing something different. Yes, we are going to honor the player of the match, but when the game is this action-packed. It is only fair that we have the entire winning team here with us.

Please give it up for the Ganges Grandmasters!

What an exceptional game y'all have had. Firstly, I would like to know from y'all, how's the heart rate?

Yeah, very, very Very high right now.

Still very tense match, but it went well for us luckily.

What did y'all do differently today? I mean, what has happened not just on one board, not just on two boards? There was drama throughout everywhere.

Yeah, very difficult games, but it's normal in this you know time control. A lot of nerves, a lot of mistakes sometimes.

But yeah, at the end we we came out.

All right. Now, on that note, it is time to give the Player of the Match award. He's standing right next to me. But to give away the award, I would like to call upon Mr. Gaurav Rakshit, Lee Commissioner.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Congratulations on that one. Ian, can we have you here?

I have to.

Yes, I have to talk to you today. So tell me about your game. You were facing Anand. Not the kind of game that the spectators also would have expected.

Yeah, uh, I don't think like Vishy at his best shape, like Like, right now at this tournament.

So he had a couple of tough games, so I was like happy, like the opening went like this. And then like, okay, this line I played so many times online and like in some blitz games. So yeah, he knew something, but it's like, I think he misplayed the opening a little bit and it was easy for me to play.

You know, we can go on and on about this game with all the players individually. Leon, can you join me here? It's time for you to tell me exactly what was happening on that board. All of us, all of our eyes were there. All of us were wondering, but only you know because you were in it.

Excuse me, I think Leon now has to tell about Queen h1 check first. Oh God, no, no, no, I will not. No, no. So, well, he wanted to take his pawn and queen— I mean, take my rook and queen, but he made the move incorrectly. And he pressed the clock after making that move incorrectly. And so, from 1 second, he went to 3 seconds. So then I claimed, like, this is not a real move. So, the arbiter added, like, 1 minute to me and then said, okay, you can continue the game. But then I said, like, you have to make it with 1 second because that is when you had the position. And this was the only way that I could technically win the game, yeah, because in the position, I was just dead lost. So, well, the arbiter made it just 1 second for him. He failed to make the move because it's quite difficult to capture and promote the pawn and press the clock in 1 second. So, that is how I won.

You know, were you confident that decision was going to go your way, or was it just a chance that you took?

No, actually, I've had this discussion with some friends, like how easy is it to capture a rook, I mean, or any heavy piece, promote the queen, and press the clock. And we realized that it's not so easy. So, I thought it's maybe 80-20 that I would manage to win on the clock. Yeah, it was— I had to do what I had to do.

Yeah, but all that discussion paid off today. Well, congratulations to all, to the entire team. This has been some kind of a game. Congratulations and all the best for the upcoming games. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. Back to you, casters.

Thank you, Arohi. I am so glad that Arohi got in the players and asked all the questions that were running through our minds right there, and I'm sure in chat's mind as well. Sagar, Harshit, what did you make of that? You know, first Jan coming in saying, hey, tell me why you didn't play Queen h1. But more importantly, Leon's feeling and confidence that that claim had to be made at the time.

Well, it kind of shows you how important they are taking these kind of small decisions, right? He told us that he had thought about this, how easy or difficult it is to complete a move with just 1 second in your clock, and he made that practical choice on the board which gave him the full point.

I think it's very important to stay up late night with your friends, play blitz, because that's when you have these discussions of how long does it take to take a pawn, capture a rook, and make a queen. And I think Leon may have spent countless hours at night, which paid off today.

The only question in my mind is, if Abhimanyu was asked to make that move, would it have to happen with 3 seconds on the clock, or also penalizing him on the clock?

With one second, I think when the move was about to be made, Tanya. I think he might have had two seconds or so. So maybe it's a good question that you ask: Should it be two seconds or one second? But now it's all done. Twelve eight victory for Ganji's Grandmasters as they beat PBG Alaskan Knights. Kudos to Yan, Lenier, Polina, and Leon. Four winners today. That's actually very nice. All six decisive games.

All six decisive games, exactly. We've we've had a very nice start to the day, which changes the rankings quite a bit. Let's take a look at the tournament standings after round one on day four.

Oh, bye Alpine APL Pipers, in spite of not having played a match, still are at the top with Ganji's Grandmasters also joining them. But game points Alpine के ज़्यादा है, भाई कैसे?

भाई क्योंकि उन्होंने एक rule बनाया था। If you get Magnus on your team, you get to play one match less.

Alpine Pipers and the Grandmasters with 9 points apiece, but Alpine Pipers have a whole match ahead of them and they will be in action against the Triveni Continental Kings later on in the day. But this is anyone's GCL, it's such a close battle. The difference is one match start to bottom right there with all the teams yet to play. For the PBG Alaskan Knights, such a dramatic loss at the end of them. We've got 6 pointers for them. The Czech Mumba Masters in action next, also at 6. Gambits at 6. Triveni Continental Kings feeling the pulse now, finally at 3. You know what, I have a feeling with the tone that this match has set, it's going to be a roller coaster of a day ahead.

Oh, absolutely. And I— and you talked about the match that's upcoming. It's between the, uh, teams on 4th and 5th spot, between the Czech Mumba Masters and the Fires American Gambits. I personally love the team camaraderie that the Czech Mumba Masters have between them on all The lunches and meals, dinners together. They sit together. They talk together. And that just you know gives the overall positive vibe that they have within themselves. And that's the reason why I have become a fan of their team.

Yeah, I think MVL is such a good team bonding player. And also Surya Ganguly, their captain, is doing an incredible job. That being said, guys, remember fires American Gambits just before yesterday. We were saying that this. team looks invincible with Javokir Sindharu, Nihal Sarin, Daniel Dubov, Bibi Sara. What a team they have.

I have to say that like in the whole GCL, it's incredible how many efforts the Fires American Gambits team, team have made in terms of initiatives to grow, uh, the game, the league of GCL. Let's take a quick break and be right back with more action coming up your way.

जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा? इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो पावर to every Indian.

Come on guys hurry up!

अरे सुनना एक ब्रेक 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। रो ये red वाला है। सही वाला देना। मैं ढक्कन। पहले तो सही पानी पीना। हम्म। Manikchand Oxygen proudly Indian। कुछ लोग इतनी तेज़ी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि APL Polo Steel Pipes airport 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। Chief guests have arrived.

Salute! Salute करो, salute करो!

सल्यूट हटाओ, यप्पी लाओ। लॉन्ग नॉनस्टिकी फुल ऑफ़ वेजीज़। फॉर्मेलिटी हटाओ, यप्पी 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। 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 become 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 जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा?

इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all New you know. 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। फिर ये red वाला है। सही वाला देना। पहले तो सही पानी पीना। मानिकचन ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल पोलो स्टील पाइप्स, एयरपोर्ट से लेकर आपके घर तक कुछ ऐसी ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल पोलो बनाता है। देश की बढ़ती ताकत। एपीएल अपोलो, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। The chief guests have arrived.

Salute!

Salute करो, salute करो। Salute हटाओ, ये पीलाओ। लॉन्ग नॉनस्टिकी फुल ऑफ़ वेजीज़, फॉर्मेलिटी हटाओ, यप्पी खाओ। आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूडेट मैं सोच चुकी है, जिसकी वजह से पेनल्टी चार्जेस की सीटी बजने वाली है और क्रेडिट स्कोर के गिरने की वजह से आपके होश होश होश उड़ने वाली है। यानि कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है। क्रेडिट पेमेंट्स की चिंता हमेशा सर आओ चेक पे सारे क्रेडिट कार्ड्स के बिल एक क्लिक में पे करो और वन परसेंट 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 prime every order costs you fifteen rupees lower cost and unlimited platform access so get five Prime at just four ninety-nine a month today. Investment in securities markets are subject to market risks. Read all the rated 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 जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा?

इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian. 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. Bro इसका ढक्कन देना। हम्म। Bro ये red वाला है, सही वाला देना। Bro ढक्कन?

पहले तो सही पानी पीना। मानिकचन ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता 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.

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, यानि कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है। क्रेडिट पेमेंट्स की चिंता हमेशा सर आओ चेक पे सारे क्रेडिट कार्ड्स के बिल एक क्लिक में पे करो और वन परसेंट 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 prime every order costs you fifteen rupees lower cost and unlimited platform access so get five prime At just four ninety-nine 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 जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा? इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian.

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। तो ये red वाला है, सही वाला देना। मैं ढक्कन?

तो सही पानी पीना। मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच, प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता 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.

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। यानि कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है। क्रेडिट पेमेंट्स की चिंता हमेशा सर आओ चेक पे सारे क्रेडिट कार्ड्स के बिल एक क्लिक में पे करो और वन परसेंट 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 prime every order costs you fifteen rupees lower cost and unlimited platform access so get five prime At just 499 a month today, investment in securities markets are subject to market risks. Read all the rated 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 जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है। जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा? इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian.

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। रो ये red वाला है, सही वाला देना। मैं ढक्कन। तो सही पानी पीना। मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता 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। 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, यानि कि आपके हालात बिगड़ने की संभावना है। क्रेडिट पेमेंट Two teams with incredible team dynamics are against each other.

They are going to have to bring that dynamics to the board today because both of them would want to continue their winning streak. One of them, they have won the first couple of games and lost a couple of games, would want to get back the momentum. Those are the Flyers American Gambits. Then there's Mumbai Masters who lost a couple of games in the start, but the kind of exceptional comeback that they have made looks like they are on the run now. The coaches of the two teams would be joining me for the coin toss, but before that, let me call upon the match official, the match arbiter, Mr. Amit Sharma, international arbiter. For the Gambits, there's Sreenath Narayanan, and for the Masters, you have Surya Shekhar Ganguly. Masters will be taking the call. Heads is the call.

Heads it is.

Surya, thank you, sir. Congratulations on winning the toss. What are you picking?

Thank you. Yeah, we'll play black.

You'll be playing black? Haven't you all done well with white? Wouldn't that have been an easier option to pick?

Yeah, but it's, uh, eventually we'll be taking blacks, right? Like, uh, it's 5 each. It's not that we can get 10 whites. And yeah, I'm happy I won the toss because I was training with Maxime. I also have to walk a little bit. Yeah, so we were training toss, and yesterday I lost 5-0. He has an app. We are doing odd events. So I said I need some practice. So I'm happy I won today.

So the practice is paid off. Yeah, I see.

All credit to Maxime here. He's preparing me.

All right, all the best for the game today. Thanks a lot. Srinath, happy with black?

Uh, with white, you mean? Yeah, we have it.

Yeah, we don't mind.

As Surya said, eventually we play either colors.

So today you all have a doubleheader, you have 2 games to play. You traditionally do well on the days that you all have to play 2 games. Is today the comeback that we're looking for?

Definitely hope so. So yeah, we have 2 shots at it, and I think we have played really well so far. I would say in the 4 matches that we have played, we were the clearly better team in at least 3 of the matches. in terms of the quality of play.

So, uh, yeah, I'm sure we'll do well today.

What are your thoughts on playing the Mumbai Masters today?

Uh, I mean, no particular thoughts.

Uh, they're an exciting team and we are always—

uh, it's always exciting to play against such good teams.

All right, all the best for the game.

Thank you.

That is it from the coin toss. The news is that Czech Mumbai Masters have won the toss, opted black.

And that's going to be a mouth-watering clash between these 2 teams. Now, one thing that struck me in that coin toss was when Suryashaker Ganguly won the toss, he took about 2-3 seconds to choose black. Do you think it was an on-the-spot decision? What was going on there in his mind?

No, I think he just came prepared that if he wins the toss, he'll take black. I think this discussion always happens between the team members. What do you guys Feel like playing tomorrow if we win the toss, and I think it's a very good decision because black, as we've seen, is not inferior to white in these matches. Absolutely not.

In fact, in the last match itself, PBJ Loscanites with the black pieces almost turned it around again. That one point premium for a win. This is what's coming up next on the icon board. You've got Javakir Sinderov who will be entering the building for the first time, but not the last time today. Up against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. And our matchups, we're going to go in one by one. I'll start with you, Harshit. Which boards will be decisive? Which will end in a draw? And just a quick reminder, last match, all 6 games ended with a result.

Yeah, the last match was absolutely insane. On this, uh, pairing, I have a feeling that board number 2 between Nihal and Pranesh is going to be very exciting. 2 juniors playing on the superstar, uh, Male board there. I have a feeling that that board will be something to look out for. I'm also super excited about the clash between Javokir Sindarov and Maxim Vashyar Lagrav on the icon board because Maxim has a lot to prove, has to prove why he also deserves to be called as one of the contenders.

By decisive or draw? Decisive.

One and two. तानिया भाई, let's get to the point. क्या लग रहा है? बताओ भाई.

Bam bam one two.

One two decisive four draws by Harshit. What do you think, Sagar? I think four decisive games and two draws. Did you just say whatever Harshit says?

I'm against Harshit right now because he's just coming at me. Harshit bhai, who will win this match?

Bhai Mumbai Masters. I'm wearing all black. They chose the black pieces.

Okay, then I am going for the fires American gambits. But I kind of understand why Harshit chose the black. Why? Okay, we will talk about this in a bit as the players are already entering in. So let's go over to Arohi.

This is where the league really starts to get interesting. The table and the points on it matter a lot. In the next couple of games, everything will be on the line. Starting today with this game, we have the Fires American Gambits versus Check Mumba Masters!

Check Mumba Masters!

It's time now to introduce the players, starting with white. In this game will be the fires American Gambits.

Go Gambits!

On their icon board is World Championship challenger Gavakhir Sindarov. Chess.com Bullet World Champion Nihal Sarin. Former World Rapid Champion Daniel Dubov. 3-time World Women Blitz Champion Bibisara Salvaeva. Former silver medalist in World Women Rapid and Blitz, Sara Khadem. Former World Junior Champion Makandria Moridze. And their coach, Shreenath Narayanan. With the black pieces in this game, we have the Czech Mumbai Masters on the icon board. Former World Blitz Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. India's rising star Pranesh. Former World Blitz Champion Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Reigning Asian Women's Rapid and Blitz Champion Harika Dronowale. Four times American Women's Chess Champion Carissa Yip. Former Asian Champion Bardiya Dhaneshwar. The teams may now proceed for the handshakes. Also welcoming the coaches of the 2 teams, Sreenath Narayanan for Fyers American Gambits and Surya Shekhar Ganguly for Czech Mumba Masters. And now for the first move of the day, may I please call upon the tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter, Gerd Beijel, along with our special guest, Shri Basavaraj Bommai, former Chief Minister, Karnataka, and Member of Parliament, Haveri.

The stage is set, the fans are ready, we are ready, the players are waiting for the ceremonial moves, and we will have the first moves on the board And what a clash we've set ourselves up for. You know, I have to say, Harshit, Jamakir Sindarov, he's grown quite a fan following here in India. Everyone loves to watch him in action. When he enters the building, there is an anthem that the Fire's American Gambits have, and I don't know all the words, but it does have Sindarov, rove, rove, rove in it.

Sindarov definitely is going to try to, you know, ascend the entire team here on the top board, on the icon board. He's playing against मशर्र लग्राफ़ तो ही इस नॉन टू बी वन ऑफ़ द बेस्ट ब्लिट्स एंड रैपिड प्लेयर्स। व्हाट एन एक्साइटिंग क्लश वी हैव इन फ्रंट ऑफ़ अस। दिस मैच एस वेल बिटवीन बिबिसारा एंड हरिका इज़ गोइंग टू बी समथिंग टू लुक आउट फॉर। वी डू हैव हैंडशेक्स एंड किकऑफ़ बिटवीन द गेम। Very strong tactical players there.

I think for Harika and Bibisara, it is a clash of styles in both these women's superstar boards. I will not be surprised if we have a decisive game given their styles.

Oh, absolutely. And I think right now, currently, Sara Khadem and Kharissaie, both players struggling a little bit. So it will be very important for both of them to, you know, be solid and keep the tension going. But in this game, we also have kickoff on the second superstar women's board. Let's quickly take a look at what's the opening happening there. It's between Bibisara Subbaeva and the player in form, Harika Dronavali, for the Czech Mova Masters.

And Harika sort of facing an opening that she employs herself with the white pieces very often, the Reti setup that's been taken by Bibisara. She will fianchetto her other bishop on the longest diagonal as well, and then eventually, Harshit, a strike in the center with the d-pawn. Or I think she might even do that instantly. And it is on the board. Harika with some questions to answer. Our men's superstar board about to kick off. So let's shift our focus to Daniel Dubov taking on Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. I think in just a few moments we will have handshakes on our superstar board. Oh, absolutely.

Yesterday Daniel Dubov showed exactly how good he is in terms of opening preparation. Did not go his way. He lost his game against Vidit Gujrathi yesterday. But when it comes to opening preparation, he is one of the best players in the world.

And there we've got the arbiters ready. Whoa! And how many shirts does Shark have is the question. It's getting—

it's heating up there inside the play hall, Tanya. Chakriya removing his shirt, getting ready for the action there. Which opening will Daniel go for?

Generally loves to play the Catalan Opening. You know, says Daniel Dubov had a really difficult day yesterday. It is handshakes. Today is a new day and he starts With the Queen's Pawn opening, it's on the board. And are we gonna see a King's Indian Defense by Shakriyar?

Has employed that opening against his, uh, student Yas Khan successfully here, defeating Yas Khan in one of the previous rounds. Will he go for g6? Not yet.

Well, if you see the g pawn moving one step up, that will mean it's going to be a complete battle. Let's see our other board as well. Nihal Sarin taking on Pranesh, the 2 big Indian Prodigy clash here, Sehaj. Sorry, Harshit. What a clash this is! These two players completely different style. Pranesh wants those tactics on the board. Nihal Sarin always playing for the long game.

He's playing for the long game, and it's clear by his opening strategy. Look, I mean, if we just start from the top, he started with knight f three, pawn to d five, b three played by Nihal Sarin trying to fianchetto his bishop, and after bishop f five, bishop b two, e six goes for this slightly. Unusual move. Pawn to d3, h6, knight d2, knight f6. And we are live with the players here. Al-Sareen needs to come up with something unorthodox to throw Pranesh off his hot streak right now.

We'll see how that goes, but we don't want to miss the handshake on our icon board. And we see the arbiters are ready. The players are just looking at them, waiting. You know, we are ready to get our first moves in. Shavukir Sindarov. He's been a solid performer on board one, has had, has been flagged by Jan Nepomniachtchi in that game, which definitely hurt. But he's looking for his redemption. He plays against a very solid Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who's been the mainstay for the Czech Mumba Masters in every season.

Oh, absolutely. And I love how both the players are looking at what's happening on all the other boards as well to kind of create a strategy about their own game.

They obviously— almost time, Harshit.

It is time, it is time.

As they turn their attention to the pieces, we will have the handshakes and the clock tick off. What are we expecting? King's pawn opening, or what approach from Sinderov?

I somehow have a feeling that he will go for the move pawn to d4 as well. Let's take a look as we see handshake, and c4 has been played by Jawahir.

We have a variety of openings here with the white pieces. The fires American Gambits. They were touted to be the team to beat, but yesterday was a nightmare of a day. Against the Pipers, losing 15 to 3. A match that was expected to be so closely contested. Today they come on a mission. They have to redeem themselves. Meanwhile, the Czech Mumba Masters have been on upswing.

Oh, absolutely! They started. They had a difficult start in the beginning, but since they have picked up, we kind of have this match between two teams. One which has been kind of in momentum, which is the Czech Mumba Masters. On the other hand, the Fires American Gambits. Won their starting 2 matches but has lost the 3rd and the 4th match simultaneously.

And so far on the icon board, it's a bit of copycat chess, especially if Maxime was to also play the g-pawn one step forward, something he loves doing in his games, fianchettoing the bishop.

Yeah, that would be a very solid approach to play this opening, and he does go for the move you recommended, Tanya, pawn to g6. Symmetrical chess. Trying to, trying to tell Javokir that if you want to beat me, you need to come up with something very unique here. Bishop g2, bishop to g7, knight to c3. Will we stick to the copycat chess, or will either of the players deviate? And Maxime deviates first. He plays the move short castling.

And now if Sinderov wants to have a more controlled middle game, he will keep the center blocked with the idea of pushing the d-pawn only one step forward, going for short castle development. But if he wants something more— and I love this view, we've got a 2-board view of our Men's Superstar board, that's the right side of the screen. Our left side of the screen, our Icon board. Harshit, I wanted to make, make a case that either d3, which will tell us it will be a strategic grind, or d4, which would open up the game instantly.

I have a feeling that Javakir will go for a slower approach. He'll go for the move pawn to d3 and keep the decision of playing pawn to d4 in his pocket. By the way, on the right side, right side of the screen, you can see the match between Nihal Sarin against Pranesh M. A very solid opening for both the players. Black going for this triangle setup of pawns on c6, d5, and e6. The bishop on h7— I love Pranesh's bishop on h7 looking like a laser towards the white queen on c2. Very solid position there.

And not a single piece or a pawn trade has happened on that right side of our screen between Nihal and Pranesh. The white knight just steps forward. I think this is brewing up to be a very combative middle game, a positional one. But once we see the trades happen, they'll come in many and the position will open up. And I think the tension will be on the center of the board as the pieces line up. Preempting what Pranesh is saying is that he's ready for a trade and he wants his rooks to be at the right place when those lines open up.

Absolutely. He is making sure that whenever white tries to break in the center, he's going to be ready with his troops, uh, for the battle. Do you want to quickly take a look at what's happening on board number 3 between Daniel Dubov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov? Because I find that opening to be very dynamic.

Well, Dubov's there. You've got Daniel Dubov dynamic. There's a reason all of it starts with D. I think we have to go into that right now. Let's go over to our men's superstar board. Dubov, who lost to Vidit yesterday, and I have to say that was one of Vidit's best games in the tournament so far. You know, just completely controlled, suffocated Daniel in that game, outplayed him. Daniel, will he find his rhythm today against one of the most dangerous, volatile opponents, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov? We've got that on the left side of our screen. Should we do a bit of a deep dive? Should we go full screen on these 2 players?

Let's go full screen on these 2 players because, as you said, the position has already, uh, developed to become super dynamic. White has this nice pawn on d5 which gives him a space advantage in the center of the board, but look at these 2 bishops that Black has This bishop on c5 eyeing the pawn on f2. And the last move by Shakriyar, pawn to a5, tells us that he is ready for playing the move bishop to a6 whenever white touches the e-pawn. You can never touch this pawn. Bishop to a6 would be a nasty, nasty attack on your queen and rook.

Really nicely broken down. You want those pawns to move forward, but there's a skewer in the position right now. So a5, it's a clampdown on On the queenside, but also comes with a trick and a trap in the position. Shakram Amityarov, I think, has reasons to be happy with the way the positions turned out because it's not a game for two results. There's already asymmetry in the positions, the pawn structures that exist. You know, you've got the active bishops, so Shak will have his chances. Dubov will have his chances. But who will have their chances on the women's superstar board?

Let's take a look. Let's go to the game between Bibisar Asubayeva and Dronavali Harika because. Harika has managed to push her pawn to d4. If we can go to board number 4 here, the cameras of Bebisara Subbaeva and Harika Dronavalli. Here we have it. And I think generally, Tanya, whenever black gets to push the pawn to d4, that's a success. Because in this position, as you can see, the pawn on d5 is always the strategic problem for black in these kind of positions. But after Harika managed to push her pawn to d4, I have started to like her position a lot more. She is the player whom is performing really well in the Mumbai Masters team, and it's clear why she, uh, why she has a good position here. Once again, bishop comes into f5, rook c1, bishop back to b6, queen d2, and we are live with both the players.

And the question in this position for Harika is going to be, is that pawn on d4 an asset or a liability? You know, it looks like you've crossed over the halfway mark on the board, you get more space, Harshit, you blunted the bishop on b2, but let's not forget that for Bibisara, it's easy to attack that pawn. You have 3 pieces already at it. The rook is ready to get on the party as well. Not just one rook, you'll have rook to d1, rook to c4.

That's a very cool idea, rook to c4, lift, uh, rook lifting, hitting the pawn on d4. But the last move of Harika is saying that even if you have 3 or 4 attackers towards my d4 pawn, your pawn on e2 is going to be undefended at the end of the variation. As we have the analysis board here, maybe we can just show the variation. If white goes the move rook to d1, let's say black just plays a waiting move like pawn to h6. White is not really winning the pawn on d4 here because after trades, trades, trades, trades, takes, takes, as some players like to say, the pawn on e2 is going to be falling at the end of the variation, giving, giving black the equality.

And Harika playing a very nice Chopping a lot of wood in that line is Harshit Raja. But I will point out that if we just have that exact same position with the rook sliding over behind the queen, and if black isn't quick with counterattack, Harshit, Bebisara is ready to put her bishop on the square next to the king, defend that pawn, and suddenly the central pawn on d4— it's very difficult for Harika to find another way to get a defender.

