Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, Season 4 · The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru

Four teams are level on nine match points. Two of the teams below them are on six with more game points than the side sitting fourth. Nothing about this table is settled, and on Wednesday both CheQ Mumba Masters and Triveni Continental Kings play twice, which means either of them could end the night on fifteen or exactly where they started. Every match on Day 5 is a rematch.

Where things stand

Day 5 fixtures: CheQ Mumba Masters vs Alpine APL Pipers, 3:30 PM · Ganges Grandmasters vs Triveni Continental Kings, 5:00 PM · PBG Alaskan Knights vs CheQ Mumba Masters, 6:30 PM · Triveni Continental Kings vs FYERS American Gambits, 8:00 PM

CheQ Mumba Masters vs Alpine APL Pipers

3:30 PM IST · The in-form team against the one that has forgotten how to win.

Mumba have won three in a row. Alpine have lost two of their last three. They are level on nine match points and level on 47 game points, and the last time these two met, on Day 1, Alpine took it 10-8.

That was five days and a lot of chess ago. Mumba have since beaten Ganges by nine and FYERS by five, with Mamedyarov and Carissa Yip doing most of the damage from the black side of the board. Yip has now won three straight and is arguably the most valuable player in the league on current form. Alpine, meanwhile, spent Tuesday afternoon on the black side of six boards against Triveni and did not win one, taking four points from four draws.

Vachier-Lagrave against Carlsen is the board that sells the tickets. MVL has drawn every game he has played this week, which is its own kind of statement in a format that punishes safety. Carlsen has one win and three draws since Monday. If neither icon breaks, this comes down to the same boards it always does: Mamedyarov and Pranesh against Giri and Vidit, Yip and Harika against Humpy and Divya.

Watch for: Whether Alpine can win with White. They have banked most of their season from the black side, and if the colours run against them again on Wednesday they will need a different kind of match.

Ganges Grandmasters vs Triveni Continental Kings

5:00 PM IST · Nepo against Firouzja, and the return of the closest match of the tournament.

These two opened their campaigns against each other on Day 1 and Ganges won it 10-9, the tightest scoreline of the season so far. Since then Ganges have quietly assembled three wins and joined the leading group, while Triveni went 0-3 and then found themselves.

Nepomniachtchi arrives off the best individual performance of Day 4, a 23-move demolition of Anand in which he used four minutes. Firouzja arrives off a draw with Carlsen and a team that has now beaten PBG and Alpine on consecutive days. Ganges have the lowest game-point total of the four teams on nine points, 40, which means they need margins as much as they need wins.

Triveni will play again at 8 PM, and that changes the calculus. A team that knows it has a second match coming plays the first one differently, and Loek van Wely will have to decide whether to chase the win here or manage his squad across five hours.

Watch for: Aravindh Chithambaram. He has a checkmate and a win over Vidit in the last two days and has become the most reliable board-three player in the field.

PBG Alaskan Knights vs CheQ Mumba Masters

6:30 PM IST · PBG have to stop the slide. Mumba have to stop themselves getting tired.

PBG beat Mumba 11-6 on Day 2 and have not been the same team since. Two losses on Tuesday leave them fifth with six match points, despite holding 47 game points, the same as Alpine and Mumba. That is the profile of a team losing narrowly and winning heavily, and it is not a sustainable place to be.

Anand's clock has reached zero on two consecutive days. That is the story nobody at the Lalit Ashok wants to write and everybody is watching. Against Vachier-Lagrave, who has drawn everything and given up nothing, the icon board may not be where this is decided.

For Mumba, this is match two of two, and by the pattern of the week the team on its second appearance takes Black, which in this scoring system is worth an extra point per win. Three in a row becomes five in a row if they take both on Wednesday, and that would put them on fifteen match points with a clear lead.

Watch for: Erdogmus. He beat Dubov in 26 moves on Tuesday, the fastest finish of Day 4, and he is the one PBG player whose form has not wobbled.

Triveni Continental Kings vs FYERS American Gambits

8:00 PM IST · The rematch Triveni have been waiting five days for.

On Day 1, FYERS beat Triveni 14-5. It remains the second-heaviest defeat of the season and it is the match that sent the two-time champions into an 0-3 hole they are still climbing out of.

They arrive very different teams. Triveni have won two of three, beaten Alpine 10-4, and hold 44 game points from six match points, the best ratio of any team outside the top four. FYERS lead the table on 52 game points but have lost three of six, and they have now played more chess than anyone bar PBG.

Sindarov against Firouzja is a genuine icon collision, two players who will both be in Geneva and Samarkand before the year is out. Behind them, Nihal Sarin is coming off seven game points in a single evening, the highest individual return of Day 4, and Dubov has now lost three in a row and needs a result badly.

This is Triveni's second match of the day and the seventh of the tournament for FYERS. Fatigue cuts both ways.

Watch for: The scoreline. Triveni need game points as much as match points, and a heavy win here would move them past PBG and into striking distance of the top four with five rounds to play.

The day in one line

If Mumba win both, they lead alone on fifteen. If Triveni win both, the team that started 0-3 is level with the leaders. And if the day splits the way the last four have, we go into Thursday with more teams tied than the table can comfortably hold.

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