Today's Edition
Abu Dhabi (Aletihad)
Alireza Firouzja escaped the jaws of defeat to beat Magnus Carlsen in a shock result at the ongoing Global Chess League during the second day's play in London.
Four days after chess world's topmost player Carlsen beat Firouzja, one of the strongest contenders and heir to his throne, in the finals of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, two players met again as the main icon-category players for their respective teams, Alpine SG Pipers and Triveni Continental Kings, the defending champions.
The Pipers, playing with the white pieces, entered the match with three points after defeating the Ganges Grandmasters on the opening day. Triveni, meanwhile, were looking to bounce back from a crushing 15-3 loss to the Alaskan Knights in their opening round.
The early stages of the main match were evenly balanced with Carlsen starting on the white side. About 20 minutes in –halfway through the time control (as each player had 20 minutes for their moves with no increment) –computer evaluations showed equality across the boards. When Firouzja had exhausted his time quota, Carlsen was ahead by just over 40 seconds.
The Norwegian tried to forced a victory by advancing his pawn to Queen, but in trying to do he consumed time while his opponent held his nerve in the ensuing chaos – a byproduct of the format – to turn the tables at the last moment.
Three other boards went down the wire in the team contest, but the Iranian's victory on the main table gave four valuable points to the Kings team as they registered a stunning 17-4 victory in the end.
The first to break through in the team contest was Richard Rapport of the Pipers, who launched a vicious attack on Teimour Radjabov, leaving him with no escape. Soon after, former women’s world champions Hou Yifan and Alexandra Kosteniuk agreed to a draw, putting the score at 4:1 in favour of the Pipers.
R Pragnanandhaa then fell to Wei Yi on board two, further strengthening Triveni’s command of the match for the most decisive result of the tournament.
Anish Giri holds Hikaru Nakamura to a draw
Earlier in the day, PBG Alaskan Knights took on the American Gambits. Both teams had a good start to the season, winning their initial matches.
The coin toss determined that Alaskan Knights would play with white pieces.
On board one, icon players Anish Giri (Alaskan Knights) and Hikaru Nakamura (American Gambits) drew their game despite a lot of options on the board to consider.
Afterwards, the two class GMs were seen passionately discussing the moves and what each was thinking during the match. When asked if they are happy with the outcome, both confirmed but Nakamura noted it was Giri’s choice to go for a draw.
As the match progressed, this turned out to be a good call for Giri as his teammates secured four victories (on the youngsters board, the women’s boards and one of the superstar boards) and one more draw, for a convincing score of 14:2.
After this round, PBG Alaskan Knights emerged as the sole leaders of the tournament, with six match points, while the American Gambits remained on three. While the American Gambits finished their games for the day, one more match awaits the Alaskan Knights, and based on their strong performances in the first two rounds, the signs are promising.