Absolutely. And the best way to know whether your pawn is under attack or not is to understand how many attackers there are and how many defenders there are. White currently has 4 attackers, as you can see— 1, 2, 3, 4— compared to only 3 defenders for black, which means that the pawn on d4 is now currently under attack. This could definitely be one of the variations that both players are thinking about. No moves yet by Bibisar after Rook to e8.

All right, so Harika again with another dynamic position. In this one, she's playing for counterplay on that central e-line but has to be careful about her d-pawn. Let's take a look at our second Women's Superstar board. Sarah going up against Carissa Yip. For Carissa, the tournament had a very slow start. She wasn't able to get on the leaderboard but has managed to do that in the last round. And this is where she is with the black pieces, striking on the queenside currently with that move, a-pawn moving forward. How do we feel about her chances in this one? Just optically looks better for white to me.

It optically does look better for white, but But if we try to kind of deep— if we kind of try to just try to break it down here, we say white is better because of the double pawns that black has here, right?

Yeah.

The pawns on c7 and c6. But if the white pawn ever moves to b5, the c5 square is going to be in control for the black knight here. And the white bishop here is kind of completely bricked by its own pawns on c4 and e4, which is why I have a feeling that Karissa Ayyub is going to get her chances here. The queen can easily slide towards f4. 6, keeping an eye on the rook on a1, has been played on the board. I like Black's position here, Tanya.

Wow, I am conflicted in this one. I, I genuinely feel that the pawn formation for White looks so good. I want to point out this last move comes with a threat that rook on a1 is hit. Pawn takes pawn was an idea, opening up the Black rook as well. So White had to take care of that, which is why Sarah sidesteps, goes with her rook behind her pawn To also assist it to move forward. I'm still long-term liking White's chances here, but so far in the balance, I would say more or less not too much to worry about for Carissa.

Yeah, this game seems to be pretty balanced. Let's go to the Prodigy board between Mark Andrea Morizzi and Dhaneshwar Bardia, because Mark Andrea Morizzi has been doing really well for the Fires American Gambits. And we have a lot of trades. We have the trades of Queen Going into an endgame, slightly better position for Marc-André Moritz. And this is a very good strategy playing with the white pieces. You don't want to risk losing 4 points for your team.

You know, with all the drama that we saw in the previous matchup on the Prodigy board, Harshit, it just feels like this one is so relaxed and calm. This position, your queens are off the board, the pawns are facing each other, there's no imbalances. In the position, both sides have a bishop pair. The only one advantage, the one something to play for White, is control of the open line at the center of the board. The rook on d1 and the White knight potentially ready to jump to a very aggressive spot on the board on c5. It just feels that maybe this is something that'll give you some, just a little something to push for. But again, I feel that Black should be very much within holdable territory.

Ananya, you perfectly pointed pointed out what's happening with the pieces, but there is another piece, the clock, which is actually— oh wow, you know, which is in completely the favor of Marc-André Moritz. See, a 5-minute time advantage on the clock, and in this time control of no increment until move number 40, I think Marc-André will get his chances. By the way, on the icon board, it feels as if Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is taking over.

I want to backtrack and do an action replay It still feels like not much has happened, but a few moves in from when we left it last. We have our live board on the right side, our analysis board in the middle there. We left it around this point. How did it progress?

Knight takes pawn, the queen came out, and I think white somehow wanted to be ready with the idea of queen to h4. Maxime played the move pawn to e6, stopping white's queen from getting access to the square on h4. Pawn to d3 played by Jao Kheer. Knight comes into c6. Bishop to d2, rook to e8. We have seen this move twice played by Harika as well. Just a developing move, getting ready for the action that will ensue. And Javokhir is now thinking about his move as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave glances over his teammates' boards. 15 and a half minutes approximately for both the players here. The 10 Tension is brewing in this game. I'm expecting the move Rook to c1 here, Tanya, to potentially keep an eye on the pawn on c5.

And for Maxime, the question is, where is his light-squared bishop going to go? You need to find a good square for that. Ideally, you want to place it on b7, if we highlight that square, which is why I really like Javakhishvili's placement of the queen on a4. It doesn't let that happen so easily. It's targeting the knight on c6. So it's saying, I'm not gonna allow your development to be all smooth and simple. Meanwhile, for white, put your rooks at the center like you're saying. Get one on c1, get one on d1. At the right time, you want to start pushing your pawns. But he goes for a different plan, attacking c5, jumps in with the knight. Once again, b6 is a card that Maxime does not hold right now.

Provocative move. I mean, he's hitting the pawn on c5, giving the pawn on b2, but saying that since Black doesn't have the option of playing.

Let's take it. Let's show that.

Take my pawn on b2 here. I have a feeling Jawahir will just slide his rook to b1 on the open file here, and once the bishop goes back to g7, the pawn on c5 is going to be under attack, which Jawahir will capture. I like this move knight to e4 played by Jawahir. It has definitely put Maxime Vachier-Lagrave into his thinking posture. Any other game? that are heating up. I'm just trying to keep an eye on them. Maybe we can once go to the view of 6 boards, Tanya.

Let's do it.

Just to understand what's happening on all the 6 boards and try to understand if we have a favorite in this matchup currently.

Let's get our all-board view, the bird's-eye view, to take a look at which team is happier out of the opening. And our top row, I look at it, it feels like the players with the white pieces Right now for the Czech Mumbama, for the fires American gambits even they're doing quite well. We see Javokir with a slight edge, Daniel Dubov with a slight edge, Nihal Sarin's position somewhat in the balance. But a very different story on the bottom board. At least at bottom center, it is Karisayev who's putting the pressure with black just a little edge out of the opening. Meanwhile, on the right side, Prodigy board again white doing slightly better in that endgame. Overall, it feels like the picture out of the opening is. That its advantage fires American Gambit. Yes, that is absolutely true.

I agree with you. It feels like white is slightly better right now. But wait a second! It feels like Nihal Sarin has made decision which kind of shifts the evaluation bar to in Pranesh's favor. Do you want to go to that game? Board number two, the superstar male board. Maybe we can try to analyze this board and whether Pranesh can get an advantage for the Czech Mumba Masters.

You know, Pranesh has been such a superstar for the Czech Mumba Masters. A late replacement to Fedoseev, and he's been getting all the big points for the team. In his starter match, a banging performance against Anish Giri takes him down. He's defeated Levon Aronian yesterday, pretty much outclassed Levon in that opening mistake that he made— Aronian did. And it's just been awesome to watch him. His first debut at GCL, great results. He's playing against Nihal right now. He's up on the clock and the position as well. It just feels like you capture on d5. You know, you have more space as black. White's pawns, if we highlight them on the queenside— a3, b3, d3— all of them can be targets once the knight jumps over to c5. What are the trumps for Nihal here?

Once you broke it down, it kind of feels like it's black who has all the trump cards. But I think that Nihal is banking on this fianchettoed bishop on the a1-h8 diagonal, and he's saying that, yes, I have these slightly weaker pawns, but it's not so easy for you to exploit them. Maybe potentially at some point is considering to play the move pawn to d4, but no, because that would completely shut off my bishop on b2. I have to say, Tanya, that right now Pranesh's position is easier to play.

And when that's the case, you need to look for a breakout move if you're white right now. I think Nihal has to change the nature of the position, the dynamic of it. If he stays as is, Pranesh is ready with his next move. He wants to plant his knight to c5 and hit Those pawns that we were earlier highlighting, like you said, to stop that move, pushing your own pawn just means you blunt your own bishop for the rest of the game, leave behind some light square weaknesses as well. Very uncomfortable for Nihal to make a decision. And you're highlighting a very interesting move here. Now I would be terrified to play that.

Yeah, I would not play this move. Somehow the, the machine likes to play the move pawn to e4, but it really doesn't make sense to me because we are opening up the file for the rook on d8 hitting Our queen on d1 indirectly. That's not happening.

We're opening up everything. We're opening up the rook to the queen. We're opening up the black queen to the pawn next to the white king as well. You know, ideas of eventually the black knight jumping into the foray, into the foreground, to put some attack there. e4, even if it's the top move by the engine, I think it's a very non-human move to play.

Yeah, I agree with you completely. I don't think the move pawn to e4 is happening in— okay, by the way, does black have a threat here of Capturing the knight on e5 and the pawn on d3. This might just be a direct threat.

It's a big idea on the board. And again, I want to highlight knight to c5 jump, attacking the whole board as a strategic concept, bringing the knight towards the center of the board. It just feels like Pranesh is doing well.

And yeah, he's— I mean, look at him, he's ready for these big stages. He doesn't shy away. He's closing his eyes. It feels as if he just wants to make sure that he doesn't get too excited or nervous. By the stage, the spectators that's happening around him. What a guy he is! Only 18 or 19 years of age, but the way he's playing such mature chess—it's incredible to see.

He was given player of the match yesterday, and Pranesh on stage was talking to Arohi so confidently, saying that he's just happy to perform for his team. You know, he's been given this opportunity, something he didn't expect to have, and he is hungry to make the most of it. And Harshit, I just want to talk. Just a little bit about that before we move on to our icon board. You know, in India, with the amount of talent that we have of the younger generation, with the superstars of Gukesh, Praggnananda, Arjun, Nehal Sarin, there are so many others who often get overshadowed or are not household names. So for someone like Pranesh to have this chance to be part of the Mumbai Masters, play on the stage of the global chess league, for a team like the Czech Mumbai Masters to play with the opposition that he gets to It is a big moment, a career-defining moment, opportunity to make a name for yourself.

And Pranesh is making a name for himself and his whole team here, where Nihal Sarin just makes the move pawn to d4. I do think strategically Black is going to be happy to see this move right now. Slight advantage for Pranesh on this board. I'm very curious to see what's happening on the Icon board, Tanya. This is— let's circle back— is going to be a very exciting match because we have some Change of structures here, as after the move knight to e4, Maxime responds by the move queen to e7, protecting the pawn on c5. Queen to b5 by Jawahir, putting even more pressure on the pawn on c5. And knight to d4 was found by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, saying that if you take the pawn on c5, the pawn on e2 falls. And we have some spectators—

hello everyone watching there! And amongst them is also Sohil Chandok from the Czech Mumbai Masters, such a big, you know, he's been such a big supporter of chess from season 1 itself. He's there every time for the Global Chess League. He's been a big part of encouraging his team members. They had a rough start here in Bengaluru, but I think Ganguly as captain, Sohil there, it just brings in such a good atmosphere. And we've been seeing an upswing in their performance over the last 2 days. This one, a big match, a big move been played by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Putting pressure on that e2 pawn. That knight cannot be allowed to stay alive. Was traded off the board, and the live position: pawn takes knight. This is where we are. It had to be captured by the pawn. You know, you don't want to take it with the bishop. That bishop would get hit. You would lose the pawn on c5. And I just feel that there's one open file in the position. If everyone watching here, there's only one open line that exists, and the first player to capture that will seize the initiative. So get that white rook on c1.

Which rook do you want to bring, Duttanya?

I was hoping you wouldn't ask me.

For me, I think rook a to c1 is definitely the more logical move because I don't really understand what my rook on a1 will be doing. Just looking at the pawn on a2, it feels as if the rook on a1 is not really doing anything much there. Yes, you have some point to make.

I will make a case for the rook on a1. By the way, we see— I think a move has been played.

Bishop to g5 has been played instead, trying to provoke the move pawn to f6, and I'm sure Maxime is going to play it. Yes, he does play the move pawn to f6. f6. And now Javakhir needs to prove why provoking f6 is going to be in his favor.

And after the bishop was kicked back, it did fall right back. So the case that Maxime is making— and it might look like, what did he just do? He just lost a move, goes forward, comes back. But he's provoked, like you said, some kingside weaknesses. You know, pawns are the only tools that never move back, the only piece that doesn't move back. It's a very committal decision. And now watch out, later on in the game, the pawn on e6, the pawn on f6 could be a target. And I've seen top players do this so many times where they waste a tempo only to provoke long-term weaknesses.

Well, it's clear what advantage White has gotten by provoking this move e6 to f6. But making a case for Black's pawn structure here, it does take away some important squares from White. It stops the White knight from jumping into g5. The bishop can no longer go to g5 anymore. And right now, maybe you, uh, you remember you told me about this idea that the black bishop wants to be on the fianchetto diagonal here, and Maxime finds it.

And you know the point I wanted to make, Harshit, about the rook that you wanted to move away? Now that the b-pawn has moved forward, I've got the perfect job for my rook on a1. Push that a-pawn up the board, a4, a5, try to create weaknesses on the left flank this time.

Yeah, I think this game Is developing to be very interesting. The icon players know the responsibility they have on their shoulders in this matchup. Javakhir Sindarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, both of them. I want to now take you to the game of Daniel Dubov and Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Board number three, the superstar board because we left this game a few moves back around the moment where black had played the move pawn to a five. We had a few moves after that knight to d seven. b3, knight jumps in the center of the board to e5, queen to c2, bishop back to c8. Man, Shakriyar is so good at these dynamic remaneuvers. The bishop on b7 was not really doing anything, maneuvers it. Let's see where it goes. One second. Comes to f6, b takes c5. Well, the bishop is actually just sitting there on c8 saying that it's keeping an eye on the pawn on h3. I like how black is playing so far.

And he's also ready, Shakriyar is, to go h4 at the right time. Which will again ask some decisions on the kingside right now. You know, he's playing on both sides. A pawn has gone up the board. The h pawn's ready to go up the board as well. That bishop will eyeball the pawns on the diagonal. It's remaneuvered itself to. It also has this f5 square to land on the right time. And the bar says that white is doing well. It's a bishop pair. You know, it's a position where that dark squared bishop—let's highlight that—cannot be challenged for the rest of the game and has a beautiful diagonal. The knight on e5 looks like it's blunting it, but the move f4 can always dislodge it. It's something to watch out for. In fact, I think it could be a big threat. Why was it not played on the previous move is my question.

That's a great question, Tanya. The dark-squared bishop, by the way, definitely a trump card for white. If the move pawn to f4 was played, was Shakriyar thinking to sacrifice the piece somehow?

Let's just have our analysis board so everyone can see the live board. This is just speculating. What was the most obvious move in the position? We'll have that up. And this moment, just let's backtrack one move here. The bishop on the left side went up one square, but f4 would have pinned the knight. And at that moment, what Shakriyar had planned was a very sneaky idea. He wanted to offer a queen trade in the position.

Man, this is a brilliant resource that was thought of by Shakriyar Mamedyarov, because if you take the knight on e5, well, oops! Oopsie-doopsie, you lose your queen on c2 and black is winning the game. And if you exchange the queen on g6 because of the move pawn to f4, you have created yourself a weakness on the pawn on e3. And this was black's idea if the move pawn to f4 was played. Did not happen.

It did not happen, but the queen trade offer did happen. The bishop moved one step forward and now Shakriyar has denied f4. He's unpinned the queen, he's offered a queen trade. I have a feeling that Dubov plays with the queens on the board in this one. Or do you think he's going to be happy to go into an endgame, allow the black bishop to come out? I'm expecting him to move the queen somewhere.

I'm a bit scared, Tanya, because if the black knight jumps into f3 and then to g5, hitting the pawn on h3—

okay, I changed my mind, I changed my mind.

I think we should chop the queens and just play some sort of an endgame. And he does it. Dubov recognizes the danger. And exchanges the queens. I have a feeling that we should now quickly check what's happening on the board of Sara Khadem and Carissa Yip, because Carissa, who was struggling— she lost 3 games in a row but won her last game. And will this be the defining moment for her where she picks up the momentum?

It's 6 pawns apiece currently. I have to say, the 2 rooks that Black has seem beautifully placed, giving so much counterplay. If anything, I would be picking Carissa's position here. Notice how White's pawns are on light squares, will always be target to the Black bishop. You know, easy pickings if White is not careful. The rook jumping in. Somehow the position is level. The evaluation bar says White has enough to keep it under control, but I wouldn't be feeling that if I was Sara Qadam right now.

She goes for the move pawn to f4. I like that she recognizes that she has strategic weaknesses in her position and she needs to do something to compensate that. She's trying to go for the space advantage. Going for the move pawn to f4, potentially even pawn to f5 at some point. A nice resource there.

It's not the kind of ending you can sit still if you're Sara. You need to create your chances. Look at our bars that are at the bottom of the board right now. You know, you've got the Firs American Gambit playing with the white pieces. You've got the Czech Mumbamas is playing with the black pieces. And there's been a big moment or not.

It felt like that.

It felt like that. Center board had me all excited. Daniel Dubov, Shakriyar Mamedyarov. We'll go to that. But all the bars seeming to be quite level currently. And let's go back to our icon board.

Let's go there. Let's go there. Let's go to the board between Javakir Sinderov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. By the way, the evaluation bars do tell us that none of the players are ready to take a big risk. They know how big of a match this is for both of their teams, and they want to keep it as tense and level as possible. By the way, what is happening here?

मुझे ना हर्षित क्या हो रहा है? I'm getting a feeling that right now all the bars are in the level, are in a level position. You know you've got these positions which have a lot of tension in them, but the evaluation is balanced. I feel that every board will explode at the same time.

अरे ये explode हो गया है तानिया। The knight e4 is trapped and Javakir played the move bishop to e1 because if you take the knight on e4, d takes e4. And somehow this knight on d5 is under attack. If the knight goes back to f6, rook c7 is going to come in hitting the queen on e7 and the bishop on b7. Man, what a crazy position we have in front of us where an entire piece is under grabs for Maxime. But of course he cannot take it. I'm sure he's going to calculate it.

What?

What move should Maxime play here? Not so easy to make a decision. Maybe Rook to d8, just to have an idea of bringing the rook to d7. Does he play it? He plays it. Wow, he plays it. Too good by Maxime so far.

Tactics everywhere. You're completely right. It looks like a position where, you know, it's closed and blocked, but there's a piece hanging at the center. It cannot be taken right now. The rook would infiltrate, and with a square on the board available The knight comes back to d2. Maxime super sharp, Sinderov super sharp. That knight is heading to greener pastures. Knight on c4 happening next, but he pushes the a-pawn, an idea we discussed earlier. Uh, Harshit, a5 is coming up.

And right now the material is equal, but it's about the positioning of the pieces. Look at the white bishop on e1 and the knight on d2. It kind of feels like the black pieces are a lot more active. The knight on d5 compared to its counterpart knight on d2, the bishop on b7 compared to this bishop on e1. I like black's position so far.

It starts looking very dangerous. And how Maxime has placed all his pieces, you know, he's developed, he's brought all the toys to the nursery. The rooks in the center, the queen in the center, the pawns moving up at the right time. He's made his king safe from any open diagonals. Either e4 will happen or f4 will happen. He's making headway. Meanwhile, somehow in chess, a kingside attack always feels far stronger than any avalanche on the left flank.

Players are so calm and patient because मैं रहता तो I would just want to play e4 and just open up the position. But these players are finding the perfect opportunity to make such a committal move.

And he does return with the queen. And this is such a sneaky move. What Sinderov wants to do is to push that a pawn, but he doesn't want to allow black to push the queen away with a6 b5. Just highlight that which was the problem. If the queen was on the board, and we'll get our live board up. We'll just show the arrows, Harshit, that that would not have worked out. And what look at who we have with us right now, Harshit. In the audience joining us is former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Member of Parliament right here. He's watching all the action playing the best in the world here in his city in Bengaluru right now. And what a moment! And I have to say that Bengaluru, I think, has made. All of Indian chess fans so proud the way they've shown up for the Global Chess League.

Tanya, they have so much passion in this city for the sport of chess. It's so amazing to see the former chief minister here watching the game. And by the way, the Fires American Gambits in some ways is a local team.

Yes, it is a local team. You know, Prachira is behind it, and we see over here, and what a roster they've Got this year. It feels like a team that's built for speed, that's built for this format. Absolutely brave, gutsy, courageous player. But Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the Czech Mumba Masters, equally brave and gutsy. Look at the position that he's got on the board. By the way, Sinderov does strike with a5. So for the FIDE American Gambit, the fire is just starting on the board.

It's starting, and you don't really want to take the free pawn on a5 because the white rook is going to come into c5, hitting the knight on d5, hitting the pawn on a5. That's how Javakhir Sindarov is preparing against the recapture of the pawn on a5. You know, generally after 15 minutes into the game, Tanya, there are so many games where we have a huge, uh, you know, shift in the evaluation. There is some game where one of the players is completely winning or losing, but in this match it's just so even. It's a neck-to-neck battle.

And that's exactly my point, Harshit, that it feels like all the boards will explode. It's like a boiling pot of water. It's just brewing, brewing, brewing, and all of them at the same time are going to overflow.

अभी तो फटेगा ये boiling water. Tanya, which game do you want to go to?

Let's quickly take a look at our six board view and get a highlight on how the teams are doing across the sphere. This is Global Chess League. Every single board matters there on our camera. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave getting ready but hesitates just a little bit, pulls back. And there we see, you know, the family of I's American Gambit. Shout out to Prachura. We've got Archana there, his parents there as well. And of course, they know that this is a massive match for them.

And before, just look at what has happened in the meantime. A lot of development here because after a5, knight to b4, bishop takes b7, and Maxime figured out to calculate knight takes c2. Jawa kheer! Oh, by the way, in the meantime, we have a result. We have a draw. Between Bibisara Subbaeva and Harika Dronovalli on board number four. The score is currently one to one.

A very balanced game. We didn't miss any of the action on this one. So let's go straight back to what you were saying. The icon board. It's all eyes on this clash. A position that has so many tactics in this. Just go back just a move, Sahaj. We saw the bishop step in. First, the knight moved forward attacking the rook. We saw bishop takes bishop. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had an idea here. He wanted to capture the rook. first. And this is what Sinderov had planned, that he will fall back with the bishop and securing the 2 rooks, regaining material. But what happens when the dust settles?

Well, the dust hasn't settled yet because Maxime took the bishop on e1. Rook takes e1, and still Black needs to make a decision which rook he wants to give. And b takes a5, he captures the pawn. Queen to a4, rook to d8, the moves coming in fast. Bishop takes e8, rook takes e8, knight to c4. And finally, we are live with all the players here. A very even affair, but I am a bit scared about Jao Kheer's clock management. He has two minutes fifty second to fifty six seconds on his clock right now. Four and half minutes for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Pawn to e four played by Maxime. Maxime here, he wants to open up the position because he has this dark-squared fianchettoed bishop on g7 currently threatening to play e takes d3. Rook to a1 is a fine move though because he wants to capture the pawn on a5 and put pressure on the pawn on a7.

It's 7 to 6 if you do the pawn count right now, but the doubled pawns that Maxime has have got, I'm out of here, see you later, written all over them. But it's the b2 pawn that I want you to also highlight, something that White needs to watch out for, which is why the knight Is such a key player here for Javakir Sinderov. By the way, let's take stock of the time situation right now. Sinderov under 3 minutes. For Maxime, he's got an extra minute on the clock. And Maxime is coming for Sinderov's king. Yeah, do not underestimate that f-pawn moving one step forward, clamping down on the white king with ideas of checkmate across the back rank. f3 cannot be allowed.

If there's a funny variation, if I can show this, if queen takes a5, pawn to f3, You would definitely not want to take the free pawn on a7. Guys, for everyone watching inside the playing hall and online, can you spot the mating idea for black?

And there is— there are problems on the home rank for the white king. The queen will slide over, giving itself up only to win the white king on the next move. Rook takes rook, bang! And that would be game over. Just to demonstrate, Harshit, the dangers if that f-pawn is allowed to move ahead. I have to say, I think Sinderov, very important for the Fires American Gambit to stop f3. He jumps over, he does it at least for one move, hits the black rook.

And what a move has been found by Javokhir, because he puts his knight on pre— it feels as if it's a free knight, but no, your rook on e8 is falling at the end of the variation there. Rook comes into b8 by Maxime, and now at least the white knight can come into e4 protecting.

But there's a pawn hanging as well. Rook takes pawn is a big threat on the board. This is anyone's game. Both players tactically so sharp. The knight comes back. Is he gonna grab a pawn? Meanwhile, we'll just quickly rush over to our men's superstar board because it looks like for the Mumbai Masters, it's big trouble. Daniel— actually, for Daniel Dubov, it's big trouble. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov for the Mumbai Masters getting it done.

Oh, and he found such a cool idea of the move pawn to h4. Tanya, after g takes h4, his idea is not to capture back the pawn on h4 but the pawn on f4. And after rook takes d6, pawn to f3, and rook to e2 is going to be checkmate.

And Daniel Dubov's clock has gone red. He's down to 12 seconds on the clock. If we can go full screen on the players right now, he's down to his final seconds, and the clock is not even his biggest problem.

The clock is not his biggest problem. It is his king on e1 and the black pawn on g3, which is just 2 squares away from promoting. Can he find the best way to convert? Rook to h2, and I think that seals the deal, Tanya.

This is going to be the first result in favor of the Czech Mumba Masters. He's looking to pin that bishop. That bishop's about to fall. Picks it up. Daniel Dubov resigns. Check. Mumbai Masters cash in on this board.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov getting a 4-pointer, and that's a big one because when you win with the black pieces, you get 4 points. And can we go back to the board of Sara Khadem and Kari Sayyib? Because on the, on the Superstar Women's board, Kari Sayyib also has a big advantage.

That is big news right there. Muma Masters looking well on the women's superstar board. This endgame, she's got that extra pawn. It's all about conversion. Let's see if Javokir Sindarov for the Fires American Gambit can do damage control.

This is going to be a very cool game to follow. The icon board, we have a lot of moves coming in quickly. Only one minute for Javokir Sindarov. We are entering the bullet territory here. By the way, the score has been updated: one for the Fires American Gambits, five. Points for the Czech Muma Masters.

We had a draw between Bibisara and Harika. We've had a win by Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Javokir Sindarov right now is down a pawn on the board, and Harshit, it just feels like if anyone can push, it's got to be Maxime in this.

It has to be Maxime, but somehow Javokir needs to find a way to turn around the script to give the fires American Gambits any sort of chance to stay alive in this match. Right now, it feels as if. It's all check, Masters.

All right, we're gonna quickly go over to the Sara-Karissa board. Both players under 2 seconds, and this is huge right now. Sara Qadim for the fires American Gambit has to try to save this one, but can she? Is Karissa Yip—

yes, going to take this? Can we go to board number 5 very quickly? Yes, we have it here. We have a rook endgame with 3 pawns for Karissa Yip.

That's 2 extra pawns right now. She's about to pick up a third as well, and she does it. This is all over for Sara, and that just means that Karissa Yip for the Mumbai Masters—they are completely crushing the gambits right now. Oh, they are!

And for what a moment it is for Karissa as she finds her second win in a row. Sara only having five seconds pushes her pawn to C four here. Karissa king to B three, and Pranesh.

Oh my goodness, Pranesh! And that's it. This one ends. The Upgrad Mumbai Masters take another win on this one, and it doesn't stop here because Pranesh is absolutely crushing it against Nihal Sarin. Nihal Sarin down to three seconds on the clock.

5 seconds for him. Pranesh misses, misses the opportunity. Nihal Sarin finds a good move here. Queen to c1, threatening queen to h1 check.

Look at the scoreline, it's 1-9 with 2 games remaining. And even if the Firs American Gambits win, the match is over.

But they cannot, because what a beautiful sequence of moves found by Pranesh, and he goes for queen takes e3, and it's completely over, completely over for Nihal Sarin.

Well, I want to also just add there's one more match still remaining—the Prodigy Board. So actually, the Five American Gambits—their only chance is to win all three matches remaining. But they are worse in two of them.

They are worse in two of them. Well, Pranesh is completely winning. If he plays the move Queen to E two, we are going to see resignation because Knight to F three check cannot be stopped. No, there is Queen to H five. So he has to start.

He gives a check. He gives a check. Pranesh does. He takes the pawn instead. Whoa! And he's allowed. Checkmate! What just happened? He has allowed a checkmate. Nihal Sarin in a lost position. A one-move blunder by Pranesh, and the Fires American Gambits take it on their board. Cannot believe this.

Cannot believe this. Simply, let's go to the Prodigy board.

We haven't seen this board yet. He completely forgot. He completely forgot that that was a checkmate.

Oh la la!

He thought the king could have taken the pawn. Unbelievable turnaround, and suddenly the Fires American Gambits are back.

Right in it. They're back in business. Mark Andrea Morizzi needs to win this game on demand, but it doesn't feel like he's going to be able to do so because this is an opposite-colored bishop endgame with an extra pawn for Dhaneshwar Bhardia. All he needs is a draw.

Let's go back to our icon mode. Both players under 5 seconds right now, and just as we join, we have a result.

We have a draw.

This one ends in a draw because Mumbai Masters Maxime Vachier-Lagrave knew that a draw would be enough to seal the match. As both players we saw at the end looking up at the screen, Shavakir Sindarov, he tried his best for the American Gambit, he tried to push it, but Maxime Vachier-Lagrave so strong with the black pieces in that one. And the Czech Mumba Masters get the match victory regardless of what happens on this board.

Oh, that's a big one, that's a big one for the Czech Mumba Masters. What a hot streak they have been on. Can Dineshwar Bhardia extend their, uh, you know, positioning in the leaderboard here. Will be interesting to see. Bishop to c2, very tricky move here as he wants to go Bishop to f5, protecting the passed pawn on h3. Even though this result, this match has no, uh, consequence on them on the total match, I'm sure the game points will matter towards the standings.

They absolutely will. Getting those crucial game points with how tight-necked the battle is for the qualification of the final 2 spots, you want to save every single point on every board that you want. But I want to say for Czech Mumbai Masters, they won yesterday with a score of 12-3 against the Ganges Grandmasters. And it looks like today they're again coming in with a massive scoreline. Can Morizzi save, save those precious game points for the Gambits in this one?

And the good thing for Dhaneshwar is he has no pressure. He doesn't need to make a draw because the team has already won. So I'm sure Dhaneshwar is going for the win. He's not going to accept a draw here.

He's not. He knows the value of those game points. He's going to try to push till the end. Right now that b-pawn is attacked, forcing him to move forward.

Yeah, he goes pawn to b3. At some point, the move pawn to a3 will be very dangerous, Tanya, to sacrifice a pawn to create a passed pawn. He just gives up the pawn on h3. He gives it back.

He's attacking the bishop, but now it feels like you've blocked it as white. And I do feel that Moritz has saved this one now, Harshit. The worst is over, and I think they are going to get a pointer out of this game.

Yeah, the— I think this game is heading closer and closer towards the draw.

You trade that rook, and that's just handshakes on the spot. And it is handshakes on the spot. The last board, the Prodigy board, to finish ends in a draw, and the Czech Mumba Masters get the thumbs up in as they get their second win in a row. A very happy captain.

Guys, can we get a round of applause inside the stadium for both these teams? What a fantastic match we got to see in Bengaluru.

And the final scoreline on this one could have been a lot worse than what we saw, but the Fires American Gambits there, saving that final game. But I think the most dramatic finish was Nihal versus Pranesh. I mean, Harshit, what happened there? It was so quick, and suddenly, you know, we thought Pranesh was crushing it. He was about to get that win. It could have been a lot worse for the Fires American Gambit.

It could have been a lot worse, but somehow the speed demon Nihal Sarin managed to trick Pranesh in the final few seconds there. But I think, uh, the Entire storyline was how Shakriyar Mamedyarov and Karisayev won their two games with the black pieces for the Czech Mumba Masters.

The Czech Mumba Masters take it today, and it is their only game of the day.

And we go over to the stage for the update to announce the result of the previous match. The American Gambits scored six, and the winners were Czech Mamba Masters with a score of eleven. Can I invite the two captains to come to the stage? Sign. If you could sign my. Result sheet for me.

A 6-11 victory for Suryashaker Ganguly's Czech Mumba Masters there. You know what a fight. And for Srinath, they really have to regroup and reset. They need their redemption. They've lost 2 matches in a row, starting as one of the hottest teams in the season so far. You know, many saying that the Fires American Gambits will be the team to beat, and they were proving exactly why. But 2 back-to-back losses— what's been going wrong for them, Harshit?

They're somehow— maybe I don't know what's happening actually. Somehow I feel like there is— there isn't anyone who's super consistent and stable for their team. Because we saw— well, Nihal Sarin, maybe we could argue that is someone who has been quite stable, but Dubov having those Those back-to-back losses with the white pieces, I think, has been the one of the reasons why the team has not been doing well in the last few games.

I do feel also that for Shavakir Sindarov, he has been fantastic on the Icon Board, keeping it really solid there, but perhaps wanting more from Bibisara to perform on the Women's Superstar Board. You know, coming as— coming in as one of the hottest women performers of the year, of the season. She's won Norway Chess, she's the reigning Women Blitz Champion, the 3-time Women Blitz Champion. And I think she has to really show up for her team in the coming rounds.

I feel like the Fires American Gambits just need to go back to the basics. They need to start and enjoy chess because all of these players are excellent, excellent blitz players and rapid players. And I feel like if they just take away all the tension and stress that this league can potentially bring, I think they can do it.

This is Global Chess League, bhai. Pressure and tension has fully entered the chat. Today we cross over the halfway mark of the league. You know, the players are going to reverse color going in from tomorrow. The finish line starts appearing inside. The tension of making it to the finals, it's right there. So I think you just have to deal with pressure. And as Abhijit Kunte earlier said, pressure creates champions. Well, today the Czech Mumba Masters played like the champions, uh, on in the arena. You know, happy faces in the beginning, but only one team walked out with all the points. Oh, absolutely.

You can see some of the highlights from this match here. The ceremonial move being played by the former Chief Minister of Bengaluru. A very cool moment here, how we see such, uh, you know, dignified, uh, people coming into the world of chess and, uh, you know, making it prosper. Pawn to e4 was the move played by the ceremonial move, but d4 played by Javakir. The icon board was very, very tense but ended in a draw. This board, I think this was the most important board. But look at Suhail there. I think that guy there, he is one of the reasons why this team is doing so well, spreading so much positivity in the team.

And we, like you said, such big dignitaries also watching, you know, around with the fans right there. We had the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, um, and he was enjoying all the chess action that was happening, and we've been enjoying it. And this game, an absolute roller coaster of a ride. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov keeping his nerves, keeping his cool. In the end, Daniel Dubov suffering his second loss in a row, and Carissa Yip making her comeback story at the Global Chess League at a time when her team needed her the most. It was handshakes. Sarah had no time, no position to fight on the board, and at the end it came down to this board. It could have been a lot worse For the fires American Gambits, Dhaneshwar could have pushed for a win, but a draw being enough. We saw some trades, we saw some miscalculations at the end, but good enough for the team to keep it on hold for the Mumbai Masters and disappointment for the fires American Gambits.

There is some silver silver lining for the fires American Gambits as Nihal Sarin and Bhanesh sorry and Dhaneshwar Bardia sorry Mark Andrea Morixi showed some important. grit even though the team had already lost. This is very important. Even if your team is not doing well, to be able to focus on your board. And let's just quickly have a look at the match summary to see what happened between these 2 matches.

And what a match this was. You know, we had the draws, we had the decisive games. There we see on our icon board, Sindarov versus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, that ended in a draw. Nihal Sarin versus Pranesh was an up-and-down battle, very dramatic. Last move, Nihal Sarin from a lost position got one opportunity And that was a checkmate on the board.

All he needs is an opportunity. He made full use of it. And I think board number 3, that guy Shakriyar Mamedyarov was one of the reasons why the Czech Momo Masters got the full points today. He was struggling in the beginning, but he has picked up his form with a bang.

2 wins with the black pieces by Shakriyar, by Carissa Yip right there on the 5th board as well, giving them those 4 points apiece. And 6-11 was the total victory margin right there. 3 decisive games, 3 draws. In the end, the Czech Mamba Masters cashing big time in this one puts them right in the race, Harshit.

They are absolutely in the race now because there are 3 teams with 9 points, Tanya, and one of those teams is the Czech Mamba Masters alongside Alpine Vipers, alongside the PBG Alaskan Knights.

But I just want to also remind everyone as we bring up our standing that for the Fires American Gambits, the day has just started. They have one more showing Ravikant Sinderwal will enter the arena with his team one more time later today against the PBG Alaskan Knights. So they need to reset and they need to do it fast. This is where we stand. What are the standout storylines as we look at our overall standings before we go on to the next match?

Well, you know, I think the Czech Momo Masters started off with 2 losses. They've won 3 matches in a row, put themselves at the top of the leaderboard. Triveni Continental Kings takes on the Alpine APL Pipers in the upcoming match. And if the Triveni Continental Kings manage to score an upset, we can potentially see them climbing the leaderboard, making their way up to the finals.

And the Triveni Continental Kings got their first win yesterday against the PBG Alaskan Knights, 11-6, finding, finding that momentum when it was a survival match. And that's got to be concerning for the other teams right now. Well, the team they're playing next is the one to beat. It's on second position. While we've got 3 teams at 9 points, It's the Pipers that who have a match in hand. They've only played 4 matches. If they win, they go into next day, they go into the second half at pole position with 12 match points.

That's going to be big for them.

The Kings can stop the Pipers.

Absolutely. And I'm, I'm very excited to see the match between Firouzja Alireza and Magnus Carlsen on the icon board between these 2 matches, because Magnus Carlsen did mention in one of the interviews before the match that he's looking forward to Feet, Firuja, not on the board but on the clock.

I love the way he phrased it. I think you're being a bit too polite in the way you're saying it. You know, the other thing I want to highlight from that leaderboard that we just saw, that while Triveni Continental Kings sit at 3 match points, their game points are at 34. They are literally just one match, one match win away from changing the whole picture. They go straight into the race from being at the bottom of the leaderboard Because they have managed to get so many game wins. The conversion has been the problem.

This tells us how close the matches of Triveni Continental Kings have been, because even if they have lost, they've managed to score up and put up a lot of points on the leaderboard.

So they won with a very reasonable margin yesterday, but the losses have been with tiny margins on the board. What a match we've set ourselves up for, and it's going to be fantastic to watch. As it's fantastic to watch in our studio that we're being joined by our very good friend here, सागर साहब, फॉर अ रिकैप ऑफ़ ऑल दैट वी सॉव एंड ऑल दैट्स कमिंग, हाउ आर यू फीलिंग? हाउ वाज़ योर एक्सपीरियंस? व्हाट हैव यू बीन डूइंग?

आई वाज़ इन द फैन ज़ोन लिस्टनिंग टू योर कमेंट्री एंड मीटिंग पीपल एंड दैट मोमेंट वेर प्राणेश वाज़ विनिंग, आई वाज़ सो प्राउड And what a game he played!

Yes, he outplayed Nihal, and just when it came down to that last move, missing a checkmate in one. How does that happen to a player of that level, Sagar?

I think it's just a momentary miss in concentration. It happens, yeah, sometimes. Uh, I think it's just part of chess. He should just brush it off.

Well, we got a surprise for you, Sagar. I believe one of the things that you were doing while on the break was that you had a word with Arohi. Yes. Let's take a look.

In the fan zone, we are here to do some fun stuff. I see Sagar Shah joining me. What's up?

क्या चल रहा है? भाई, I'm just loving the vibe here. I'm meeting people. The commentary box is there, so I comment it. Then I come out. I meet people. I watch on the big screen what's happening. This is like a dream life. If I could live in the fan zone all my life, I would love it. I just need a washroom. And some food. You know what?

If you live in the fan zone throughout your life, तो बाकी कोई access कर ही नहीं पाएगा आपको because whenever this guy comes out of the comms room, इतने लोग होते हैं उनके आजू-बाजू में कि लोग आएंगे ना फिर मिलने को ऐसे यहाँ पे so I can make like a small adda ऐसा so so chess club great idea next time ये suggest कर लें let's do it man living inside a fan zone content piece That's great. I think that is why we should talk more to all of our comms because ऐसे ही ideas निकलते हैं। वैसे ideas से मेरे पास भी एक idea है। I want you to give me your dream team for this season, starting with the icon board superstar men, superstar women, prodigy.

The global chess league app and you can make your dream team there. So I already made it which I'm going to reveal now. Okay. My top icon board is Magnus Carlsen. Has to be. I want to have Vidit Gujarati on the male superstar board, but I'll put it on. Put him on three. He's doing very well. Then I'll choose Pranesh actually, who is on two killing it. Yeah, सबको धो रहा है वो। So I'll put and very casual.

You उसको पूछते कि how do you do it? No, I just see the opponent as an opponent and not a you know.

So actually, Pranesh or I would maybe put Arjun. Let's say Ajuba is much more experienced. So let's Let's do Magnus, Arjun Vidit. Then I would put, uh, Shuvalova and Nino Batsia-Schweli. These 2 are really doing well. And then finally on the Prodigy board, I'll go with Mark-Andrea Morizzi.

Wait, wait, wait, why not Hampi?

She's been doing exceptionally well.

Yes, I agree. I think Hampi was one choice, but I feel like Shuvalova and, uh, Nino are just, uh, very good at this format. So, I think I could have also chosen Humpey. But maybe these 2 I went for. Okay, so that's your dream team?

Yes.

And I think this dream team is quite underrated because like not everyone is like a big star or someone, but they are all very big experts at the GCL format.

It's basically how you perform under pressure that actually defines the kind of shine that you have.

Oh, wow!

The American Gambit scored probably next year in the Combox winners were Czech Mamba Masters.

I loved how we interviewed a few players here. So Arohi's chess knowledge. I'm waiting for the day when Arohi will ask, why did you go for 17h5?

I'm also waiting for that day, Sagar. But thank you so much for joining us and keep gathering people around you through.

Thank you so much. Love that interview, Sagar. आपने अपनी dream team तो दे दी वहाँ पे but your dreams Gonna come crashing down right now because आपने बोला कि I want to live in the fan zone. बस मुझे एक washroom दे दो, थोड़ा खाना दे दो। भाई अमृता कहाँ है इस picture में?

हाँ, pass गए भाई pass गए। Actually the thing is I just don't imagine a life without her so I just thought that she would be there anyway.

Good save भाई good save.

Good save no problem. Seven out of ten. But that was quite Quite the team put together by Sagar, and what a team performance we had by the Czech Mumbai Masters. Tell us, Arohi, who was the most valued player, the player of the match?

Hello and welcome to the post-match presentation ceremony. The Mumbai Masters, now they are known for their team camaraderie, and now we can finally see how this team is coming together with that win today. So without further ado, let's call upon the heroes Of today's win, give it up for the Czech Mumba Masters! What a win, guys! Dhaneshwar, tell me what is the secret to the team's victory? That's why you shouldn't stand there.

No, I think it's his question, so let him answer.

You know what is happening? She just said that is why you shouldn't stand there, but I'm gonna come with the same question to you. What's, what's changed after the first 2 games, after the initial couple of losses, that the teams bounced back so well?

I mean, even the initial matches, the first one we were unlucky.

Uh, we are keeping the same spirit, not getting And we are trying our best.

That's it.

Praneesh, we have to talk to you. The kind of energy that you've brought to this entire squad is phenomenal. Everybody is talking about you in the comments. Our commentators are going gaga over you. What do you have to say to that?

I don't know.

I'm just playing some good games and some blunders also.

I mean, you're playing a fabulous game today except for that last blunder. But when that happened, immediately you must have known, na? Ah, it was my game, unfortunately.

But okay, I mean it happens, so I just leave it.

Hoping to see you come back from that one, and let's have some crazy more games from you. Thank you. All right then, let's move on to the player of the match, which is to be given off by our guest for today, Mr. Rohit Anand, CFO Tech Mahindra. And the player of the match goes to Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Shakriyar, one question. That shark attack claimed a victim today.

Talk us through it.

But today was not shark attack. Today was just a strategical game. And I am happy my team back after 3 wins in a row.

And I mean, very happy.

If you're saying this was not shark attack, I'm waiting to watch what that shark attack looks like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. We will see. We have more 5 games. We will see. Thank you.

All right, that is it from the Mumbai Masters. Please give it up for the winners of this game. Thank you so much for joining us.

Yes.

That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We will be back 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 Power, the all new Yono.

Power to every Indian. अरे बेटा क्या कर रही हो?

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

मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल पोलो स्टील पाइप्स, एयरपोर्ट से लेकर स्टील की ताकत को एपीएल पोलो बनाता है। देश की बढ़ती ताकत, एपीएल पोलो, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। चीफ गेस्ट्स हैं वाराय। सैल्यूट!

सैल्यूट करो, सैल्यूट करो। सैल्यूट हटाओ। यूपी लाओ। यूपी खाओ ना जो मस्ती की भीटी जगाओ रे। यूपी का बाइट लेके टेस्ट का प्लास्ट है रे। इतने से मन न भरे। दिल कहे थोड़ा और मिले। Long non-sticky full of veggies.

Formality हटाओ, यूपी खाओ। आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूडेट मिस हो चुकी है, जिसकी वजह से पेनल्टी चार्जेस की सीटी बजने वाली है और क्रेडिट स्कोर के गिरने की वजह से आपके होश होश होश 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। जब ग्यारह 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. And whatever plans you have for the next one hour, they need to be thrown out of the window, completely cancelled off. Because what we have set up for— Danya, if someone has the plan to watch the match, except that one, if you're right here in the arena or your plan already was to watch what's coming up, then stay with that, stick with that, because this is a clash you do not want to miss. It is the Triveni Continental Kings taking on the Alpine Pipers. These two were the finalists Of season three, that storyline—not just that storyline. On the icon board, it will be Firuja taking on Magnus Carlsen. Let's go!

We have a big one coming up, guys. Arshid bhai taking on Magnus. Oh, सब शोड़ो अरशिद बाई.

Who will win? Magnus or Firuja? बताओ बाई. इतना मत सोचो. Draw.

Draw. Draw. That is such a safe option you've taken after all. And especially considering that Alireza Firouzja is winless so far, by the way. The kings got their first victory yesterday, but today they're facing the king of chess. Draw, I would say, is a very— it's a bit of a hot take.

It's not like Harshit bhai, like, uh, prediction. He always takes the hottest take.

Yeah, the thing is, like, I really think Magnus Carlsen is the strongest player in this format, but I love Firouzja and how he plays. We have the king of chess versus the prince of chess.

Oh, and that has been the storyline for so many years. Magnus Carlsen saying that if there was a World Championship match he would have played, it would have been against Alireza Firouzja. We did not get that match, but we do get them here at Global Chess League fighting it out on the Icon Board. Tell me, what is your take, Sagar, as we see the roster for these 2 teams? You know, Sure, the icon board will steal all the cameras, potentially all our attention, but where do you see the other action coming from?

Well, I think the very important clash is between Wei Yi and Anish Giri, because last time in the GCL when they played each other, Anish had kind of played a huge theoretical line and beaten Wei Yi. So Wei Yi would be itching for revenge. I think Vidit is a small favorite in his match— in his game against Arvind. And I would say between Costanuic and Divya, Costanuic is the one in form, while Zuzina. By the way, it's Zuzina and Divya. Yes. I think both are out of form completely. So then I guess the one who would win today would get a big chance, you know, to come back in form as well. What do you think, Divya or Zuzina?

Do you want to take that one? I personally think that for the Trivini Continental Kings, the most important boards are between Zujinur and Arvind because those are—

I asked you a question, Harshit bhai.

नहीं सुन रहा था। Harshit was not listening to me.

And Arvind. So I think that Arvind and Zujinur boards are very important. They will win, you think? I think they have to win for Triveni to have some chance.

I am asking Divya and Zujinur who will win. Zujinur. Zujinur.

Oh wow! And Tanya? I will answer, but before I answer, a quick start. I will answer. Yu Jina lost 1 game the entire of Season 3. She was part of the Triveni Continental Kings, a key player in their run-up to the finals in that one. And this season, she's already lost 3 games out of 4.

She's winless. She only has half a point out of 4 games, and I think this is a very important game for her.

And unlike you, I will answer. I think Divya gets it done in this one. But first, Arohi will get the coin toss done to decide which team plays which color.

The Triveni Continental Kings with their first win of the tournament. Finally, now all the teams are off the starting block. Well, we have some points on the table, but today's game is going to define the momentum for them as they go up against the Alpine APL Pipers. Now for the coin toss, may I call upon the match official, the match arbiter, Miss Sahana Subramanya, international arbiter. And now let's call upon the coaches of the 2 teams, Luku Anveli for the Kings and Praveen Tipse for the Pipers. Pipers will be taking the call. Heads is the call. Heads it is.

Okay, heads it is.

So we prefer to take— yeah, we prefer to take black pieces.

Thank you so much, sir. Black, why so?

Uh, I think it has been working.

All right, why change what is working, right? But let's talk about the team coming off of a loss yesterday. But how are the team spirits now?

I think we took a loss as a momentary thing, a sort of small break and not a puncture, you know. So it was a break and we are able to get into speed again.

So I thought it was—

we bounced back rather with a massive victory. And that's how it should be when a player loses and player wants to fight back. And we're probably lucky that there was a game waiting for us immediately because, you know, you don't want to wait for 24 hours To take your revenge against someone else, and it turned out to be a great evening for us in the end.

Well, irrespective of the result, with it and Hampi going so strong, that must be a really strong support to the team. You know, the other players would be taking inspiration, confidence from these two players.

Yes, of course. And the day they didn't do well, of course, the others did well. So, you know, it's very important that they have the team spirit, all of them, and they are really spirited. They are looking forward to repeating the performance. performance, and that's what is required. And I think Magnus' support is also great. It's a very important factor, I must say.

Absolutely. With that name in the squad, I'm sure that is already an encouragement and a push for the team. All the best for today's game.

Thank you.

Luke, happy with white?

Well, I didn't expect that we were going to play with white, to be honest, you know.

But, but okay, white, black, you know.

Of course, white is an advantage, but I know also later on we have to play once with black, you know, against them. So there will be no escape.

Do you think they picked black just because they were playing against you and they would have preferred white going ahead in the tournament when, you know, every point is crucial?

I think they're just very superstitious, you know, and we just look at the data, you know.

And okay, coming off of a win, that must be a huge encouragement for the team. And you know, huge confidence boost as well.

Well, to be honest, this win yesterday, it felt so good, you know, and now we feel like we are in a winning streak, you know. We have to keep this momentum going for at least this season and next season. So, well, and of course, you know, to play against Alpine Warriors, the defending champions, you know, it's a serious challenge, although they're a little bit weakened because they have Magnus this year, you know. So we— I think we have some chances.

All right then, all the best for today's game.

Thank you very much.

Now basically this is a repeat of last year's finals, but that is what makes this game really interesting. Now here at the toss, the news is that the Alpine APL Pipers have won the toss, opted black.

The Alpine Pipers will start with the black pieces. That means Magnus gets black against Alireza Firouzja, and down to every single board now, black does carry that edge. Extra point for a win. How do you feel about that? Especially considering what we heard earlier from the coach from Luke Van Velli saying that he's surprised that he starts with white.

I think that meant means that when he was planning to take black, if he had won the toss, and he was expecting the other team to take black. Nice break.

To take black. To take black.

So that they would get white is what. Or, or maybe the other way.

Sorry, to take white. They thought Alpine Pipers will take white and they'd get black. Yes, and that was a bit of a surprise to hear as well. And these are our pairings, the rosters that are coming up. Now these 2 have been the most successful teams, the 2 most successful teams in the history of Global Chess League. Triveni Continental Kings, back-to-back champions. Alpine Pipers, defending champions. I'll go to both of you. I'll start with you, Harshit. Is there a favorite today given their history, given their current form, and is there a team that you're rooting for?

Well, I personally, uh, starting with the form, I personally think that Jules Jinnah and Arvind are the 2 players are really, uh, struggling right now for the TCK, for the Triveni Continental Kings. I feel that if those 2 boards are able to strike on boards 3 and 4, I think that the TCK have a chance If that doesn't happen, the Alpine Pipers take this one home.

Yeah, for me personally, it feels like today Triveni Continental Kings are the underdogs, but I feel they will win today. The reason for that is that they are really right now fighting for survival, and when that is the case, you really try your best. Meanwhile, the Alpine APL Pipers are at the top of the table. तो वो लोग कहीं पे तो थोड़े relaxed रहेंगे कि we are doing well. So in that sense, I feel that TCK today will go all out and win it.

And I love that take, and I completely am with you on that. I think to see a Global Chess League where every team has a shot to get into the finals is what the fans want. Yes, is what the commentators want. And for TCK, they got their first match win yesterday, and I think that was a lifeline given to them. And today they have to double down on that momentum But Sagar, they are literally playing not only the team to beat, but the team that's proving every single day why they are the team to beat.

I think the team is really performing so well in Alpine. It's like all boards are doing well. You know, Vidit does well sometimes, Hampi does well, Anish hangs in there. Yesterday Divya also didn't lose a single game, she drew both her games. And then on the last board, Murzin is there. So you know, it's not just Magnus, Magnus. The team is doing well, but I I don't want Triveni Continental Kings to go out of this tournament. I think they bring real flavor to this event. They should remain, bhai. We need the tiger to dance. We need the team coming in in the pink.

I think their mascot's going to go absolutely wild.

Today I'm in pink, you know. So I'm going to— it's okay, it's not pink, but like kind of pink.

But you are rooting for the Triveni Continental Kings because you want it to be a battle where every team is out there. Okay, what about this? If we have their mascot come in and do a performance, you guys have to join them. Yes, you also, Tanya. I will be right here watching, you know, with everyone watching online from home. We'll bring you all the action.

What people are getting from this is that you are not taking the initiative in all these kind of dances or predictions.

This is me taking the initiative, saying that you have to do it.

You are always playing it safe. So today, guys, we need Tanya to get into the action.

Yes, who's getting into the action right now? It's the team.

Demon Pink Saga. They are coming in, and look at Alireza Firouzja, calm as always. Arvind is like meditating already on that last seat. And Luke Van Willie, man, he's the captain cool.

Was he driving the car?

Oh, Akash was driving the car.

Oh my God, taking things into their own, own hands, literally.

Here, I thought he might go inside to the playing hall.

And look at that, way well there. Destiny is in their own hands right now. They're playing the defending champions. This was the finals of GCL Season 3 in Mumbai. It was the Alpine Pipers against the Ravani Continental Kings, and today they face each other one more time in a battle for survival. For the Kings, they've— we've been calling them the royalty of chess. Alireza Firouzja so far remains winless.

But look at him, Tanya, look at him! Look at that swag, the style The angle from which they are shooting. I wonder how the video camera guy— where is he? Is he like sleeping and shooting this? What an angle that really is.

Also, he has to be not in a sitting position, right? He has to keep going back. Amazing. So we need a camera on the camera guy. But Alireza Firouzja, what he needs to get done is get past Magnus Carlsen. You know, he will be starting with the white pieces. Magnus Carlsen started the trash talk before the tournament even began. What does Alireza do today to get it done for his team?

I think a very good idea for Firouzja would be after ten moves to offer a draw. हाँ, ये क्या था?

Harshit bhai, I think a very good idea is to flag Magnus. Oh, you know, just and then it's like what a story. And there you see Magnus coming in today. No autographs. Magnus is like, oh, there are smiles, but Magnus get the job done. I need to crush Alireza. Oh, dab there!

Yeah, that guy isn't washing his hands for a while. What a dab that was! And Magnus Carlsen, the speed with which he was walking in, I think he's looking for the clock game coming in there right now. And for the Alpine Pipers, I think the boards you highlighted, Divya Deshmukh will be a critical one that the Kings will look to target. Not just that, I quickly want to touch upon Wei Yi versus Anish Giri.

Too good game. Too good game. Too good.

Both of them very technical players.

Both games really good. Too good games or too good?

Too good. Too good. Too good. I feel like Anish is very positional, very Wei also sometimes, but when like all hell breaks loose, Wei is more tactical. And today I want to see that clash, like pura fighting chess.

Yeah, I think it's a clash of styles between Wei and Anish Giri. Wei can turn on his कल कल खेला था। Exactly, against Arjun, he just sacrificed his pieces and defeated Arjun in a scintillating manner. Can Anish show his positional superiority over Vayu? Will be a very exciting match.

And I think when you come into this match, you need your players to feel that confidence. For Vayu to get his first win in yesterday against Arjun was absolutely critical before facing the Pipers.

Yeah. And somehow, you know, Tanya, what I'm seeing here is the energy is growing. I don't know why. What's happening?

Oh! The match The real one.

Let's go, man. Come on, Tiger. Come on, we need some moves. Ah, there you have it. Oh, she's the choreographer. She's teaching him or what?

I like to move it, move it.

I think we will have Harshit and Sagar definitely on the moves in some time. Sagar's already running.

I'm, I'm like so excited today for this matchup.

Yes, because really it feels like so defining, so much history between these 2 teams. You know what's at stake for the Kings is survival. For Pipers to prove their domination, make a case we belong in the finals. And again, absolutely agree. I think that icon board will be as iconic as their mascot.

Come on, Tiger! Come on, perform, man! Yeah, this is what Triveni Content Kings were doing in first three rounds. They were not performing, and then they were like, "Oh wait!" Now in fourth round, they perform.

It's only when it matters, Sagar. Only when the cameras are there, when the fans are there right now. You know, they need the clocks to start.

अरे हम देख रहे हैं ना अभी करो ना भाई। Oh yes, there we see it.

Oh let's go. Yes.

That's oh.

Okay, this is what we have to do. Harshit bhai, you have to do this if the Triveni Continental Kings win. Tanya, Tanya.

I can't hear you. Please look at look at. Something is not working.

So the step is one, two, three, four, and then this. Okay, ready guys? Ready. If Trivani Continental Kings win, we all do it. And if APL Pipers win, then no one does it. I mean, we just celebrate their victory because they don't have a mascot. Like, we just—I mean, there's nothing against them. We just want—I mean, I want Trivani Continental Kings to remain in the tournament, but I know. That the Alpine APL Pipers are an amazing team.

I don't think anyone has any doubts about that. They have been the hot favorites since they landed here. When you got Magnus Carlsen leading the team, you've got the candidates runners up there. You've got Vidit. You've got Divya in that team. You've got the former world rapid champion stacked top to bottom there. Humpy, their former world rapid champion. They are the team to beat. Can the Triveni Continental Kings do it? Arohi, the teams are ready. Take it away.

Two teams full of chess superstars. Well, this is exactly a repeat of last year's finals. We have the runner-ups and the finalists and the winners who will be going up against each other for the first time this season. Let's call upon the two teams: Trivani Continental Kings and Alpine APL Vipers. It is now time for the player introductions. Let's start from the runners-up of season three of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. Give it up for Triveni Continental Kings, the speed monster Alireza Firouzja, World Cup runner-up Wei Yi, Indian superstar Arvind Chidambaram. Chinese women superstar Zhu Jin'er, former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, Indian rising star Pranav, and their coach Luke Wanveili. And now for the Winners of Season 3 of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, give it up for Alpine APL Vipers! 2-time Esports World Cup winner Magnus Carlsen! Reigning Grand Swiss Champion Anish Giri! Arjun Awadhi, Vidit Gujrani! Another Arjuna Wadi Divya Deshmukh. Two times women's rapid champion Hampi Guneru. Former world rapid champion Volodar Morzin. And their coach Praveen Deepse. Give it up for the two teams, Triveni Continental Kings.

And the Alpine APL Vipers.

And now for the first move, may I please call upon the tournament director. Mr. Bharat Singh, our chief arbiter Gerd Bayer, and our special guest Mr. Rohit Anand, CFO Tech Mahindra. The first move to be made on the icon board. Alireza Farooja. and Magnus Carlsen being featured on that board. Thank you to our dignitary. And now for the first move on the Superstar Men board, may I please call upon Mr. Tapan Sharma, General Manager, State Bank of India.

This is the battle royale of the Global Chess League. 3 championships between these 2 teams. Triveni Continental Kings winning season 1 and 2. The Alpine Pipers coming in as the defending champions. And as they face in this very crucial juncture of the pool stage, we are off with our women's superstar board. Divya Deshmukh versus Zhu Jin'er. The moves are on the board and it starts with a Queen's Pawn Opening.

Oh, it starts with this, uh, the move pawn to d4, pawn to d5, knight f3, knight f6, bishop to g5. The Trompowsky Pomposky opening chosen by Jujinori. Or we've talked about how we have the king of chess and the prince of chess on the icon board. Well, we do have 2 queens of the chess game here, Jujinori and Divya Deshmukh. This is going to be an exciting clash.

It absolutely will, as both these players are looking for their redemption arc here in season 4, have struggled so far in their matches. And I think whoever scores in this one at this point will be forgiven for everything that's happened At the pass. Let's move on quickly to our next board of the Women's Superstar, Kosteniuk versus Hampi. And no Queen's Pawn Opening in this one. We've got a different start. The position we have right now looking quite interesting. I believe this came out of the Scotch, if I'm not mistaken.

Let's just quickly take a look at the opening. Uh, it was e4, e5, Knight f3, Knight c6, and it was indeed the Scotch Opening as you predicted. Knight takes d4. Queen to f6, bringing in the queen into the game. Knight back to f3. Bishop b4 check, provoking c3. We talked a bit about this provocation in our previous match. Well, we are getting rid of the knight from b1 coming into c3. Bishop drops back to c5. Bishop to e2. Knight e7. Castles. d6. And we are live with the players here, Tanya.

We're live.

It's still in theoretical territory. Who is better prepared? We will find out. But let's go to our men's superstar board, which is about to lift off with 2 very crucial matches. Matches. You've got Wei Yi playing Anish Giri, Arvind Chidambaram, an all-Indian clash against Vidit Gujarati. But this board, extremely important. Wei Yi finally finding a way into the tournament with his win yesterday against Arjun. Anish has been up and down, it's been a bit shaky for him on this board. Which player finds his form today?

And we see the handshake, the players start the game. Pawn to e4, pawn to e5. Anish, known for his opening knowledge and theoretical understanding. And that's why, Tanya, look at this move— pawn to c3 played by Wei Yi. And after pawn to d5, queen to a4. Very interesting opening here.

You know what is interesting is what Arvind Chidambaram has started with against Vidit Gujarati. An absolute shocker on move 1, which is why Vidit hasn't yet responded. If we quickly go to our next superstar board Arvind Chidambaram gets his knight out on the first move on the left flank, and you don't get to see this at top-level chess.

Only at GCL, Tanya. Knight comes into c3, and Vidit was completely thrown, uh, aback there. Here you can see he's taking his time to make the decision. Knight comes into f6. And let's quickly have a go look at the Wei versus Anish game because this is a very interesting opening, Tanya.

We will take a deeper look into this. I do not want to miss the handshake.

Let's go there.

Icon board. This is the clash I think everyone in Bengaluru, in India, all over the world has been waiting for. Alireza Firouzja versus Magnus Carlsen. Both of them right now checking out the openings of the other boards. Very soon we'll see the arbiters walk in closer to their board. We'll see both of them turn around, look at their own pieces, and then we will have the first moves. What are you expecting from Firouzja?

To start with, well, I'm expecting some fireworks for sure because Alireza knows he's not going to get many, many more opportunities to play against Magnus Carlsen. Well, we had plenty of exciting battles seen between these 2. Firouzja knows exactly what it takes to defeat Magnus Carlsen. He has done it before. The question is whether he can do it now.

And I just wonder how surprised they were with the move knight to c3 by Arvind. I think that's where all the eyes were on. Magnus is the first to turn his attention, get locked in, and we are off. Let's go for the big one! And the knight comes out. Alireza Firouzja first to move the knight on this one. Magnus Carlsen, will he choose the queen's pawn to go forward? He knows exactly how crucial this game is. How far will he go for that 4-pointer win to try to flag Alireza, which was one of his goals coming into GCN?

It's big, it's big to win with the black pieces, Tanya. And I see Sometimes wonder how does Magnus choose his openings. Imagine having understanding and knowledge about every single opening possible in chess, and he needs to decide which one to play.

Well, you know, we've heard, heard it from Magnus that sometimes it's just a roll of a dice, and that's what helps him to decide what is going to be his first move. When you're as good as Magnus Carlsen, you can afford to do that. But I think this tournament, we know that Peter Heine Nielsen, his longtime coach, his longtime trainer, is accompanying him here. He's getting those golf games in. And when Peter travels with Magnus for a tournament, you know exactly how much that means to him. He really wants a GCL trophy in that cabinet. Absolutely.

You have mentioned it before, Tanya, how he has won absolutely every single tournament in the world of chess besides the Global Chess League, and I'm sure he wants to add that to his cabinet.

And for Alireza Firouzja, he's trying to fianchetto his bishop right now for the Triveni Continental Kings. Now last season, Firouzja was unstoppable, 5 out of 5 is how he started. 7.5 out of 10 is how he ended the pool stage right there. He was the king in Mumbai, but this tournament so far, going into his 5th round, he's winless.

He's winless, but I'm very surprised by Magnus's, uh, time, uh, that he has been thinking for on the 2nd move itself. Why has Magnus not made a decision yet?

I think he forgot to roll that dice in the morning. What will he respond with is the question. Does he go for more central pawns moving forward? Or are we going to see piece developments? Very often a player is also trying to understand what does his opponent want right now. Magnus knows that next Alireza will take out his bishop, get his king to safety. What are the kind of middle game structures he's hoping for? As Magnus decides, well, he does, and this is not the most popular move in the position. What he's trying to do is get Alireza out of his preparation.

It's actually an interesting question whether Magnus wants to play a solid opening or keep chaos against Firouzja because I think Firouzja excels in chaotic positions. And I think that's why Magnus goes for a much more solid approach, goes for the move pawn to e6. He is ready to give up his bishop on f3 at some point because once he gets this triangle structure of the pawns on e6, d5, and c6, he'll have a very solid position.

Well, Magnus saying, I do not want a theoretical battle, I don't want to go into standard known opening preparation. I just want a middle game. I want a game with an early imbalance, potentially of a bishop trade for a knight. Alireza continues the development path, and we should continue our roundup of the openings on the other boards.

Uh, Harshit, let's quickly have a look at what's happening on the Superstar Women's board between Alexandra Kosteniuk and Koneru Hampi. We have a very interesting position developed here as we saw that it was the Scotch Opening. We left it here. Castles, d6, pawn to b4, baiting Humpy into capturing this pawn. And I think she wanted to perhaps sacrifice— oh no, she did not want to take on b4 but play the move pawn to e5. Wow!

But you can still take that with the knight and it just gets very complicated. But let's show the idea. Pawn takes bishop. The problem is that the rook is hanging and suddenly you pick that up. You regain material with interest. So instead of that, you suggested a spanner with the move e pawn moving forward, but that doesn't work because of tactics. But bishop hitting the queen would dislodge the queen from that diagonal, and then you go on to win the bishop.

Exactly. I think that was the trap set up by Kosteniuk. Of course, Hampi saw it immediately, went back with her bishop to b6, king to h1, a very interesting prophylactic move by Kosteniuk preparing to go for f4. At some point, pawn to h6 played by Humpy. Bishop to b2, and we are live with the players.

So Humpy yet to castle, will try to get that done. Meanwhile, Kostya showing that she wants to push that f-pawn ahead at the right moment, will take her knights out, get the queen, get development. I like the space that Kostya has so far. The game I want to rush to, speaking of space, has to be Wei versus Anish. It's an opening position that I am not familiar with. That looks like a pawn sacrifice on the board that Anish has played already. Where is his d-pawn?

Yeah, let's have a take. Let's take a look at where he lost the pawn. And it was this move: pawn to d5, queen to a4, and bishop to d7, giving up the pawn on d5 but saying that after knight to d4, black gets a lot of compensation. Asking Anish Giri to prove his compensation as he castles his king and puts his king into the safety.

It just looks like an extra pawn to me right now. You know, to get that pawn, Wei Yi had to do a queen dance, and it felt like Black has so much lead in development. But give White one more move, the knight comes out, the knight comes to the center of the board. You're just making a case for having an extra pawn for the rest of the game. You don't even have a bishop pair advantage if you're Anish. You give up a central pawn. If you're not well prepared, you can be in trouble very quickly. Absolutely.

And it's interesting to me how Wei Yi is playing a slightly positional approach and Anish Giri is the one playing with initiative. Generally, it is Wei Yi who likes to play aggressive chess. Important moment for Anish Giri here not to allow White to consolidate the position.

All right, so this so far looks like Triveni Continental King should be happy with the outcome. They have an extra pawn for no apparent compensation for the Pipers. I want to go to one such one position which is surprising me. Zhu Jin'er against Divya Deshmukh, a board we've been discussing. Everything's been vacuumed off, everything's been hoovered off the board. Let's bring up that endgame that we have right now, and it just feels like the players are ready to rush towards an equal endgame.

I have I've really been struggling to understand what has Zhu Jin'er been doing in the opening because every single time she has went for this approach of going bishop to g five and take. The knight on f6, and I haven't seen a single game where she has gotten an advantage with the white pieces. Similar to the story what we've seen before, we currently have a very equal position, and I think Divya should be quite happy with a solid draw with black.

No, that is the feeling right now, given the form the two players have been. That I think for Divya, if she's able to hold the draw, she's happy to do that. But it's the ball is in Zhu Jun's court with the white pieces. You want a bit of initiative. You want to put that pressure. That means the pressure is on the other boards. Before we circle back to our icon board, I want to check in with Vidit versus Arvind. Knight to c3, the opening choice by Arvind shocked us all, shocked Vidit as well, but it feels like it's transposed into familiar territory now.

It has, it has transposed into some sort of e4, e5, knight c3 fianchettoed sidelines, bishop to g2, knight to e2, short castles, a5. d3, d6, h3, and generally White has a very clear plan here. He wants to move his king to h1 or h2, get away from this pin, and push the pawn to f4.

I do like Arvind's chances here because the f-pawn's rolling up the board so quickly. Vidit has early pressure to deal with. I want to go straight back to our icon board. Lots of moves have happened. Oh wow, Magnus Carlsen's king is stuck in the center. You cannot go castling. The bishop on e7 pinned by Alireza Firouzja's queen. Harshit, you have to backtrack and break it down to us. We have the live board, so take your time on the analysis board.

How did we get here? By the way, moves coming in quickly. Let's just take a look how they got there. Knight to f6, pawn to h3, asking the black bishop to make a decision. Magnus didn't want to make the decision yet, goes back with his bishop to h5, pawn to c4. पॉन्ट तू सी सिक्स, डी फोर, नाइट डी सेवन, सीडी फाइव, ईडी फाइव एंड सिंस द ब्लैक बिशॉप हैज़ गोटन अवे फ्रॉम डिफेंडिंग द पॉन्ट ऑन बी सेवन, व्हाइट टेक्स एडवांटेज ऑफ़ दैट, प्लेस द मूव क्वीन तू बी थ्री, क्वीन तू बी सिक्स। वेल, वन्स द क्वीन मूव्स अवे फ्रॉम द किंग, व Knight to h4. Wow.

So tricky. He's eyeing that f5 square to jump into next. Gets that knight back. It needed to be stopped. Bishop falls back to control that square, not allowing the knight anywhere forward. And after the bishop went back, the other knight came ahead into the game. And Magnus knows he can't castle without defending the bishop. The queen falls back. We saw a trade on g6, and now that Alireza's queen has done its job, it's time to get the bishop into the game. Goes out of the way to d3. Magnus reroutes the knight towards the center of the board right now. Alireza Firouzja has the lead in development. He has the bishop pair. He has potential pawn breaks, not only at the center of the board with e4 well timed, but a minority attack plan on the other side. You always look out for b4, b5 in the middle game. Everyone watching this will be on Alireza's radar. I think this has been an opening success for the Trivani Continental Kings.

I loved how you said that White has some initiative here since he has already castled and his pieces are slightly better developed. The way to take advantage of initiative is break open the position. As we see a lot of spectators keenly waiting to see excitement unfold between these two teams here, Trivani Continental Kings and APL Pipers. We see A very big supporter of Vidit there, and also Charmy. Hi guys!

And it is a big day for Pipers right now, for Vidit on his board as well against Arvind Chidambaram. But we'll just stick to this for a moment. Magnus Carlsen down to 13 and a half minutes on the clock. Position very healthy for white, ahead in development, ahead with all the trumps we said, also ahead on the clock. If Magnus Carlsen's wish is not granted about his goal at the start of what he wants to do at this tournament, you know, trying to flag the beep out of Alireza, are we going to see a potential table smash here?

Well, I, I think both players know how important of a match this is. Look at how focused Magnus Carlsen is. He knows exactly how good Firouzja is in these kind of formats. He proved how dangerous he can be. Firouzja in the last season hasn't gotten his rhythm just yet. But if he can win this game, everyone is going to forget what happened in the previous rounds. Start from here. Let's go, Firouzja! Pawn to e4, open up the position, put Magnus's king under some pressure.

And that's the thing, you have to play on Magnus's clock as well. Do not burn too much time. Even if you don't push that pawn, make a decision quick. There are no bad moves in this position, and you'll have critical decisions later. I say Alireza goes for it.

I say that the amount of time he's burning, if he takes Yeah, he has to make that decision of being aggressive, and he needs to make it quick. He's still thinking. Is there any other board that catches your attention, Tanya?

We'll keep an eye, and we are watching you. We see you all, the fans in the auditorium. And of course, you know what, Harshit? I've heard that every time there's a Magnus Carlsen matchup, our tickets are sold out.

It's sold out for the right reason. He's the GOAT of chess, Magnus Carlsen. And he's Comes going to be playing for the title. to India in Bengaluru to play for the Alpine APL Pipers. We also have the prodigy board, Tanya, that we haven't had a look at. Let's quickly go there between Buddy Pranav and Volodar Morzin.

Hi! Has to be the Sicilian Defense. A big hello to all of you watching from inside the arena right now. You know, Harshit, I was there for the last match last evening. The environment—you can hear the commentary. You're watching all these. Best players from the world fight it out there, go head-to-head, those time scrambles. It is a vibe to be sitting and watching the match there.

It is a vibe to be sitting there, and it is a vibe for the knight on f5 to be sitting there. It's, it's such well-placed here, putting pressure on the pawn on g7 as well as the pawn on d6 here. A very nice strategic idea here is to go bishop to g5 and reroute this knight via e3 to d5. And that's why Black kicks it away with g6. I have to say, on this board, in this matchup, I'm a bit scared for the Alpine APL Pipers.

Buddy Pranav is extremely strong in the rapid format, and he's ahead on the clock as well. Let's bring up our 6-board view and do a quick roundup that after the opening, we've had the first 10 moves across the board. Which team is happier of the 2 as we go across the horn there? We get our bird's eye view on the screen right there, and there we have it. You know the one thing that stands out to me? Top to bottom, Trivani Continental Kings. The bar is higher. Alireza Firouzja. We've discussed this position ahead in development, ahead on the clock as well. You know pieces better placed. By the way, he did not go for E four. Instead, that's a top left board. The H pawn moved forward. We go to Wei Yi versus Anish Giri. Once again, it feels like Wei Yi is putting some pressure on Anish's king. His queen already lined up against Anish's king, top center there, top right. With its board, quite a strategic battle right now. I like that Arvind has already blown out that f4 pawn, looking at sacrifices on that f-file. I think Vidit has to be a little careful out of the opening in this one.

He has to be careful, but Arvind has chosen a risky approach because he is someone who's struggling a little bit in this tournament. But he's basically saying that if I want to take risks, at least I'm going to go all out towards my opponent's king. And I like this move, Rook to f3. What is this crazy-looking move, Tanya? Rook to f3.

He wants to double up on the f-file. I mentioned it, sacrifices across the f-line is something that you have to be careful about. Bottom row, the bars are pretty much level. We see Divya's board is already on an endgame. That bottom center board, more pieces coming off, also looks quite in the balance. As is the story so far on the Prodigy board. Where do you want to deep dive into next, Harshad?

I actually would really love to go between the board of Arvind Chidambaram and Vidit Gujrathi, and the reason is because of the last move played by Arvind, Rook to f3. This is an incredible idea, doubling on the f-line towards the f7 pawn of Black. Vidit down to 10 minutes 25 seconds.

And that's the other storyline that I'm seeing across the panel here. You know, for the Triveni Continental Kings, if you take a look on most boards, they're ahead on the clock, not just putting pressure with white, finding those small edges out of the opening. None of the boards are the piper's lost, but there is pressure to fight. There, there are problems to be solved.

The clock is a very important aspect of this format, and I like that the Triveni Continental Kings have taken that into consideration in their strategy. Rook to f3. Tanya, if we try to understand how Vidit could play against this pressure that Arvind is trying to build, is there any idea that stands out to you?

It's what's taking Vidit this long as well to figure it out. Very often you want to focus on the left flank, push c5, try to get a Break in on that side, but it just feels like even after you push that pawn, I'm not seeing progress because that square is so well controlled. We leave with it to show us the path, but he needs to do something on that left side of the board, but also make sure nothing goes wrong on the other one. Something's gone very wrong for Alexandra Kostinoyk.

Wow! Koneiro Humpy seems to have gotten a huge advantage for the Alpine APL Pipers, and if we just take a look at what was happening. After knight to e5, Kosteniuk made a risky decision of taking the bishop on b6, allowing knight takes f3. Knight takes the rook on a8, queen to f4, and Kosteniuk had the option of taking the knight on f3, queen takes f3, and allowing a perpetual. Instead goes for the move pawn to g3. This was a big mistake because queen to g4 and humpy is inching closer towards the white king, inching closer towards giving the APL Pipers 4 points.

That's not inching, that's sprinting. You're just getting to it. That's going to be a 1-mover checkmate. The only way to stop it would be to get your king forward to try to control that square via g2, but that's not going to help you either. There will be checks from the knight. Hampi is about to deliver a checkmate on the chess queen. And I want to point out that Koneru Hampi has been a star performer for the Pipers.

Absolutely.

She has had 3 out of 4 wins. She's been the one player alongside Vidit who's been bringing in all the results, and she's about to do it in a very critical match. Harshit, we'll keep an eye on this one, but can we please go back to our icon board?

Let's go, let's go.

It's a position on fire right now. Look at Magnus, he's finished his development. Let's have our analysis board up as you backtrack so everyone can keep an eye on the live board as well. We'll take you through the action as it got to this point.

And we started here after queen to d3 is where we left it. Black played knight to f8. We were hoping that Firouzja goes for this move pawn to e4. Well, that's what we looked at on the analysis board. He instead went for the move pawn to h4. Knight came in to e6. Bishop to h3. Queen to d6. And now perhaps Firouzja could have gone for your idea of going pawn to b4 with a minority attack here. Instead goes for King to g2, castles, Bishop to g5, and after Rook to e8, he makes a very innocuous-looking decision— Bishop takes f6. Black did not recapture back with the bishop, instead gave, you know, changed these doubled pawns with these doubled pawns, now controlling the important e5 square.

You're controlling the e5 square, but who's controlling the kingside if you're Magnus Carlsen right now? I'm always eyeing that h5 move that Alireza has set up for. And also notice how smartly he's put his king on g2, Harshit. And that means that the rook has a direct path to that h-file when it will be needed. So always watch out for this idea when it appears. It will be Ali— razor-sharp Firouzja on that attack right now. Pawn takes bishop. Do you think you could go for it directly or maybe trade that defensive knight? Knights are not only a great attacker but also brilliant defenders. And then strike with h5.

It's not so easy to give up our bishop on e6, is it, Tanya? Because it feels as if this bishop could have been used. He does it! He does it!

He has gone for it. And the reason is because you want to play h5 without giving that black knight inroads into defense there. He does it. h5, it's going to happen. Watch it happen being played out. Otherwise, you never give that bishop. And Alireza says, I don't know what you're talking about. No h5. And this is what surprises me. That after giving up that bishop, he goes for another plan—the minority attack that we earlier discussed. But then why not keep the bishop on the board?

But Tanya, do you think this is this that Firouzja is changing his strategy just because he's playing Magnus?

The Magnus effect is real, and you know you always double guess, doubt your question, your decisions, double guess your decisions. And we see Magnus now. He says you didn't play h5 on the last move. I'm going to consolidate on the king side. I'm going to take control of the light squares. And suddenly it feels like Alireza has gone into a bit of a positional mode. And the thing is, you cannot outplay Magnus Carlsen in strategic battles. You have to draw him out. Mikhail Tal famously said and spoke about the forest of complications where 2 2 5 and the path out is wide enough for one.

And those are the forests that you need Magnus Carlsen to be in to try to strike, where the opportunity to go wrong I have a feeling that this position, it's going to be wide enough for both players to pass through, Tanya, because the position is so solid. I just don't see only one player passing by. I think that this game is kind of heading closer and closer towards some sort of a draw because look at the position. Black doesn't have the break of pawn to f4. g5 is way too risky because it weakens your f5 pawn. You don't really want to touch your b-pawn because it's connected to your king. Weakens the c6 pawn. So in reality, we might just see players maneuvering around the position and potentially even agreeing to a draw.

And the reason why now the h-pawn advance isn't as strong is because Black will always have the option to push the g-pawn forward and deny you attack. Not just that, Black's going to be the one first to that h-line. And that is why timing was so essential for Alireza Firouzja to strike on the right side before Magnus moved his f-pawn ahead. Magnus is ready for any strike on the kingside, which means we have to think about, can Firouzja create chances on the other flank? Can he put pressure on the world number 1 by pushing the b-pawn forward?

It's all going to be about timing, Tanya. And talking about timing, look at the clocks. Less than 8 minutes for Firouzja Alireza on the clock. It has only been 23 moves so far. He needs to make 17 more moves with his current time. Goes for the move Knight to a4, and you could see Magnus there glancing over the positions of his teammates, just wanting to know whether he would have to play for a win or a draw would be enough.

On the icon board right now, the biggest imbalance that exists is the bishop versus knight that we have. Magnus has managed to get his king to safety after a really fascinating middle game. The opening that we saw from him wasn't clear how he was going to do that. He's ready to transfer his rook to the H line if needed. I think what Firouzja set up is the B pawn moving ahead next. He wants to play on the dark squares. Should we do a quick roundup of the other boards before we come back here?

Let's do it. Let's go to board number two between Wei Yi and Anish Giri. We did see that Anish Giri had sacrificed his pawn and was looking for compensation. I think he has found that compensation, Tanya, as his last move pawn to G six. Invites the trade of the dark-squared bishop, but that would give black control of the f4 square.

And that knight on f4 will be trying to go for the score, which is why Wei Yi says, I'm not allowing that knight into the camp targeting that g2 pawn. Knight f4 comes in with the firepower of the bishop that Anish has on c6, and you can never allow it to survive there. So keeping the bishop, the correct decision by Wei Yi on this one. You know, I want to ask you what we saw from Magnus Firouzja. Do you think that game ends in a draw, or is it likely to still be decisive in your mind?

I have a feeling that that game will end in a draw, and I like this last move of Wei Yi playing Bishop to e3, because when we have a material advantage, the benefit of it is that we can give that material away, Tanya.

Yes, and that is the pawn dynamic that you're talking about here. It's 7 pawns versus 6, so you can give that d3 pawn away, and I think he's just reaching out. It's a far away pawn for Anish Giri. He's reaching out for it. Just don't put it into your pocket, Anish. And we see queen takes pawn on the board. Material balance has been restored, and I do like black's chances in this position. The queen feels active. The black knight looks like it's ready to jump to f4 when given a chance. The bishop on c6 beautifully placed. The only thing is that white is coming with a lot of threats against the black queen. This guy is so tricky.

Look at this, Tanya. If knight to f4 is played, where is going to take the knight on f4, and after e takes f4, he has a very sneaky move prepared.

Wow, and that's a huge trap!

Bishop takes f7 check. It feels like I'm sacrificing a bishop for nothing, but after king takes f7, I have this sneaky, sneaky move, knight to g5 check, not just attacking your king, but the queen on h3 is going to capture black's queen here, and white will be completely winning. And This is the reason why knight to f3 and Wei Yi, in my opinion, has a teeny tiny bit of an edge.

All right, so Wei Yi putting pressure on Anish. Anish will not fall for this trap, but I loved what you just showed because knight jump is Anish's main idea. But just don't do it right now, Anish. Let's move on to our other board, and we've got Arvind against Vidit. We left it last. We felt like Vidit has to be careful, but it, it seems like he's got a fortress. You know, everything's blocked His bishop now looking good on b6. There's no big attack coming in. The knight, a beautiful piece as well.

I like this. I like how Vidit has remaneuvered his knight, you know, in some sort of a defensive mode here, anticipating white going g4, h4, and g5. The time is something that Vidit would need to be careful about. He has dipped below 5 minutes on his clock. Another solid position. Let's go to board number 4 to see if Divya Deshmukh has any chances for the APL Pipers.

And Divya Deshmukh with the black pieces. Position is materially balanced right now. Both sides have strong knights on the board. I think this one very likely to still end peacefully, but I do like Divya's knight compared to its counterpart.

I agree with you completely. And also this bishop on c6 putting pressure on the knight on e4. At some point we can think of of chopping this knight on e4 and getting a good knight versus bad bishop position.

There's been a turnaround in the Hampi game. It felt like Hampi was crushing it with an attack, but Kosteniuk has survived. The Triveni Continental Kings are back on this board.

Yeah, we left it here after Queen to g4, Rook to g1 was played, and Hampi could have simply chopped the knight on a8 and have this amazingly strong knight on f3. Instead decides to capture the rook on g1 Giving up that strong knight. King takes, rook takes a8, c4, knight g6, queen c3, and knight to h4 was the last move played by Hampi. I wouldn't really say that Hampi is in trouble. I still think it's around level, but she did miss the big advantage that she had.

There was a checkmate in one being threatened on the previous move. A kiss of that checkmate on the g7 square had to be stopped with the battery of the queen and the bishop lined up. Hampi, of course, super alert Jumps in with a knight. But I'm just looking, that idea still exists. Let's show that. It doesn't come with a checkmate, it comes in with a lot of trade. But if Alexandra wants a bailout, she can go queen takes pawn in this position. You give up your queen, thankfully— and she does it!

She does it!

It's on the board.

Uh-huh.

Let's just show that line. Queens will get traded off, and at the end of it, because your pawn has been unpinned, you pick up the knight. The problem in this position is you're up a pawn as white, but your pawns are completely destroyed.

Yeah, and I think that Ponnuru Hampi no longer has that winning chances that she previously did, she once did. The game is heading closer and closer towards equality after white exchanging all of these pieces. Pawn to a5, the last move played. Do you want to go to the Prodigy board and finish this round up that we were doing?

Let's do that really quickly and go straight back to our top headliner board there. And a lot of pieces and pawns still remaining in this one. And optically, the first feeling here is that this has to be good for Buddy Pranav. Pranav has got the rook centralized. There's a d6 weakness there. I like the battery of the white queen and bishop always eyeballing that h6 square to get rid of that black defensive bishop on g7. The d5 spot beautifully controlled by the pawn, knight, and rook. For me, it feels that white should be fine. Then I see the bar. It says black's the one better. What's going on, buddy?

He's very tricky and practical player. He's just playing very quickly, and even though the position is objectively quite fine for Mohsin, the speed with which Pranav makes this move is kind of putting him, uh, in some pressure here.

It's a 5-minute advantage to Pranav right now. The position somewhat in balance, could be anyone's game. This could become a time scramble for the former World Rapid Champion. We'll come back to it, but right now we go straight back up to our headliner match Magnus versus Alireza Firouzja. A lot of pieces have gone off the board. We're in an endgame here, but if anyone can be better, it has to be Alireza Firouzja. We're going to do a quick action replay, but just to tell everyone, Alireza with the better minor piece.

He absolutely is, and with the better pawn structure as well, Tanya, as he's trying to go for the minority attack that you mentioned. Let's just quickly take a look at how we reached this position. e3, a5. Pawn to a3, knight to a4 is where we had left it. Magnus decided to trade the queens by playing queen to e4. Chop chop, knight b6, f5, b4, takes takes. And Firouzja having a 30-second advantage on the clock. Guys, can Firouzja make an upset and defeat Magnus Carlsen here?

Well, he needs to channel his inner Magnus to defeat Magnus in this endgame. You know, very often we say that you go into an endgame, that's That's the sign of bad things to happen when you're playing against the world number one, Magnus Carlsen, the GOAT of chess, but the ultimate GOAT when it comes to endgame play. So how will he manage to sneak his way out of the pressure? I want to highlight the key point in Alireza's position apart from the plan of b5. Notice how that knight on b6, it's not an optical, just an optical strength. It controls the a8 square. It gives Black zero access to the only open line in the position.

This is a beautifully placed knight here, not just because of what it's doing, but as you mentioned, controlling the a8 square, but at some point jumping into d7. I think Firouzja has a very good chance of defeating Magnus here because he wants b5, he wants Rook fc1, and Magnus is now down to 4 minutes 20 seconds, needs to make a move here. Hello, Magnus!

What Magnus really wants to do in this position is to try to trade the rooks off. Imagine a reality when White is able to put the rook on a1 and infiltrate on the 7th rank, and that is going to be very problematic. The moment the b-pawn is gone out of the board, Alireza's rooks get a free hand. Magnus Carlsen has plenty of problems to solve, but if anyone can, it is him in an endgame.

Wearing the jersey number 1 Playing on board 1 for the Alpine APL Pipers, but he's uncomfortable. He's uncomfortable there. Look at him, he's unable to make a decision. What can he play here, Tanya? Because Rook fc1 and b5 is coming. Maybe Rook to d8, stopping the white knight from coming into d7, followed by the move Rook to f7, just trying to defend the position somehow. But it's very passive.

That's not pleasant ever, to go into a full defensive mode and get passive and just wait for your opponent to come at you. For Firouzja, he has to make sure that he remains ahead on the clock to Magnus Carlsen. What will be absolutely poetic after what Magnus said is if Alireza manages to flag Magnus.

That will be really epic, and it's actually possible because 12 more moves for Magnus to make and he's down to 3 minutes. He's been thinking for more than 3 minutes here, and I think he's upset with himself.

When Magnus in an endgame starts to take that much time A player who I think has an understanding which is absolutely unmatched, not only of this generation but history of chess when it comes to endgames. You know how comfort— uncomfortable the position is. He's gone under the 3-minute mark currently. He's struggling to find a move right now. And the more Magnus thinks, the more Alireza thinks.

And there's a lot to the position besides, uh, just what's happening on the board. The clock is there also. If you look at the scorecard, currently 0-0. But I have to tell you that there are three boards where White has an advantage. Firuja has an advantage, Arvind Chidambaram has an advantage, and Kostinuk has an advantage. So three boards where the Triveni Continental Kings are trying to get full points.

I think Triveni is a favorite in the live position, and that will be exactly the result the Kings need to assert their royalty one more time, to take down the team that has been dominating the Global Chess League Season Four so far. Magnus puts the rook on the seventh rank, defends it, and at this moment Alireza Firouzja ready to strike with that b5 minority attack. Magnus Carlsen hits the panic button, hits the chaos button. He's sacrificing a pawn. But he hits the panic button.

But is it is it a hasty decision by Magnus? Because here White can simply chop the pawn on f4, and he's going to be a pawn up. Maybe Magnus wants to go bishop to f6, but after rook fd1, Firouzja is a pawn up, Tanya.

It's a healthy pawn up, and I want to point out you can't take that pawn with the other one in front of your king. There is a weakness. On H four, we don't have to show it. Just highlight that that if you take the pawn towards the center, capture towards the center, what we've been taught, you can draw the arrows. The bishop will land on H four. So Magnus is forcing Alireza to capture with his center pawn, trying to look for activity with his bishop, but it's not enough. Firouzja needs to rush, grab that pawn. You anyway cannot allow it to live on the board.

Take and then think. It takes a warrior to beat one. Tanya and Firouzja Alireza is definitely a warrior trying to inflict a defeat on Magnus Carlsen. I think he's going to recapture back on f4 with the e-pawn.

It takes a butcher to beat the GOAT, and I'm going to say that you have to start playing like one on the clock and the board right now. Pawn takes pawn. What is surprising to me and concerning for me is that why is Alireza taking so long for this decision?

Well, I think he just wants to make sure that, uh, he's evaluating all of his options here. He does have a healthy time advantage, and you just don't want to rush with your decision here, especially when you know that you have an advantage. I like this This strategy by Firuja.

Harshit, you have to play on the clock as well. What he's thinking is, does he take the C6 pawn? He's not just sitting there idolizing his position, being happy. I'm so comfortable. I'm really enjoying this. That's not what's happening. Alireza is calculating. He's calculating. Does he grab the pawn on C6 or does he go for the pawn on F4? And what does Magnus have in mind?

Because G takes F4 is also a pretty tempting move.

And there we see Piyush Dubey. He's there enjoying the view, enjoying our commentary. A big hello to everyone in the audience watching. A packed sold-out house today for the Triveni Continental Kings taking on the Alpine Pipers. The battle royale of the Global Chess League.

The battle royale is here, and Firouzja Alireza is here. Magnus Carlsen is here. Which pawn will Firouzja recapture back on f4 with?

There's only one that makes sense to me. It has to be the central pawn. You don't want to give up your side pawn. By taking it any other way, Alireza Firouzja cannot allow the clock to level out. He goes for another pawn right now. He grabs on c6 instead. Does Magnus have the time to give in a check, to throw in a check, or will he simply capture? He captures. Is this the moment that Firouzja now goes up a pawn in this position? For Trivani Continental Kings to have an extra pawn on the icon board will be huge, but he doesn't want it. He doesn't want it. He's putting pressure on c6. He still has an advantage. But Harshit, at some point you have to start cashing in.

Yeah, small hesitation shown by Firuja there. By the way, just to update everyone, Vidit Gujarati, who has been the star of APL Pipers, is doing the job again for them. He has a fantastic position against Arvind Chidambaram. Very exciting board there. I'm actually going to take you guys there just to see if we see some sort of a result here. Both players having a minute each.

And there we saw Vansh and Awadh in the crowd as well. I think everyone's just Locked in for this battle right now. This one reaching the big moment. With it, Gujarati's clock has gone red. He is under a minute, and that has been a big defining factor. We have a draw on the Zhu Jin'er versus Divya Deshmukh board. That was balanced from the start. It's what we expected. Didn't miss any of the action. Do not be worried. We see a queen trade here, and the question is, what are white pieces doing on the kingside?

Because right now, black simply can get his rook into the queenside. And I feel like the white pieces need to regroup themselves. g6 was not what I was expecting by Vidit though.

And why do that when you've got 30 seconds on the clock? Why change the nature? What Vidit wants is to free up his rook, which was defending a pawn. He wants that rook to be active. And whose rook is getting active is Arvind Chidambaram. He's coming for that 7th rank right now. Vidit can win a pawn. g4 is hanging, but Arvind Chidambaram is ready for his counterplay on the other side. b5, let's highlight that pawn as well. The bishop on f1 targeting it. I think this is a very difficult endgame to hold for Vidit.

It's not going to be easy. He's down to his last 15 seconds. Pawn to g6, in my opinion, was a mistake by him. He has 6 seconds on his clock. Look at the— look at the clock, Tanya.

And he's willing himself to make a move. Did you see that? It was Vidit saying, I have to move, I will get flagged. And he makes a move that passively does defend the 7th rank, but at least for now keeps things under control. Vidit Gujarati down to 4 seconds.

Oh boy, my legs has started to shake, Tanya. This game is getting really tense. Vidit did make a nice move here, stopping the white rook from entering, but he needs to move.

He needs to move. And can we have a double board view at this moment? We will keep Vidit on our board right there, but let's also have the Humpy board, which is just about to get decided. Humpy is down a queen, but is she winning?

It's not so clear.

And that is the board that we have right now, and Alexandra Costinuiu She's facing the a2 pawn, but it's Humpy who's winning. The king's about to march up, Harshit. The king will support the a pawn. The rook will start pushing the pawn, and step by step, Humpy down a queen, but will win the game.

Oh man! I don't know if they saw it, but the rook was hanging here. What a game this is, Queen!

And now Costin Duk is winning because the h pawn has gone up the board.

No, it's it's unclear. They're making a lot of mistakes. Few seconds on the clock. They have no time to think here.

This game might just end in a draw here, and it's going to be about a fortress right now as we get Vidit on our camera as well. Our double board view, left side, Humpy fighting for survival, a potential fortress. She'll be down a queen, but enough pawns to keep things together. Meanwhile, on the other side, we've got Vidit Gujarati still struggling on the clock.

By the way, draw has been agreed between Kostya Nukin and Humpy there.

Let's quickly have Alireza Firouzja versus Magnus Carlsen. As Wei Yi is crushing Anish Giri right now.

Oh my God, it's so many things happening at the same time, Tanya. Not so easy to keep an eye at all the boards right now. The score is currently 1-1, but Aravind is completely winning against— we've had 2 draws on the Women's Superstar boards.

Alireza Firouzja, after a lot of up and down, left side of our screen, a rook pawn ending. I will not be surprised. And with it, Gujarati Did he just get flagged? Yeah, he just lost.

He just lost his game.

He lost. He didn't have enough time to make those final moves. A lot of pressure on the board as well as Arvind Chidambaram for the Triveni Continental Kings, a player who's been struggling in the tournament so far, shows up for his team when they needed him the most.

And it's very important that Alireza Firouzja also manages to put some pressure on Magnus Carlsen as we We have 3 more games remaining. Currently, the score is 5-2 for the Triveni Continental Kings.

And 5-2 with a 3-pointer win coming from Arvind Chidambaram. 3 games remaining. This match could go either way. Let's go to Anish Giri's board. Wei Yi with 3 seconds on the clock and absolute chaos. He's got 1 extra pawn, but this position is technically drawn. But who cares about technical stuff when practically you're about to get flagged?

Absolutely. He just needs to make sure he doesn't lose on the clock as white here because black would get four points.

And I've seen the clock be Wei Yi's biggest enemy so many times. Can he keep it under control as Anish moves away? And huge result, Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja. That rook pawn endgame was always going to end in a draw. Has ended peacefully. The score goes up to six to three.

It comes down to this match. Well, APL pipers need to find a board where they can score a win. They cannot keep drawing the games that will allow the Triveni Continental Kings to win the match. Two matches remaining.

Can we have a double board view as quickly as possible? As it looks like Volodar Morzin is in big trouble and is about to lose. The Triveni Continental Kings, if they win on this board, that's just over.

And he's about to checkmate Volodar Morzin there.

On the right side of the screen, look at Black's king. Look at White's queen and rook. The knight joins. Three is the magical number. This is about to be all over. It's a miracle to survive. The king steps up. The knight will capture all the pawns on the board, and Volodar Murzin is about to lose. He's going down.

He's going down. And Badi Pranav is going to make sure that the Triveni Continental Kings make the upset and defeat the Alpine APL Pipers.

For Anish Giri, can he turn things around on the clock? On the board, left side of our screen, he has an extra pawn.

Made a move with one second on the board there, Wei.

And there we see Wei playing with four seconds on the clock. Pranav winning his game. Should we go full screen and see if Anish can try and flag Wei? By the way, that is their only hope.

We do get a result. Badi Pranav does win his game against Volodar Morzin and secures the Triveni Continental Kings the full points.

And the updated score is six three. So it does. We will update those. It's nine to three right now. Nine to three right now with that three pointer win.

And and Anish just blundered. He just completely blundered, allowing White to get those two connected pawns.

Notice those pawns, and that's two extra pawns. And Wei Yi will get another win, but he misses it. It'll just be check, check, check. And Anish, look at that.

He knows.

He's about to survive this endgame. There is no progress. He bobs his head. He gives a head nod. He knows this is technically a draw. Notice the white rook. It's stuck in the corner. You can't build a bridge. Your king will be checked till eternity. The moment it goes far away from the white pawns, the pawns come under attack.

It's fascinating how you can be up 2 pawns and still not have a winning position.

83 seconds. Just don't get flagged.

Ooh, he played a move with 1 second.

And now you keep checking. The moment the white king connects itself to the pawns, you keep checking, checking, checking.

Drive it away. Well, it's important that Wei again plays a move with one second on the clock. He's playing with us, and rook to f7.

Oh, that is beautiful by Anish Giri! And right there, what an artistic way to finish. Sacrifices a rook for a stalemate, ends in a draw. But the team that is all smiles is the Trevini Continental Kings as they take down the mighty, mighty Alpine Pipers.

What a performance! What a performance! And look at the team manager; he's pumped by this victory. He's like, you know, this was a big one. He knows it.

It was two wins and four draws that wrapped up the match, and what a performance by Arvind Chidambaram and Pranav getting the job done on their boards right there for Magnus Carlsen. He's not going to be a happy man. He did play against Alireza Firouzja, and that was quite a close. A closely contested battle, never out of control. But even in that one, it was the Kings, it was Firouzja putting pressure on the world number 1.

Definitely, it felt as if Triveni Continental Kings was in control throughout the match. Let's go to the orbiter for the results of this match. Hello everyone, it's the time for us to announce the results of the previous round between Triveni Continental Kings and Alpine APL Pipers. Triveni Continental Kings scored 10 points against Alpine APL 5. 5%. Won this round. Congratulations. I request the team captains please come to the dais for signing the score sheet. Thank you. And it was actually the fires American Gambits.

Triveni Continental Kings get it done. There's so much that's been happening in our studio right now, but the Kings with what a result against the Alpine Pipers, 10 to 4, with 2 wins with the white pieces, 4 draws. They with a clutch performance, and we with Sagar Shah. Sagar, you are a happy man. Yes, the dance.

We all have to dance.

What was the dance?

Guys, we have— look, the Triger is here! And I must say that today the Triveni Continental Kings just rose up to the occasion because— oh, okay. So the thing is, they already knew that we were going to dance, so they got extra motivation. And that's how the Triveni Continental Kings won.

I can see him, he's right there. He's right there, and there we have.

अरे भाई ये क्या है?

Like you said, already celebrating. Hey wait! Last time I checked, that was the Macarena.

Hey Macarena, Macarena, hey Macarena! You did that without us. Wow!

You went and danced without us. You left us, but that looks like a lot of fun that you had. Can you show us the move one more time live from our studio?

No. So the thing. Is that we all have to do it?

I don't know why. All का कभी बात नहीं हुआ था। All का कभी बात नहीं हुआ था, but I'll be cheering. I'm the cheerleader here while you guys decide.

Always the spoilsport, Tanay.

Come on! We can do the victory dance like this. Yes, but we'll do it later.

Okay, some yeah, we will do it later because this moment belongs to Triveni Continental Kings and it's a big one. This is a team that's been struggling. They were winless, not a single match. They got their first against the PBG Alaskan Knights, 11-6. And today, playing the one team that looked unstoppable with Magnus Carlsen at the top, the second win for Triveni Continental Kings, putting them right in the race.

Yeah, and you can see Magnus being, uh, kind there to the fans. His team didn't do well. They were unable to win a single game. Vidit today was the only one who was able to do that. wasn't able to convert a good position, uh, and well, 10-4 is a very clinical performance by Triveni team.

It's not just the 10-4, but it's the team they did it against.

Yeah, you would never expect the Alpine APL Pipers to only score 4 match game points in a match, and the Triveni Continental Kings could restrict them to do that. And this was a simply fascinating performance by the Triveni Continental You know where they had to hold?

They did that. The moment they got opportunities, they converted it. Fantastic conversions on 2 boards right there. Arvind Chidambaram, who's been a weak spot, vulnerable for the team so far, taking down a key player of the Pipers, beats Vidit Gujarati. And then the prodigy board clinching the match for the Triveni Continental Kings. Pranav with a huge win, his GCL debut, a huge win against the former World Rapid Champion. 4 draws, not a single loss. And the Triveni Continental Kings getting back into form. Sagar, that has to be concerning for the other teams.

Yes, I think definitely that just shows how amazing this league is, uh, and the fact that the team that was at the bottom of the table beat the team at the top of the table so smoothly means that Triveni Continental Kings are back, guys. I am actually scared of this team.

Not just you, the rest of the five teams are also scared.

Absolutely, they were on the bottom of the leaderboard before the start of the round number four. Now they have six points, Tanya. They have six points and a very good shot at qualifying into the finals. And guess what?

Alpine Pipers were at nine point, a match in hand, and we spoke about all of that. I love Alireza is what Sagar Shah is saying.

They they're distributing this outside. They were giving this to everyone. And I think the Triveni team has come prepared, not just on the board but off the board.

And here you can see them distributing, taking pictures.

Oh, we've gone to the Alpine Vipers and Divya says, uh, too soon to joke, guys. She's not gonna be holding that poster anytime soon. But that victory is exactly what the Kings needed to make a real campaign at Global Chess League Season 4 again. They've been In all the finals every single season. And I think the most shocking storyline was how much they suffered in the first few matches.

Yeah, and I think they, they managed to get their act together. Maybe we should talk to some of the team members, but perhaps it's a bit too soon, you know. We have to let them win a few more games and then we can know the storyline of how they turned it around.

Yeah, and let's see how that's turned around our leaderboard going into our final match of the day, Harsha.

It's not about how you fall, it's about how you get back up. And the Triveni Continental Kings are fighting their way back towards the qualification spots. Currently on the 4th rank, they have this amazing advantage of GP points. They have 44 GP points, and you can see that they're very close to the Alpine APL Pipers with 47 game points. One good round by the Triveni Continental Kings and they might be on the top of the leaderboard.

The game points have always been on the King side. It was always about that conversion. And the thing is, when you take down a leading team like that, when you beat the Pipers, not losing on a single board, it's exactly the confidence you need to say, you know what, we might have started slow, but we're looking at that sprint to that top 2 place. Because the 4th season of GCL, we want our 4th final.

And we want, uh, the Fires American Gambits to get that confidence up. Because they have been losing three matches in a row, Sagar bhai. This is crazy. We thought that the Fires American Gambits were one of the favorites in the entire Global Chess League. Right now, they are on the fifth spot.

Right, and the storyline couldn't have been written better because right now the next matchup is between the last two teams: Fires American Gambits and PBG Alaskan Knights. तो मजा आने वाला है दोस्तों. Also. Look at this scorecard. Literally any team has chance to finish at the top 2, which makes sense, I think, which makes it so exciting. I'm very thrilled. I'm pumped up, guys. What do you feel?

I am just super hyped, Sagar. You know, at the halfway mark, we are going to have potentially 4, 5 teams at 9 match points. I don't think that's happened in the history of GCL. Yes, and that just shows how stacked the roster is. You know, we've been saying it, expect the unexpected here, and that's what's been happening. I mean, starting from our first match to this one, filled with highlights as we live some of the biggest moments, right?

And look at Magnus entering in there, and there was no Alireza Firouzja at the top there while entering, but he was there to take him on. And you can see smiles were there at the start. It felt like like the Alpine APL Pipers were a small favorite as the handshakes happened, and when the games began, it was not so clear who would win it on any of the boards.

It could have been a totally different story. Anish Giri smiling in the beginning, smiled at the end after setting up a beautiful stalemate in that line. Firouzja versus Magnus. Firouzja put pressure from the very start of the game. You know, Magnus was Always on the back foot there, but kept it under control till the very end. The fans were happy seeing these iconic clashes. I think this is where the scoreline could have been totally different. Humpy, up and down game, a roller coaster. Could have been anyone's battle. Ten to four feels like a domination by the Triveni Continental Kings, but it does not tell the full story. Right.

And I mean, there were chances. I believe Vidit was better, right, for part of the game.

He did. have very good chances to, to build on his performance and win his game against, against Arvind Chidambaram, but he faltered. And Arvind Chidambaram scored one of the most important victories in the entire campaign of Trivandrum Continental Kings here. And a draw offered there by Magnus Carlsen against Firouzja.

Well, for that flagging, Magnus will have to wait for their second encounter to try and do that. And this This was the final moment. You take that rook. It's a stalemate. Anish Giri, you could see it with the head nod when he realized he had survived the worst. What a match performance that was! I think few would have predicted that the Pipers would go down and go down in this fashion at the start of it.

I think full credit to Alireza Firouzja for being able to hold Magnus Carlsen. I think amazing performance by the team.

And it's not going to be easy for this next segment that we have because such a fantastic performance by each one of them. But Arohi. Tell us, who is the player of the match?

Well, everybody thought that the Kings were down and probably out. Well, they were just planning some tactical brilliances that they showed today, and here they are back in the race, back up on the leaderboard than the last, uh, place that they were at. Well, give it up for the Triveni Continental Kings! Firstly, a huge congratulations, Luke. Let's start with you because you did poke the bear at the toss, but you've delivered.

Well, they were poking the bear as well, so it was, it was time to, to fire back.

All right, the team played Exceptionally well. No losses. I mean, I think that's the biggest takeaway of the game.

Well, I mean, I told you about the match yesterday.

It was probably the most important match for us.

And also today it was like a final. And well, we have good feelings.

We're going to play the second half. All right. Looking forward to the Continental Kings do what they do best. Pranav, I do want to have a chat with you. Taking down Volodar Morzin. Wow. Must feel good.

Yes, I'm more happy that the team won.

So otherwise, you know, you started not on the footing that you would have liked to, but the team jumped back and now you have the second half of the tournament. What is the aim that you're looking at?

Try to play good chess. Yeah, probably win, win, win all the games.

I was so expecting you to say get back into the finals and finally win the crown, Yes, I mean if we win all the games, we'll go to the finals. So all right then, fair enough. Now let's move on to the player of the match, and to give away that award, may I please call upon Mr. Gaurav Rakshit, the league commissioner. And the award goes to Arvind Chidavaram. Arvind, played against Vidit, the kind of opponent that he is and the kind of run that he's had so far in the tournament, was that playing on your mind before you went in for this game? Um, not really.

Because we are losing like a lot of games. So, so, so that was the only thing that was running in my mind. Like, so we wanted to like score a win, you know, like, and we— I'm happy that we managed to do it today.

So, so yes, I agree, you all were losing a lot of games, but the last game you all won, I mean, that must have been such a huge boost. What was going on in your mind before coming into this game?

Actually, like 19c3. I mean, because Ali suggested this 19c3, like, so I wasn't sure whether should I go for this or just play solid with some e4 or d4. And I mean, it was the only thing that was running in my mind.

So, you know, sometimes you should just listen to other people and play the move and see how it goes. But Ali, did work out well for him?

Yeah. Yes. Yes, I decided to choose on the other knight, but maybe I should have chosen the other, kept the plan. Yeah.

You know, probably for the next game you can give him some tips and he can follow them. All right, congratulations on this win. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. We will be back shortly after a break.

जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है, दस हजार का माइलस्टोन पार हो जाता है। सोचो, जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा, इंडिया कितने और माइलस्टोन पार करेगा? इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो, power to every Indian.

अरे बेटा क्या कर रही हो?

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

मानिकचंद ऑक्सीरिच प्राउडली इंडियन। कुछ लोग इतनी तेजी से बढ़ते हैं कि पता ही नहीं चलता। जैसे कि एपीएल बोलो स्टील कुछ ऐसे ही स्टील की ताकत को एपीएलपोलो बनाता है, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। एपीएलपोलो, देश की बढ़ती ताकत। अचीव गेस्ट्स अब अराइव। सैल्यूट। सैल्यूट करो, सैल्यूट करो। सलूट हटाओ, ये पीलाओ। लॉन्ग नॉनस्टिकी फुल ऑफ़ वेजीज़। फॉर्मेलिटी हटाओ, ये पी खाओ। आपके क्रेडिट कार्ड की ड्यूडेट मिस हो चुकी है, जिसकी वजह से पेनल्टी चार्जेस की सीटी बजने वाली है और क्रेडिट स्कोर के गिरने की वजह से आपके होश होश होश 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 ज़्यादा क्वालिटी चेक्स, विटामिन ए और विटामिन डी से युक्त और खाना भी बने स्वादिष्ट। खाने में समझौता नहीं, अच्छा खाना शुरुआत से ही। इंडिपेंडेंस। जब एक इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आता है। हाईएस्ट सेंचुरीज़ का रिकॉर्ड टूट जाता है, जब हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर आएगा। सोचो इंडिया और कितने रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा?

इसलिए योनो देता है हर इंडियन के हाथ में पावर। The all new योनो पावर टू एवरी इंडियन। Welcome back everyone to the final game of the day, and joining me is none other than Woman Grandmaster Katie. Hello Katie!

Hello, hello! Today now we're going to cover the final match of a day. I don't want this day to, to end. I want to have more and more and more chess love And I love how this tournament is shaping up.

Each of the 6 teams are in with a chance to finish at the top.

Yes.

And right now we have the bottom 2 teams facing off against each other. That is the PBG Alaskan Knights and the Fires American Gambits. Did you ever imagine that the Fires American Gambits would be at bottom spot, Ketty, after 2 out of 2 starts? No, not really.

And the same goes with PBG Alaskan Knights. They had these matches which were incredible and they scored so nicely. And in fact, Sagar, now we are going to the second round. They will swipe the colors. No more, uh, coin toss for us. So second round in action.

And so here is the upcoming match between the PBG Alaskan Knights on the left And the fires American gambits. We see that Vishy and Sindarov will play each other. Then Arjun and Dubov. We have Nihal. Sorry, Arjun and Nihal. Then Dubov will take on Yaskaner Dogmas. There is Abhimanyu versus Mark Andrea Morizzi. And then the women board. We have Katrina Lagnow who takes on Bibi Sara, and Nino will play Sara Khadem. I think it's a very nice matchup. Yeah, let's bring up the pairings here which I just mentioned. And Ketty, I want you to tell me, which game do you think will be the critical one here according to you?

Uh, I will choose the match of the best friends, I would say. Arjun Aregaisi and Nihal Sarin are friends since they are kids, uh, and they have been played side to side so many events. They know each other so well, and I think they have played a couple of hundred games against each other, uh, and I think this will be very interesting and crucial. And of course, the first board, icon board, Vishy Anand blundered the piece today on move 23. And then in one move, yeah, he could not do anything. He was smiling and he had to just resign.

I think, Ketty, he would be looking to play a good game today to sort of say to himself that yes, this is not Not how I want to end my day today. I want to beat the World Championship challenger. I want to beat Javokhir Sindarov. That's what is the intention with which Vishy will come. But of course, Javokhir is a very tough nut to crack.

He is very tough. And one of these teams will score most likely the victory, and they can say that we had fine day today. Maybe not the best day, but a fine day.

Yeah. And Ketty, I feel that the team which will lose this match will be at the bottom of the table, and it would be very tough for them to make a comeback. So I think a very critical game, a very crucial game, especially for the Fires American Gambits. They have lost 3 matches in a row, while for the PBG Alaskan Knights, you know what, they could have won very closely in the morning round. Did you see that? Like the first round, Yes, Abhimanyu was about to win against Leon and he lost on, you know, all that mess happened on the board. So in that sense, PBG Alaskan Knights could have won today.

Then yeah, they could have won, and I am sure they are waiting for another chance. When you lose the game, you want to play your next game right after because this is how the chess players are, right? Uh, so now let's Let's— maybe we can take a look at this, uh, highlight.

Yeah, yeah. And this is the fan zone we have here at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, guys. It's a beautiful space with these tables and chairs here. Anyone can come in, play. All you need is one match ticket and you can make yourself tattoos, you can play tournaments, you can have simuls. Beautiful. Beautiful setup. I must—I'm in love with this fan zone, Ketti. I'm not going out at all.

It kind of reminds me this kind of exposition expo areas. You know, we have this beautiful place, kind of villa or like village, and then chess village, let's say. And from one point to another point, you can. Take buggy to travel. You know, there's activity everywhere, and you can like spend whole day here, right? Being busy.

So so guys, the thing is, if you get a ticket to one of the match, you can hang in, hang around in the fan zone for the entire day, and that's actually a huge perk because you get to meet people who love chess. You can meet the commentators. You can get yourself. You know, sometimes the players also come. in here so you can meet them. So it's a beautiful zone and it's quite a big one, you know, Ketty?

Yes, we have a huge space. Hundreds of people come in every single day. But I have to say, the experience you're gonna have in the playing venue, you will have never such experience at the chess tournament. Well, if you can, uh, please make sure that you join us, uh, here in Bengaluru. If not, we we also have, uh, UP Global Chess League with so much information. And in fact, you can be part of the GCL. You can recruit your own team. You can predict the moves as well. Uh, I saw your lineup of the dream team, Sagar, and you choose all the goods, all the best players. And you're like, oh, maybe they are not star players, and you choose Magnus Carlsen. As an icon, someone tell.

Well, I was I was just saying like all the players I didn't choose as like the top rated ones in their categories, but they were playing so well. But Ketti, you are right. I think guys, you should right now if you have the time download the Global Chess League app on the App Store in Android or iPhone because there you can actually guess the moves, play along, make your team. And all of this gives you points or there are coins, and then you can redeem it for the prizes in that. I haven't checked the prizes through it, but you can check it out and see what is it that you can win.

It's a lovely, lovely app. Yes, super exciting things.

So, Ketty, yes, who's going to win today? You're— don't put me on a spotlight.

Okay, I think Arohi is saving me, Sagar. Let's go to Arohi.

Who's welcoming the players now?

Now this is a reverse fixture of day one match one played between two teams. That is the PBG Alaskan Knights and the Fires American Gambits. However, we are not going to be doing the toss because they've already played one color. Right now we're here for the color exchange, and for that let me call upon the coaches of the two teams: Shreenath Narayanan for Fires American Gambits and Abhijit Kunte. For PBG, Alaska Knights. Let's have the pieces exchanged. All right, you play white now. There's no option now. It is what it is. What changes though?

I think this is a new tournament now, 5-round, and the margin between all the teams teams is very less. So I think it is going to be the exciting tournament.

Higher the risk, higher the rewards, probably this time when the reverse fixtures have started now. Yes, we hope so. All right, all the best for the game. Thank you. Srinath, what changes? I know the first game didn't go your way. Now the players have to come back with a fresh mind because this you gotta win.

Um, what changes is the certainty.

So I think that certainly helps, and sometimes it helps And sometimes it— sometimes it— you know, sometimes the uncertainty helps, sometimes the certainty helps. But with the certainty, we certainly feel better in terms of the color. It is—

in a way, it is a bit of a must-win situation. But also, in a way, the tables are so close to each other. And I remember the last season when until the very last day, at least 5 teams were in contention of making the final. So you will always have opportunity. We are not looking at the tables. or the points so much. I think what's important is how we feel amongst our players and how we can get better.

You know, it wasn't a great day for Javokhir and Markandeya in the first game that you all played. However, the last time you all faced the same opponents, they did exceptionally well. They secured those wins for you. So they're going to be crucial in this game?

Uh, yeah, I mean, it's difficult to say which game will exactly be crucial because sometimes a player is winning every game, they lose the one particular game, and sometimes it goes the other way around. But, uh, yeah, every board is going to be crucial, every point is going to be crucial, and I think this is going to be an exciting match.

Both the teams have—

are coming with a bit of downward momentum, and we both will try our best to win.

All right, all the best to the team.

Thank you.

That is it from the pieces exchange. We have the PBG Alaskan Knights playing white while the Fires American Gambits will be playing black.

And white pieces here for the PBG Alaskan Knights, which means that they will have a small edge because white is something that gives you an edge in a game of chess. But at the Global Chess League, Ketty, having black pieces has its own set of advantages because every win gets you 4 points as compared to 3 points for white.

And this is the only chess event you can have that. Wide pieces to have more score if you, if you win the game. I cannot— I can't wait to see the start of the— this match because they have already played. They have a little bit of history already in this season, uh, and it's always personal, you know. Yes. If you, if you lost the match, you want to rematch your opponent and win. So super excited about about this.

So I thought that already the players were entering and you kind of got saved from my question as to who is your favorite team to win here, but I think now we have chance again. So yes, PPG Alaskan Knights or the Fire American Gambits, who are you supporting?

Do we have a Roy still ready to save me?

Come on, you know what, um, I know that you are very good friends with Nino.

Yes.

So maybe PPG Alaskan—

And Sarah.

And Sarah as well.

Oh, so that's why.

But would you choose PPG Alaskan Nights here? Because last time the winners were Fire's American Gambits and they did it very well. They won their 2 games on Top and Prodigy board. That's Sindarov beating Anand and Marc-Andrea Morizzi beating Abhimanyu Mishra, and then 4 draws. So it was a very clinical performance.

Yes.

By them.

Yes, I think so.

Do you think there will be a revenge, or do you think the result will continue?

Uh, no, I think we might have even more decisive results, you know, uh, and instead of 4 draws, we might even have, uh, more scores. And here we have the arrival of the PBG Alaska Knights.

And look at Yaskhan Air Dogmas.

Wait!

No, he's like, guys, cut out everything. I just need to sit at the board and win my game. Because Yazgan Erdogmus, he is such an amazing talent, guys. But after coming here, he has had 3 losses, and that is not common for him. Look at Arjun Erigaisi coming in. He is a monster. He's playing well here. Vishy Anand has not particularly been in the best of shape. And I think the PBG Alaskan Knights' real strength lies on the women boards.

Horses are walking. Yes, right behind the first boards. You know, uh, sometimes we predict something, some result, and the game starts and we have totally different results. You never know what's gonna happen, right, in the chess game. It can go any way. It can be luck that can play a huge role in the game. I think Mishra, Abhimanyu Mishra, was a little bit unlucky in his first game today, right? Not to capture properly and not to queen properly. That's a bit unlucky.

So in a way, guys, both the teams that are entering in have had a tough day today. It's the second match for them. They have lost their initial match today. So who is going to recover better? Who's going to recover faster? I think PBG Alaskan Knights at least went back with that thing that they were very close to winning and lost. Meanwhile, the Fires American Gambits had a very bad loss against the Czech Mumba Masters. And here you can see the team. Let's look at their body language because it says a lot. There are no real smiles, right? I would say they are more smiling than you think.

So Alaskan Knights, look at Javohir.

Okay, Javohir is always smiling.

I think Sara is also smiling. You know one of the things smiling there? Okay, okay.

Then maybe I was just not observing closely. Srinath looks really calm, and I think that's the role of the captain and the coach.

They even waving this royal wave. Oh yeah!

And by the way, do you know, Ketti, that the Fires American Gambits have a special kind of troupe which cheers for them and makes these slogans and all?

Yes, and they have these songs for each player.

Yes, yes.

They, they say Sindarov and they have some tags.

Exactly.

That's actually so powerful, you know. This is their home and they have, they have a lot of fans here, right? They are using this power.

I must say, the Firs American Gambits have done a lot to kind of make their team feel good. You also know that Gerard Piqué, who is one of the best footballers in the world, Is now an investor, a strategic investor in the fires American Gambits.

This might be his best ever chess move he ever made.

We like it. Yeah. And so today's big clash is definitely between Vishy Anand and Javokir Sindarov. And I'm actually curious because you know the first time they played, I kind of framed that match as the mentor of Gukesh. Taking on the World Championship challenger, right? Because you know Vishy is kind of the mentor of Gukesh, and now Gukesh and Sindarov are going to play the World Championship match. But before facing Gukesh, he'll have to face the mentor.

Yes, and of course Gukesh has is following these games here. He wants to know what is going on. Look at Sindarov, and this is the power team.

Oh, I love how they have very good spirits. I agree. I love how Nihal is always talking to his teammates and oh, that's so cool. So powerful. And and Jaukir is I think essentially telling Nihal buddy, you need to fire today. You are playing Arjun Erigaisi. I know that you didn't have a great game last time. You were almost. I think it was a topsy-turvy game that ended in a draw. Yeah.

You know what? I think. Either he's giving this pep talk, which of course it's very good. Maybe he's given even the lines.

Oh, lines? You think so? Yes. Javokir play against this and this and this. Javokir is telling Nihal about his World Championship prep. I'm not sure about that.

Maybe he just focus on this match.

But one thing is for sure, guys, I am super impressed by Javokir Sindharu's attitude after winning the the candidates. He hasn't looked under stress at all. He is playing so well. And before we go to the match, there is a small interview that we have with Arohi. So let's go and check that out.

So I was casually telloing in the fan zone and guess who I met? GM Harshad Raja! What are you doing here, man?

I was just taking a look at the very intense game that's happening here between Ganges and PB Alaskan Knights. And while that's happening I got a challenge to play a bullet game.

What's up, man? What's your rating? Tell me that.

My rating is 2100, actually. Are you ready for that?

Man, I was expecting to be an easier game, so I think now I need to be careful that I don't look very smart on the camera. All right, all right.

Let me put myself in your shoes. I'm going to be commentating of sorts on this game. Okay, let's see how this goes. Let's go. Knight's out, the pawn's pushed. Wow, this is too fast for me to do anything, guys. All right, the castling comes in. Pawns are being developed too fast. The knights are out, they are full power in attack mode. Knight's gone, white knight's gone, black knight's gone. Queen's out for black. That's taken. Bishop taken by the king. Pawn is out. The rook controls the d-file. All right, both rooks are in action for black. The queen's out for black. The bishop— the knight's out for black. A lot of things are out. Wow, going aggressive, white. Two bishops, one knight, one pawn out for black as well as white. Okay then, take, take, take. We go back. It's a check. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the ruling? Yeah, and listen, listen, no technicalities. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Check, check, check. The pawns being pushed ahead. Okay, all right. That's it. Now Harshit will explain what happened.

Man, a lot more happened than I was hoping for, but he played very well, and somehow I managed to be a bit more faster and trickier. So I won the game, but he played really well.

How's your experience playing with the Grandmaster Harshit Raja? He's been commentating, but he's also been coming around playing with the players. Tell us.

Yeah, I was actually not expecting. expecting to play against him. Yeah, it was very good. Yeah, I blundered and I made an illegal move. Not happy how I played, but still I was very happy to play against you. Thank you.

One suggestion you would want to give him?

I mean, I'm asking him actually. Can you give one suggestion?

Uh, I think, uh, I think in general you have good intuition. Uh, you played really well. It's in bullet, it's just random, but, uh, I think, I think you're on the right track. So, just keep playing chess and looking at what these guys are doing, and you'll be, you'll be set.

Well, thank you so much, guys. This was amazing. Well, even you can get tips from the grandmasters present here, from our commentary team, from the players who are playing in the league. All you have to do is come here at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. Where is it happening?

Bengaluru.

Yeah, very nice game by Harshit. You know, to play a bullet game against a 2100-rated player is always very risky, but Harshit, well, he's still quite strong. He did amazing, and I loved Arohi's commentary. Arohi has a very bright future for commentary, but right now we will watch her welcoming the players for this final match of the Hello and welcome to the first reverse fixture of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4.

Basically, all the teams have played each other once. Now it is time for them to play each other for the second time, but this time with a different color of the pieces. And to start off that journey, we have the first 2 teams. Please give it up for the Fires American Gambits and PBG Alaska 9. Now to introduce the team, let's start from the PBG Alaskan Knights who will be playing white. Five-time world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand. World rapid number three Arjun Erigaise. Youngest 2700 Yagiz Khan Erdogmus. Former women rapid and blitz champion Katarina Lagnow, Georgian superstar Nino Batsiyashvili, and the youngest grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra with their coach Abhijit Kunde. And now for the team that's gonna be playing black. The fire's American gambits. World Championship challenger Javokir Sindarov. Chesscom Bullet World Champion Nihal Sarin. Former World Rapid Champion Daniel Dubov. Three-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. Along with their coach, Srinath Narayanan. Give it up for the 2 teams playing the first reverse fixture. It's time now for the handshakes. All the best to the 2 teams. And as the players take their place on the boards, I would like to call upon for the first move our tournament director, Mr. Bharat Singh.

Thank you.

Chief Arbiter Gerd Bayer and our special guest for today, Shri U.T. Khader, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Karnataka.

And we have the first move being made. Shri U.T. Khader, Minister of Health and Family Welfare in Karnataka, playing Pawn to E4 here against Javokir Sindarov there. I mean, what a clash we have on the top board! I'm very excited for this one, Katie.

I am also very excited, and I think E4 was a nice guess. I think I think Vishy will play that.

Will play. I feel so. By the way, let's head over to this clash between Katarina Lagnow and Bibisara Asaubayeva on board number four. We have The Sicilian here. e4, c5, Knight f3, e6, and Open Sicilian played here. Ketti, this will be quite a fighting game, I feel.

I agree with that. Sicilian can never really go wrong, and at GCL, Sicilian is kind of hyping, you know. You don't see many tournaments where players are choosing Sicilian because it has quite sharp And sometimes players are just avoiding it.

I think here players are coming in this fighting mood because you just have to play one game a day, and so they are like, let me give my best. So we are seeing more Sicilians than e4, e5 even.

Oh, look at this! This is the move we want to see here in the Sicilian, most exciting move for us.

Let's go! Katrina says, I'm going g4, g5, later maybe h4, h5. So The PBG Alaskan Knights attacking here on this board. Let's go to Nino Batsyashvili versus Sara Kadem, and a much more sedate opening here, Ketty. They are playing the Queen's Gambit Declined with Nino going for the Queen c2 line. This is something unexpected.

You don't really see in this opening Queen c2 that early, right? So I think Nino has prepared some tricky line here, and that, that demands from Sara to dive a little bit and burn at least 1 minute from the clock.

Okay, while they are thinking, let's go to the male superstar board now. Arjun and Nihal are going to start off their game now, and we are waiting for them to kick off their encounter. This is such an exciting game because just a week later Both Arjun and Nihal will play for Team India at the Olympiad, and they will support each other, and they would want each other to win.

Exactly. And now they have to face each other as their opponents.

And here we have the life of a chess professional.

Yes, exactly.

Sometimes you are friends, sometimes you are enemies. And I love this angle where you see the English Opening being played by Arjun, and Nihal goes for the Queen's Side fianchetto. To get the bishop out on this diagonal.

Yeah, and Arjun goes also for fianchetto bishop. Those two bishops will fight for the long diagonal. Very good choice of the opening. I like it.

Yeah, hypermodern chess at its best here. While Arjun captures the center, Nihal is like, "Hey, I don't need center control. I'm going to simply fianchetto my bishop, castle, and let's see where I'll strike." And look at that move, Kett. Blocking the bishop.

Oh, I love that move. We have already seen d5 in the earliest match by Dubov. His game didn't really went well, but the opening was quite fine, right?

Let's go to Yaskarnerdogmus, the third board, and he's taking on Daniel Dubov. This seems like a more calm opening and a more sedate thing that's happening here. Katie, I don't want to miss the handshake. Yes, on the icon board. Let's go to Javokir Sindarov and Vishy Anand. They're going to start now. Let's go to the icon board.

While we are getting the icon board on the screen, we have here both of them with the back to the audience. They want to know what's going on on each board. This is so funny.

And Vishy He wants to play the move.

He's looking at the board and said, okay, let's go.

I would be shocked if Vishy does not play 1.e4. He's just been playing that move since quite some time. I think he doesn't need to change anything. Uh, e4. But I would be curious to know what Sindarov's response to 1.e4 would be, Ketty. Yeah, I would say e5. Yes, yes. Knight f3. Knight c6, and Vishy goes for the Ruy Lopez.

No more Bishop c4, one move ahead now.

You know, Ketty, whenever Vishy plays the Ruy Lopez, my mind goes back to the '90s when Vishy started playing the Ruy Lopez at the highest level. And it's been 3 decades, or maybe even 4, since he's playing this, and we are so privileged to see him still playing the Ruy Lopez against the best in the world.

So, Sagar, he's playing Ruy Lopez more years than Sindarov is actually. Yeah, Sindarov is 20 years old.

Yeah, Sindarov was born in 2006, 2005. So Vishy is clearly— I mean, he's, he's playing Ruy Lopez twice the number of years than Sindarov's age.

Wow, that's actually quite funny. So I did a little research of the age here. Vishy is 56. Yes, and the Sindarov is 20 years old. That's a huge gap, right? Right, right. Uh, and one side we have very experienced chess players and years and years and years of experience and a title, and on the other side Sindarov is also very experienced.

Not that as, as Vishy, but he is. Sindarov is like this guy who's just rising to the top of the world of chess with his fiery chess. And by the way, look at his legs there. He's He's shaking there. It's always same for Sinderov. He looks a bit nervous, but actually he's not. By the way, Ketty, what happened on the board? You— did you see? Like, for example, when a4 was played, Knight c3 to attack the pawn. Sinderov went Knight a5, and after the bishop went back, now pawn here is hanging, and also the pawn in the center is hanging. So pawn push.

Yes.

Knight went back to e2. And d5.

Wow! Oh, he's sacrificing the pawn on e5.

Yeah. In fact, if you take here, then you would lose the center pawn. But the question is, if you take here, what's happening? Oh, he takes in the center. Vishy takes the move. You what you said. He's taken e5. One takes pawn.

I would say white will recapture back on e4. Oh no, he goes for four.

Is this Vishy's prep? And we saw last game Nepo came with insane preparation against Vishy, and then Vishy played really well till a point and then collapsed. What will happen in this game remains to be seen.

Well, the bishops are on a7 and b7. For Sindarov. Look at him, he's looking at the other boards. I kind of have a feeling that he's in his prep.

Yeah, it's his prep. But you know, Ketty, if I break down this position, I love the knight on e5. It's looking at f7 along with the bishop here. Also, the center pawn is limiting a bit this bishop, and the moment Vishy makes a move, Sindarov responds back immediately. Yes, a beetroot. Just kidding.

You know what, if this is your home preparation, go ahead and show off, Sindarov. You can do definitely. Queen to d6 is on the board, and now we have c3 played by Vishy Anand. The pawn from b4 was taking a lot of space from White, so I love this move c3, right?

And Vishy must be thinking like Like what should I do against these players of this modern generation? They are so well prepared. I mean, what do I do? But I think you know Vishy when he was at his peak, he was the best prepared player in the world. So in some ways, it's Vishy who kind of started this thing that you could prepare really intensely and so on. And now he's facing that. Okay, Ketti, there's pressure here. There's pressure here. There's pressure here. Pressure here. I am not so clear on what all is hanging.

Have we checked the game six? Maybe let's take a look at that too.

You would like to go to the prodigy board? Okay, let's go to the prodigy board between Abhimanyu Mishra and Mark Andrea Morizzi. And it feels like another position which is similar to Arjun and Nihal, where white has. Space. Black's bishop will be a little bit blocked, but Black's position has potential. d6, f5, get your— oh, h4!

Oh wow, so that means that White is not going to castle on the short side. Maybe he will go for the long side and launch the attack on the kingside. g4, g5, h5. Okay, you know what we do with the pawns that are not ours?

We give away— we give them away, Katie. But right now, Mark Andrea Morizzi would be liking to repeat what he just achieved in the first encounter against PBG Alaskan Knights. He did beat Abhimanyu Mishra, and he would love to do that. But Abhi has been playing chess better and better every single day. Let's see what that happens. But if we get our 6-board view here, uh, Ketti, I just want to bring a small point forward that just goes to show That right now, the PBG Alaskan Knights are doing really well in this match. You can also look at the bars at the bottom. Yes. You can see that Archun is slightly better. Erdogmus is slightly better. Lagnu is slightly better. Batziashvili is slightly better, and maybe even Mishra is slightly better. But this is crazy. Yeah, like how white has edge in four of the six games.

I agree with that. We can see that White is dominating, and also in the tournament, in the whole, uh, event, often when the captains are winning the coin toss, they are choosing White pieces, knowing that with Black pieces you will anyway have more, a more score. So they believe that starting with White pieces in the time control when there's no increment, this is an edge.

Right. Right, let's head over to board number two and we'll try to cover or cover all the games. So Arjun and Nihal first, and here you can see something very interesting. White has a lot of space because of this pawn. The bishop is a bit blocked. The knight is excellent. White could play potentially the pawn up to e four. I love this position for Arjun Erigaisi.

I like this position as well because the bishop on b7 is the piece that is not taking any part in this game. And in some positions, this black decides to get back on c8 and then find a better plan for it. Maybe we're gonna see that. But what white is doing right now is also trying to set up the way to kick the knight off from c5 away. So if I manage to push b4, hmm, then your active piece will become passive.

I think Nihal Sarin is getting cramped here for space. He must try and find some way to gain counterplay because against Arjun it can get very difficult if you are not careful. Let's move to board number 3, which is Yazgan Erdogmus and Daniel Dubov. And something very interesting has happened. Daniel has made a mistake. mistake on the previous move. Let's just look at this position, and we see that over here it's roundabout even, Ketty. Yes, he should have taken perhaps c takes d5, but instead he went Bishop f5. And now, mark there. Yes, Yas can play pawn to d3, and he's doing very well in this position. Maybe it's—

I was thinking there were, there was some kind of tactical motives here. Is there Knight f7 or Wow, that's very interesting.

So maybe if you play Knight f7 here, Ketty, the problem is after takes, pawn push with a check, king here, and you take, there is a check that comes to your king and the pawn on c2 is hanging along with the bishop.

Yeah.

So that's the reason why here maybe you start off with a little separation, a little movement, then All your ideas are coming in.

Yes, I love this move d3 just to make sure that black has no enough counterplay.

Oh, and look at that, Yaz has played d3, and you know, the focus on his face is immense. I think Yaz wants to badly win this game. He has taken time, he's at 13 minutes 30 seconds, but I feel like It's time well spent.

Agree with that. Uh, here we have Dubov capturing the pawn on d5, and White decides to just get this bishop back on b3. Black can take this bishop, obviously, uh, but I kind of also like the knight being here in the center, right? Not— maybe, maybe Black will not take at this point this bishop.

And yeah, and the problem is, Katie, there's one nice line that I want to show now that we have the analysis board. You push your pawn The knight goes back, and usually queen a5 check gets you the knight in the center. But here you play queen a5 check, and I simply take the queen. Thank you very much. So that's not working, and that's the reason why I think in this position Yaz is doing very well. Castles. He will also castle. This is a good position.

But Takaar, let's get back to the icon board because we have something.

Incredible here. Chavokir Sindarov is saying to Vishy that, look, I might have doubled pawns, but sometimes something that looks like a weakness also has its pluses. I have the open file.

Yeah, I always want to prove that double pawns are not weaknesses. They are, they are strength. Yes, I want to just improve that and change that mindset of, of us that we have. Look at this position, for instance. You have these 2 monster bishops ready to get in the action, and now together with the rook and the queen on the kingside, that's gonna be a full house to attack Vishy's king, right?

And Ketty, the thing is, Vishy in this position took here because he felt that if Jao Kheer takes with the queen, he has a knight fork here. But Jao Kheer simply replied back with with pawn takes and told Vishy that I never had the intention to take with the queen. My intention always was to move the king, get the g-file, and attack here.

Yes, and at this point I can see that Vishy is controlling his time perfectly fine. 14 minutes for both players. Uh, ever since Vishy got flagged against Magnus Carlsen, I think he pushed himself to play a But Ketty, time is not the issue here for Vishy.

It's the position. I don't like it. I think that having such a position against Javokhir Sindarov is a recipe for disaster because he is such a free-flowing player. He's going to play f5, he's going to try and get f4, f3 coming in. Sometimes just shift the rook, even give up this pawn. How does it even matter? I'm just going to go and attack on the g-file.

You know, Sakhar, I think the idea of Queen b3 is not to attack the pawn on f7, but to play Queen e3. Okay, I block e4 pawn and the bishop on b7, and I also block f5, f4.

Nice, nice. That's a very good idea, Ketty. And I think if Vishy can set up this blockade— g3, Knight f4, rook comes here, Queen e3— maybe he has chances to get Back into this game, but for now, Javokir Sindarov is putting immense pressure on Vishy Anand.

Yes, and on the board too, we can see that the engine bar favors Arjun Erigaisi even more against Nihal Sarin. So really, that's actually yes.

Let's take a look at that game. Jubai, as we call him, he is looking in you know good shape in this tournament. Ketty, because he has beaten Pranesh, and today he beat Levon Aronian. Yes, very, very, very important game for Arjun, and in some ways he's building up a very nice position. By the way, we have fans in the venue, guys. We love that you all are here, and a big shout out from us to all of you who've turned up in Bengaluru. I think later we can show a view of this entire auditorium. There we see the PBG Alaskan Knights team. There's the dad of Yas Kaner Dogmas who's following all the action, and also Abhimanyu Mishra's dad is there. You know, it's—

What a support, right?

They are following this action and they would love for their team to win.

Yeah, wow, this is fantastic, and we wish all of you will enjoy this show.

But only one team can win. That's okay. Unless there is six draws, which is unlikely. Unlikely. This will not.

It happened only once, I think, in the history of this game. It has happened. It happened. Yeah, I remember that happened. Either second or third season. Got it.

Got it. For now, can we say that in this position, strategically, Nihal is lost? He doesn't have a good position, but he can just keep on poking around, hoping and wishing that Arjun makes an error.

Well, I would say that Nihal is worst. Not lost.

No, no, no, no. Too soon.

If we are lost, we if we're lost in this kind of positions, right? We have like almost in a I have every day this kind of positions myself.

Oh, look at look at that shot, by the way. Wow! Is that a full house? Beautiful.

On a Tuesday evening.

Oh, guys waving to us. Thank you so much for turning up here. And enjoying this commentary, a lot of action going to come your way, and we are going to be very, very excited towards the end of this game. So yeah, दिल थाम के बैठिए.

Fantastic! I love to be inside the playing venue. You know, when I'm not commentating, I want to see all these actions because where else I will see this show? Absolutely.

Right now, we're part of this entire action here. Knight to b5, Ketty. I love Arjun's position.

You know what is the idea of Knight b5? He wants to sneak this knight on a7 and get to attack the rook, and then on c6.

Yeah, terrible position. I can't even stand it here for Nihal. I think Nihal himself must be feeling quite, uh, under pressure. But is there a blunder that has happened in— no, there's no blunder that has happened. The bar moved Should we go to the Katrina Lagnow versus Bibisara game? Board number four.

This was the Sicilian game that we saw with the g four, g five and attacking. And here Bibisara decided that it's much safer to keep the king in the center rather than to castle on the kingside and be under the heavy pressure of the pawn side attack. This is actually quite a quite interesting strategy. To do, but it the king is in the middle of the rooks. You need to connect the rooks as well here in this position.

So I think Bibisara has her chances, although Katrina Lagnow with her safer king looks to be slightly better. But Kedi, I need to draw your attention to the prodigy board. Something crazy has happened here. It seems like Abhimanyu Mishra is losing his game. That too so soon. I mean, what just happened? Like we were here. Yes, Abhi is having a fine position. It's not like lost. A5, Rook g1. He he got a bit creative. Bishop g2. Marc Andrea Morizzi was like, okay, there is this pawn hanging here. Should I take it or should I not take it? And then eventually he said, let me take it. Rook h1 and Rook e8. And somehow. What has happened here is that Black is completely winning.

Wow, this is quite a strange situation, right? Yeah, Black has only one pawn extra, and you, you think that, oh, it's, it's good for White to open up the h-file. Exactly, nothing really happening on the h-file now for White.

And then, and exactly the move that I thought, Bishop g2, to kind of attack the queen But essentially, Ketty, now after Queen g4, let's take stock. This knight is beautiful, this bishop is incredible, this rook is on the open file, and this queen is active. Meanwhile, for white, there's nothing really happening that's, that's, uh, good.

Yeah, and there's also possibility to— oh no, it's not really possibility. I was thinking like about Bishop h3 to maybe repeat the position, but Not really. The queen actually can get on g6 very easily, or f3 also.

Yeah, the queen can get here. I think this is this famous case of I have the pawn and also the compensation. You know, usually one side has the pawn and the opposite side has compensation, but here it's like Marc-Andrea Morizzi is saying, I have both. Yes, everything. And guys, this would mean that the Fire's American Gambits could start off with 4 points in this game. Okay, maybe it's bit too soon, but it's already looking very bad.

And Mishra has to also take care of his clock because he has seven minutes as well against fourteen.

And Katie, I can't believe you were so right that Nihal Sarin has gotten back. I was saying that the position looks terrible, but Nihal Sarin, look at the tactical guy. He played his knight here, and Arjun moment. Out of carelessness went Rook e1, and now it's time for tactics to be unleashed. Black to play. All of you who are watching this, Nihal Sarin is a tactical monster. What did he play?

Well, it's not really easy to, to spot it.

It's very tough.

It's very tough. I would say something around Knight d5 on e-file, maybe Knight b4, like I don't really see it clearly.

You are so right, Ketty. You start off with Knight b4. Well done! Rook takes b4, and now this shocking move, Knight takes pawn. Because if you take with the pawn, your rook is hanging, and if you do not and you save it here, I can take, take, and kick this knight and pick up your knight on d4. Oh no! It's incredible calculation. So Arjun said, let me just take this knight, and which is a bad move because after Rook e1, King h2, Nihal Sarin jumps in with the queen and he's going to checkmate this king.

That is very dangerous business that here Arjun is doing. The queen gets on h5 next move.

Yeah, Queen h5. I think Arjun Erigaici has completely misassessed this position. He is in trouble. So if we get the six boards now on our screen, director, then we can tell you that this match is very interestingly poised. Why? Chavokir Sindarov is pressing against Vishy. It's not clear whether he'll win, but he's pressing with black, right? Board two, Nihal is pressing against Arjun. So two games where fires are doing really well. Fires American Gambits. Last board. Mark Andrea Morizzi is just winning. So three games where they are doing well, but the remaining three games, Katie, Yas Kaner Dogmas better against Daniel Dubo slightly. Yeah. Katrina Lagnos slightly better against Bibisara Asaubayeva. Nino Batsyashvili slightly better against Sara Khadem. So very evenly poised match.

Everything is changing in few minutes, in a second. And I kind of have a feeling that we're gonna see one more round of drastic changes here in this matchup.

So in a way, would you agree with me that the Aikun board, if we can go to that, will play a crucial role? Because if Vishy manages to hold this one with white, his team's chances of winning this match grow substantially. While if Javokhir crushes through, then today the Fires American Gambits will go home with the victory.

That is exactly how I see this match. And also, I'm sure players feel this pressure as well.

I agree, I agree. The pressure is mounting. By the way, Vishy's just said to Javokhir, hey, do you want to trade queens? Because if you trade queens, then I'll play this, and then I have stopped your pawns. But I think Javokhir is just assessing here, Ketty, whether he should move the queen away. Reroute his bishop on this diagonal.

I would, I would say that it's very important for Sindarov to keep the queen on the board because White's queen has not a perfect square.

Oh, he played a5.

He was like, you know, Vishy, take it if you want, take it if you want. I think the endgame is really good for me.

That's a bit surprising for me. I thought he would keep the queens on, uh, queens on the board.

But I think that's what Jauhar is so good at. He understands the dynamics so well that even if the middle game was looking really in his favor, he also sees that the endgame is also nice for him. Double bishops, this pawn in the center is weak. He can bring his king in because once the queens are traded, the king can get in.

Yeah, I agree with that. But okay, let's say I queen— I trade the queens and then I double the rooks on d-file and I play b3. How you are going Going to crack my position. That's that's very true.

I think, Ketti, you are right that maybe Vishy will be able to kind of set up some kind of a defense here. We'll see if that turns out to be true. For now, it does feel a bit of pressure. Okay, Vishy is thinking time-wise. Vishy is six minutes ahead. Wow! Look at this.

He has eleven minutes. Yeah. Jawaheer has Like around six minutes on the clock. That's a huge time advantage for Vishy.

And Vishy takes the queens. I think he's going to do what you are going to say. Do b three played by Vishy. He's like, okay, Javakir. Here's the board. Here is what I'm giving you. Do whatever you want. And King g seven. Javakir immediately defends this to free his rook so that the pawn will not hang.

Well, that's true that Black's play is much easier here. He can play King g7, King f6 next move, Rook d8. You know, you can just easily compensate your low time. I agree. Oh, maybe that was that. That was the decision why Jawahir decided to because he had less time.

So he thought let's trade queens and simplify the position to have a little bit more risk-free situation.

Makes sense then.

Okay, king g7 on the board. Meanwhile, Nihal Sarin on board two has increased his advantage because Arjun's last move, rook b1, is a mistake. And look at this: you give a check, bishop has to block. There is no other move. The king is trapped. Oh no! And now rook takes b1, queen takes b1, and what's hanging?

G5, g4 is possible.

Oh, that's interesting. Actually, you could potentially do that. Maybe the queen enters in here, but look at this move— queen takes d5, simply winning the pawn and opening up this bishop we were saying was the problem piece, right?

Oh wow!

And Nihal Sarin has played exactly that. Ah, it's winning now, totally for Nihal.

And there are a few pieces on the board left for our To do some, you know, tactical magic.

And now a very tough question for everyone who's watching this in the audience back home. If bishop takes the rook here— sorry, he played bishop e3— but if bishop takes rook, what is the best way for black to continue? Would you recapture the bishop, or would you play something else?

I would play something else.

Okay guys, I think you all would have got this one absolutely correct. Queen g2 is the checkmate, so Arjun cannot win material. He goes bishop e3, and now this is the live board position. Let's quickly go back to our icon board because Javokir Sindarov is like, hey, I'm not this guy who builds up positions, I am the guy that blasts He goes Rook e8 and e3.

Wow, that is something that I would not expect to see yet, to have this kind of breakthrough. But he opens up the light square bishop. Yeah, he gets the rook on the 3rd rank. I love this idea.

But, but in a way, Vishy now pushes his pawn and closes down this bishop, opening up this one.

Yeah, that's the problem of pair of bishops, right? You cannot fight against both of them.

Yeah, you can't really make sure that both of them are closed. But in some ways, I must say that this position is a small improvement for Vishy Anand.

I guess so. There are some ideas with Knight d4, Knight c6, for instance, right? And if you take the pawn on d5, I might have some nice knight jump to pin the bishop on d5. So I think also knight f four, Ketti.

Knight f four. And then eyeing the h five pawn. So is Vishy Anand going to get that draw here? It's an important one for his team because Nihal Sarin and Mark Andrea Morizzi, these two players are going to score eight points for the fires American gambits. PPG Alaskan Knights have to wake up.

And I think. It's— they, they just woke up on the board. 3. Erdogmus just gained some huge advantage against Daniel Dubov, man.

Yaskan Erdogmus this time not just having a good position, he's also maintained his clock, which is what I love. He has 6 minutes 20 seconds.

Oh, that is really, really big improvement from the previous games that he was struggling on the, on the clock. He was not struggling in the positions, but the clock Yes, and this time Queen G four coming in, Ketti.

Knights beautifully placed, and remember all throughout this, Yaz is a pawn up.

Yeah, pawn up, and he can also go for another pawn like Bishop A five, for instance, and kick this queen.

D four pawn is a weakness. Yes, and C two pawn has been defended. So looking good here for Yaz Khan Erdogmus, who will most likely get a point for his team. And then Katarina Lagnow versus Bibisara Asaubhaya. This board, not so sure yet. I think Bibisara is fighting well with black.

She's fighting perfectly well in this position, and Katarina is still keeping little edge. All she needs is to control the, uh, position. There is a weakness still on a6. Yes, and also g7. g7 is also a weakness. And she always have this breakthrough of H5, H6, or G6 to also open up the H file. So this, if it's a classical chess, oh like white would enjoy.

Yes. But in rapid, perhaps Bibi Sara will be able to hold and manage this. But I don't think that Sara Khadem will be able to hold this position. Nino Batsyashvili. I mean, Katie, what is she doing? She's just coming to the board and crushing all her opponents. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's her.

She, she's the team player. She loves to play. She's a good team player, you know. And for Team Georgia, she's the only one who goes for to win. Who goes to win? Like, it's not like, oh, I'm gonna go and make a draw. She goes and she's like, I win or I lose. Really? Yes, yes.

So she's a very big fighter. She is.

She is very big, very big fighter. Of course, it takes a lot of energy, especially at the team team competitions. But like, look at her; she's she's on fire now.

Right, and and the reason why oh this Dubo Dubo actually lost the game and look at that finish.

Oh beautiful!

Can Erdogmus has beaten Daniel Dubo. Oh my god! That's such a beautiful sacrifice. Let's just back up one move. So here, beautiful. He took the knight, went knight f five.

Another knight jumps in, and boom bam!

What a move! Knight h six check takes. And here's the question to all: because if you move the king, you lose the bishop. If you take white to play and win, what's happening here?

Should I answer? We are waiting for people to answer.

It is Queen g4. Yes, LPDO, lose pieces drop off.

Not cool, not cool. You know, uh, in, in that position I would say Queen g4 with the idea of Knight h6, right? But I play a little bit old person's chess. He goes Knight h6 right away.

Yeah, kudos to Yazkan Erdogmus. He has scored a brilliant win for his team. Getting the PBG Alaskan Knights three points. They are now leading three nil. But on board number six, the prodigy board, Mark Andrea Morizzi is very close to winning his game against Abhimanyu Mishra. You can see the pressure there. I love Abhimanyu's intensity. So focused. But I think Ketti, this is not going his way.

It's not going on his way. We can also see the clock too many. 6 minutes and 38 seconds against 6 minutes 40 for Mauritsi. But you know, we have seen so much drama today. Things can go either way. You have to fight.

Yes.

You have to fight until the last second. And before that, anyone can have a chance, right? You have to just build up a lot of tactical traps.

I agree, I agree.

I want to get the 6-boards view one last time and then dive into the games that are important. So firstly, if you look here, already the score is 3-0 in the favor of PBG Alaskan Knights. But board number 2, is Nihal Sarin better, right? So there the chances are that Fyers American Gambits gets 4 points. Board number 6, another 4 points, 8. But the 2 women players, Katrina and Nino, are winning. So that would take PBG Alaskan Knights to 9 points. The score would be 9-8.

9-8.

So then everything hinges on the icon board. Let's go there. Vishy versus Sindarov.

Oh gosh, that's a lot of pressure on the icon board, but of course they can handle it. This is the full screen, a beautiful full screen. We can see both players focused. They are not looking at the screen and other boards anymore. They have to focus. What's the time situation? Is Vishy having Still the edge on the clock.

Yes, very much so, Ketty. He has six minutes on his clock. Meanwhile, Javokir has two minutes on his clock only. But Javokir is still slightly better. Only slightly, not too much. But I'm very scared of this bishop. If you look, this white king has no squares. So imagine one bishop check and it's a checkmate.

Yeah, well, good. Good information for Vishy. It's illegal to bring another pieces on the board. So, so far he's controlling it. How many moves there are in? Like when the time?

They are on move thirty-three. Thirty-seven moves. They'll get two seconds increment. And Vishy goes rookie two. Nice little move.

Wants to trade the rooks off the board. Rook takes c two. King cannot take on e two because pawn on g two will hang with a check. So So he's planning to recapture back with the bishop, sacrificing the pawn on d5.

That's a little, little trap, right? And Jaukir goes pawn h4, and I think, Ketty, he is intending to push the pawn to h3, opening up the position. A big question here is, can Vishy take, take, and take this pawn? But actually जाओ किर विल गिव अ चेक एंड एंटर इन, सो कैन't डू दैट। या सो ही हैज़ तू कीप दिस पॉन्स डबल ऑन दीएफएल, मेबी ही ही जस्ट तू स्टॉप दी पॉन्स ऑन ही ही और एंड एंड ही डज़ इट कैटी दैट वाज़ सच अ गुड मूव एंड विशी इज़ सो ज़ोन्ड इन ही इज़ एबल तू फाइंड ऑल दिस गुड मूव्स क्व When the time runs low, he makes errors. But right now Vishy is saying, "I'm not going to go down on the clock. I will remain at four minutes plus." And Jaukhi's time getting one minute twelve seconds.

Now he has to start to play faster because yes, he will get two seconds of increment, but we have seen that it's not enough. Yeah, you have to just make moves very fast. Rook to g eight. Then he's trying to find the better square for the रुक, व्हाट इस इट? इस इट रुकी फोर नाइटी फोर?

I think जावो किर है जस्ट कीपिंग द पोजीशन तू पुट प्रेशर ऑन विशी। ही'स लाइक, ओके विशी, टेल मी व्हाट योर नेक्स्ट मूव? I think last time also I made you kind of push push push and from an equal position blundered.

He's trying to do that. Yeah, he's trying to. Look at look at the pawn spin here. जावो किर is multitasking.

And by the way, a very big news has just arrived for us. Uh, the game— I'm not going to shift the game, but I'll just tell you, Katrina Lagnow is no longer winning against Bibi Sara. In fact, it's the other way around. Bibi Sara is winning against Katrina, which means that it's very good news for the fires American Gambits. Sara Khadem has also fought back against Nino, which means that Almost all the boards. Oh my God! There's a huge blunder. I have to go to Katrina versus Bibisara. Let's go there. Let's go there. It's over. Let's go to board number four. Katrina just winning because Bibisara made a huge blunder. She's losing material.

Oh no! Rook d six was the only move to play. Bibisara is visibly upset.

And now Sara Katrina Lagnos. Has just 10 seconds. She plays Rook a7 and everything's hanging here.

Next move, she can just take this rook on d6.

Yes, and you look at Bibisara, she's shaking her head. Knight takes d6 with 1 second on the clock.

Oh my goodness.

And now just take everything. You're winning the king and pawn endgame.

Oh yeah, just take the knight on d6.

And Katrina Lagnu will get PBG Alaskan The second point, that is 6 points.

Wow, incredible play by Katarina Lakno.

And let's move over to the icon board. This is winning, guys, don't even need to analyze. 100%, Vishy Anand is winning his game against Chawakhir Sindarov.

Wow, look at the rook, how this rook ended up on e8.

And, and somewhere, you know, Katty, you can feel that Vishy is a bit nervous. He's, you know, a bit shaking But come on, Vishy, you can do it. He looks at the big screen. He's feeling confident. Six points on the scorecard. PBG Alaskan Knights can they get it in?

Meanwhile, Abhimanyu Mishra lost against Mark Andrea Maurizio and this is the first score for American Gambits.

So it's three four now, but Katrina Lagnow will win. So it will be six four. Good call there, Ketti. What do you think is going to happen?

For Sindarov, this is so little time to make any good move.

Oh, Bibi Sara has lost. So 6-4 now is the score in the favor of PBG Alaskan Knights. We have 3 games going on. Nino is winning against Sara Khadem. Vishy is slightly better. Nihal was supposed to be winning but no longer against Arjun. Okay, check here. And by the way, we made move forty. We made move forty now. So two seconds increment.

Check. Rishi is hanging.

He's winning. Okay, King C five. He goes Knight F three back.

And now Black's king is kind of checkmated there.

Oh, but there's no check, Katie.

Where's the check?

We're always missing one piece on the board.

If there's a check here, it's a checkmate. But there's no check. The bishop controls it. And where to go? And look at Vishy's time.

Vishy's time is two minutes. Such a good control of time.

If Vishy comes down under thirty seconds, he might go wrong. But board five, Dino Batsyashvili scores the win. Nine four is the score. Javokir needs to strike somehow. He and Nihal both have to win if the fires American gambits want to take home. The match. He takes on d5. He took the pawn. King takes. Vishy goes to a6, and now Vishy is winning, completely winning. Rook f6 is the move. No, he takes a5. He had to go Rook f6 there, and now Javakir is back. But a draw is a great result for PBG Alaskan Knights, I feel.

Fantastic results because they will win.

Yes, if it's a draw, they will win. Vishy just needs to draw this game. Rook g2. He goes another check.

Rook d8. Should he push a5?

I think he can push his a pawn down the board, Katie. You are right. He does a5.

I love how the knight controls everything on the board.

But now f pawn comes in. Bishop e3. Maybe there will be f3, f4. And 2 games left. What the hell is that position on the right?

What's going on? Look at the king and the bishop, how they're controlling the light squares.

Arjun is 4 pawns down, but his bishop is controlling everything. That's going to end in a draw.

It seems to me that's gonna be a draw.

So wherever there's a draw, PBG Alaskan Knights will win it because the score now is 9-4. Black needs to win on both boards.

95 by Vishy. Check, guys.

Keep your eyes on the left screen right now because Vishy Anand is holding his own against Javokir. Meanwhile, Nihal has started to win. Oh my God, is Nihal going to win this game against Arjun on the right? That would mean—

what a monster move! What happened there?

Nihal, did Arjun resign? Yes, Arjun resigned. Which means the score is 9-8. Let's go to Vishy's board now. Complete focus on Vishy's board. Vishy needs to hold this with the white pieces. Can he hold this? Javokir, if he wins, fires American Gambits. Get through! He goes up with this king. Vishy has 1 minute. Javokir, 8 seconds.

4 seconds.

3. I think Vishy can hold this one, Ketty.

Rook c2 loses the rook, so which has to walk out.

Check.

Come back. Oh man, pressure is so much. Look at Vishy, he's like, oh my God, I can't handle this. But can he do it? Vishy, come on, you can do it.

Take the pawn on f5.

Rook c3. G h4. Oh, his h pawn is rushing, but Javokir will get the b pawn. Can Javokir win this? Ketty, what are your feelings? What is going to happen?

I think it's gonna end in a draw. I kind of have this feeling that Vishy can control this.

Rook b3 takes the b pawn. Now black has one passer which can rush down.

Knight d4, knight d4.

Oh, he goes into the rook endgame.

This is draw now.

Draw. Rook f4 takes. Rook f4 and just get this back. Not sure, Ketty, not sure if the rook gets back. Look at Vishy, he takes his time here. He has 30 seconds. He cannot blunder here.

He plays king e four.

Yes, he goes king e four and Jawahir is winning. Jawahir is winning. Fires American Gambits might win this. Vishy needs to hold. Oh my god! There's a check and Vishy is losing this, which means the score will be twelve nine in the favor of Fires American Gambits if Jawahir wins.

Wait, Sagar. After king g five, there's rook c five check and you cover the.

And then you push the pawn, and if white rook tries to stop you, block five seconds four three three.

Vishy play!

Vishy why loses on oh oh man! This was the ultimate turnaround here. Vishy Anand played so well, and look at the fires American gamits. I've never seen Shreenath. Smiling so much. Wow! And the World Championship challenger strikes once again, and Nihal Sarin and Javokir Sindarov have delivered on boards one and two along with Mark Andrea Morizzi on board three.

Big fighters. And remember first time we pulled up six boards on the on the board it was equal equal equal. But look at this. None of these boards. course ended up in a draw.

Yeah, and look at Vishy there. I mean, guys, he has been carrying the Indian flag for years and years, and even now he managed to put the World Championship challenger under so much pressure, but in the end it was not to be. Let's go to the arbiter for the results.

Good evening, everybody.

Can I have your attention for 1 minute, please?

And then you can shout again as much as you want.

Okay, the result of this match is that the Fierce American Gambits, they won the game with 12 points, and the PGB Alaskan Knights, they have 9 points.

Thank you so much. Can I ask the team captains to come on stage to sign the results?

Meanwhile, I would like to invite you for tomorrow's match in the afternoon at 3:30 PM. Thank you so much and good evening.

And you have the captains coming in to sign the results. Katie, I am shaking here.

I am too, but I really love the chief arbiter, how he's Also getting into this, right? Please listen to me now, and then you can shout again as much as you want. Right?

And did you see the crowd? There were so many supporters there cheering for their team, and I think the fires American Gambits—they really needed it—and they were on the verge of losing this match. But जाओ केर सिंधारो Turned it around.

We can hear it.

Oh my goodness, I have a bit of headache. I'm a bit old for this. What we have seen, Sagar.

Yeah, I think just, you know, Ketty, at a point the score was 9-4, Vishy was winning, and Nihal's game against Arjun was equal. At that point I thought PPG Alaskan Knights have got it. It's just done. It's done, bro. But no, yeah, Nihal struck and then Javokir struck.

What a game! Amazing superstars of the chess world now on the screen. And this is how we started it: one e4. And here we had two knights jumping in the center. Vishy Anand did almost all. He did it all.

He played fast, he kept control, he was pushing at some point. And, uh, well, for the crowd, that was a paisa wasool game. You know, they got their money's worth, right?

And Nino delivers no matter what. She wins her games, and that's amazing.

I mean, she is such a big asset for the PPG Alaskan Knights. In fact, both the women boards— and by the way, Yaz today made a beautiful, beautiful move. Forcing resignation from Dubov. Meanwhile, Marc-Andrea Morizi, well, he dominated from almost move number one. Yes, exactly.

And he got this extra pawn on h5, and then he never really missed a chance. But the game of Vishy Anand and Sindharav was the game.

Yeah, when in the end, you know, Vishy could not find the move. At that point already it was lost. But you could see it, uh, um, Ketty, that at some point Vishy, even like when he had 30 seconds and the position was drawn, he just like— he was like, no man, this is like a marathon, I'm too tired. And Sindarov was like this power horse. Yes, I want to win, I want to win. That's the youth, the power of youth, right? Exactly. And look at Sarah Khadem, she's so happy there. Fires American Gambits, winning this. means that they now have chance to once again move to the top.

Both teams needed so much, so desperately to win the, uh, game and to join the rest of the crowd there for the, uh, leader's position. You know, uh, what a day we had, really heavy, uh, for, uh, for chess players, um, to face.

Yes, and by the way, we have our third commentator joining in, Harshit Bhai. Harshit, did you follow the entire match? I don't know if I have a mic. Your mic is stuck in your head. Oh yeah, here it is. Let's go, Harshit Bhai, we need your thoughts.

Were you commentating? I was actually inside. I was inside watching. You guys did fantastic, by the way. I loved it, Ketty and Sagar, the intensity with which we could follow the final moments of the match inside Through your commentary, मजा आ गया। But I think kudos to Vidit and Javokir, right? What a game they played. Yeah, I think you know I just felt a little bit bad for Vishy there. Everything came down to his board and in a completely drawn position. In fact, in a winning position, he lost the match. And let's find out who the player of the match is going to be from the Fires American Gambits.

What a day this has been! I mean, right from the first match to the last one, everybody was on the edge of their seats. And this is what Tech Mahindra Global Chess League promises to all its viewers and the audiences who come here. So now let's head to the Player of the Match award. But before that, let's call upon the team who's made a comeback, who's won this first reverse fixture. Give it up for the fires American Gambit!

Hello.

I will come to you, Javokir, but before that, Nihal, what a game! What a game!

Uh, yeah, thank you.

I mean, um, I think I was having a very, very bad position from the start. Then, then he played Rook e1. He, I think he completely missed this trick with Knight b4, Knight d5. And also this Queen g4 was very beautiful, I think, because after Bishop f3, I have Bishop into d5 and some tactics. So, but then I was completely winning, but then he defended very well, and I, I think I, I completely messed up like a completely winning position and It was a draw. We repeated a lot of times he could have claimed. Yeah, just completely lucky. But yes, like, it's part of the game. Like, yeah, we'll take it.

Does it feel like a heist though now that the team has won it?

Yeah, we definitely needed the win. We— a lot of close matches did not go our way. So yeah, we are very happy to get the win. I mean, it was anything but clean, but At the end of the day, like there are you need to be lucky to win matches or tournaments. So yeah, hopefully, hopefully we can all play better chess and yeah, hope hopefully this can be a way to wrestle the momentum back.

Neha, let me just confirm you all have won, right? Yeah. But yes, yeah. But see, a win's a win, right? Congratulations on that one, Markandria. Just at the toss, I had—I was speaking to Srinath and I said how Javakir and Markandria are those two players who secured constant wins for the team, and today a win from them would mean a lot.

And you all have delivered.

Yeah, it was a very strange game, but I think I was winning during all the game and to play with.

जावकी इट्स ऑलवेज़ गुड, बिकॉज़ व्हेन यू आर एन आइकन बर्न लाइक दिस इट्स ऑलवेज़ वेल। All right then let's move on to the player of the match award. To give away the award, may I please call upon Mr. Sandeep Ambadat, Vice President, Fyers Assets Management. And the player of the match award goes to Javakis Sindharo. Yes, let's talk about that game now. That icon board was so important. What were you feeling, nerves?

Uh, yeah, of course. I like it. I mean, it's some moment I offered him draw and I saw the screen, I realized like I cannot offer draw. I was so worried he will accept this, but then he has advantage a little bit and he start play it.

And I think like it's my only chance to, I mean, to win. And yeah, and we played some, I mean, yeah, like at the end I was so lucky.

We played, I mean, he played very well, but in the time trouble he missed only one.

I mean, he missed my Rook c4 trick.

But I mean, about general in the game, I think I played like, I mean, from opening I took fantastic position which I think like I will won very easily. But then I start thinking like 5 minutes, like at one, in one move, which is very strange.

I will not recommend this to anyone in my team.

Uh, but okay, I'm still happy to, I mean, manage to win and help to my team to deserve this win.

Okay, no tough questions this time, but probably Just putting it out there. Good practice playing against a world champion. Yeah.

Yeah, of course. I mean, the game was very interesting and we also, I mean, defended very well.

All right. Congratulations on this win. Lots more to celebrate for the team and going ahead playing all the reverse fixtures. All the best for that. That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. Back to the comms.

Well, Chaukhir Sindarov, Nihal Sarin—you could see the kind of level-headed approach they have. They knew they were there on the brink of losing that match, and they won. So they were not elated or celebrating; they were just there happy and also feeling it for the PBG Alaskan Knights. Exactly.

Did they just Chaukhir said Vishis sir?

Like yeah. No, there's a lot of respect definitely amongst these two. Players on the icon board. Javokir did in fact manage to get those important 3 points for— actually, it's the 4 important 4 points for the Fires American Gambits. And let's just take a look at the summary of the match that just concluded right now. The score was 9-12, but as you can see, we had how many decisive games?

No, we had, uh, all the games were decisive.

And in fact, in fact, guys, today we started With the decisive games, PBG Alaskan Knights and Gantas Grandmasters, we had zero draw.

So I think PBG Alaskan Knights are like, we'll play all all decisive games always. Nino style. Nino style. Nino, Katrina Lagnon, and Yaz did the job, but always black has one extra point for each win, and that's why the score was 12-9 in the favor of Fires American Gambits. Guys, I want to talk a little bit about that game of. विशी आनंद एंड जावोकीर सिंधारोव। I want to just put things into perspective as to, you know, people saw. If we can get back to our commentators' view here, players, people who are watching saw that Vishy was in control, but at some point his hands started to shake.

Tremble. Yeah.

You were there in the playing hall, Harshit bhai. Can you tell our viewers why does that happen? Is it age? Is it pressure? Is it what is it?

Well, I think it is a factor of all of the things that you just mentioned. One of the biggest factors, in my opinion, is that he has not been used to being in the same competitive mindset like he once was. All the other youngsters like Jawaqir, they are playing top events one month after another. In some, in some months, they play even more than one event a month. So they know how it feels to be under that situation.

Sure.

And I think right now, Uh, I think it's also the fact that Vishy, of course, you know, at some point it, it does come into consideration that these players are much younger than Vishy and they have much more energy and youth going, uh, uh, in their favor.

But guys, I don't know what is this, but the amount of the respect all the chess community has towards Vishy Anand. Yeah, there is no single opponent That flagged him, or win a beautiful game, or win because of the blunder and celebrate it.

Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, he deserves all the respect, but in this tournament, we have to call a spade for a spade. His performance not up to par, right?

He is right now definitely struggling. He hasn't won a game. But look at that, Fire's American Gambits have reached the top of the table. They are now on 52 points. But remember, 9 match points and 52 game points. They have played one extra match, which means the Alpine APL Pipers and the Czech Mumba Masters can catch up with them. Also, the Ganges Grandmasters can rush up ahead. But do not lose hope, PBG Alaskan Knights. Do not lose hope, Triveni Continental Kings. You guys still have chance. I think all 6 game teams have chances as we have— how many days left for the preliminary? 4 more days.

4 more days. We just had the first half conclude. After today, we are going to have another set of, uh, matches being played by these people. Anything is possible.

I want to have every single day for, for 365 days of the year. Every day I want to see these matchups. Like, every single day.

You want the Global Chess League to go on for the entire year?

every single day. We have so much fun, and every day has a different story.

Do you want to settle in India?

Well, I mean, why not?

Maybe the Indian food is nice, the Indian weather. We are happy to have you here, Katty. Um, just so that, guys, you know, Vishy was offered a draw by Javokir Sindarov. If he would have accepted it, the PBG Alaskan Knights would have won My theory is that sometimes you don't expect draw first. You don't hear it in the pressure. Yes, maybe Vishy didn't hear it, or maybe in that moment Vishy thought, what's happening?

I will beat Sindarov.

Yeah, that could have also come into his mind.

Exactly, he did not have a single win. Maybe he felt like this was the match, uh, that he could win for his team. That was it, that was the last game of today. Let's have a look at what we are going to see tomorrow. Another set of exciting games. Coming up tomorrow, the first one is going to be between the Czech Mumba Masters and Alpine APL Pipers. We get to see Magnus Carlsen in the first match itself. That's going to be a big one.

And then we have Ganji's Grandmasters versus Triveni Continental Kings. That's Nepo taking on Firouzja there. PBG Alaskan Knights, which is Vishy Anand, takes Czech Mumba Masters. Second game there for MVL's team. And then the Triveni Continental Kings Which is Firouzja takes on Sindaro's fire American Gambits.

Yes, and today PPG Oscar Knights had two games really painful losses, both of them. Very painful. Tomorrow they need to have just one match to you know somehow reset their thoughts and energy and mind.

And yeah, I think Katie you put it so well because the painful is such a right word. Because they could very well have been on 12 points today. They were winning in both the matches.

They almost tasted the victory and success there, but they just let it slip. And here you can see Javalkir Tindarov signing a lot of autographs, taking some pictures. But of course, you know, it was a tense game. He needs to take some rest. Oof! Look at him. He just wants to get back home.

जाओगे तो लाइक, गैस, let me go. I know that many of the people are not too happy with me that I beat Vishy Anand here. But I think, guys, in India chess is respected tremendously. I think every person out there is just in awe of seeing Sindarov here, Vishy here, Nihal here, Arjun here. It's it's beautiful.

Yeah, you can feel the in the air that there's a love of chess. And a huge respect to each and every chess person.

Yes, and so a beautiful, exciting day of chess comes to an end with lot of ups and downs. We covered it through and through. I hope you enjoyed it. Would love for your comments, anything that you have feedback to be put on our channels. But for now, it's Sagasha, Ketisat Salashwili, and Harshit Raja signing off here. See you guys tomorrow. Bye.