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

Alpine came into Tuesday alone at the top with a seven-point cushion. They left it having taken four game points off Triveni and dropped to second. Nepomniachtchi finished Anand in 23 moves with sixteen minutes still on his clock. Wei Yi played 112 moves against Anish Giri, reached rook and two pawns against a bare king, and stalemated him. Four teams now sit on nine match points, and the team leading the table lost a match on the same day.

Where things stand

Day 4 results: Ganges Grandmasters 12-8 PBG Alaskan Knights · FYERS American Gambits 6-11 CheQ Mumba Masters · Triveni Continental Kings 10-4 Alpine APL Pipers · PBG Alaskan Knights 9-12 FYERS American Gambits

Ganges Grandmasters 12-8 PBG Alaskan Knights

Nepo needed 23 moves and used four minutes. Nobody else got close to that.

Nepomniachtchi had been quiet for two days. On Tuesday afternoon he opened 1.e4, met a Najdorf with 6.Be2, and put a pawn on b6 and a queen on c8 before Anand had solved anything. It ended on move 23. Nepo still had sixteen minutes left, which in a twenty-minute game is its own kind of statement.

Ganges took three more with White. Leinier Dominguez Perez ground Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus down over 52 moves in a rook ending, Erdogmus fighting to eleven seconds before it went. Polina Shuvalova outplayed Kateryna Lagno in a queenless position and won the pawn race, Lagno down to eight seconds at the finish. Leon Luke Mendonca beat Abhimanyu Mishra in 48 moves, and Mishra's clock read zero when it ended.

PBG's two points of profit both came with Black, which is where the value is. Arjun Erigaisi held on against Levon Aronian for 51 moves and converted a knight against rook ending with three seconds left on his own clock. Nino Batsiashvili beat Stavroula Tsolakidou in 43 moves with 47 seconds in hand, the most comfortable win either side managed.

Four White wins to Ganges, two Black wins to PBG, and Ganges climb into the nine-point group.

FYERS American Gambits 6-11 CheQ Mumba Masters

Six White boards, one win. Mumba only needed two.

FYERS had White on all six boards at 5 PM. Sindarov and Vachier-Lagrave cancelled each other out in 55 moves, a Symmetrical English that dissolved into a rook and knight ending and a perpetual, MVL playing the last dozen moves on six seconds. Assaubayeva and Harika drew. Maurizzi and Daneshvar drew after 66.

The only FYERS win was a good one. Nihal Sarin beat Pranesh M in 55 moves and finished it with mate on the board, the queen landing on h5 with the black king cut off on g6.

Mumba answered with the currency that matters. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov dismantled Daniil Dubov in 42 moves, a rook to a2 and a knight to e3 dragging the white king into the open. Carissa Yip took 69 moves against Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, trading into a rook ending and running the queenside pawns home. Two Black wins at four apiece, three draws, and the match.

FYERS six, Mumba eleven, and Mumba make it three in a row.

Triveni Continental Kings 10-4 Alpine APL Pipers

Alpine had Black on all six boards. They did not win one of them.

Twelve boards on Monday with Black brought Alpine 22 points. Six more on Tuesday brought four. Every point they scored came from a draw.

Firouzja and Carlsen drew in 49 moves, a rook ending with checks flying both ways, and the icon board settled nothing. Zhu Jiner and Divya Deshmukh drew in 42. Alexandra Kosteniuk pushed Koneru Humpy for 77 moves in a queen ending, promoted a pawn on h8, and still could not shake the perpetual.

And then board two. Wei Yi and Anish Giri played 112 moves. Wei Yi reached rook and two pawns against a bare king, ran his own clock to zero, and stalemated Giri on move 112 with the black king trapped in the corner. Two points that should have been three, and a draw that Giri will take for the rest of his life.

The wins went to the Kings. Aravindh Chithambaram beat Vidit Gujrathi in 56 moves out of a Vienna, landing a knight where Vidit could not touch it and taking the material that decided it. Pranav Venkatesh beat Volodar Murzin in 63, a knight against rook ending in which the prodigy simply did not go wrong while Murzin's clock fell to twelve seconds.

Triveni ten, Alpine four, and the leaders have now lost two of four.

PBG Alaskan Knights 9-12 FYERS American Gambits

Nihal won twice in the same evening. Nobody else in Bengaluru did that.

Three hours after losing to Mumba, FYERS swapped to the black side of all six boards and scored twelve. Sindarov, held to a draw earlier, outplayed Anand in a Ruy Lopez across 74 moves, the passed pawns becoming unanswerable after move 69 as Anand's clock hit zero for the second consecutive day. Four for the icon.

Nihal Sarin made it two from two. Having mated Pranesh with White at 5 PM, he beat Erigaisi with Black at 8 PM, 72 moves of a King's Indian structure in which his connected passers on b3 and c4 walked through while Erigaisi's bishop watched. Erigaisi finished on seven seconds. Seven game points from one player in one evening, the highest individual return of the day.

Marc'Andria Maurizzi made it three, beating Abhimanyu Mishra in 34 moves in a Nimzo-Indian, winning a rook and posting a knight on d3 with the white king exposed and the queens coming off.

PBG were White on all six and won three of them: Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus finished Daniil Dubov in 26 moves, the quickest game of the day, with a bishop landing on f7 and a knight on e7 in a sequence Dubov never escaped. Kateryna Lagno ground out 57 moves against Bibisara Assaubayeva. Nino Batsiashvili took 67 against Khademalsharieh for her second win of the day. Nine points, and it was not close to enough.

What Day 4 actually changed

Four teams are now on nine match points and twelve game points separate first from fourth. Alpine's cushion is gone, and so is their lead.

FYERS sit top on 52 game points after going 1-1. They played six White boards and scored six, then six Black boards and scored twelve, which is the entire scoring system explained in one evening. They have now played six matches, more than anyone except PBG, and they lead a table they have lost three matches in.

Triveni started this tournament 0-3. They have won two of three since, they hold 44 game points, and they have just beaten the team that had not lost since Monday morning. The champions are back in it.

PBG played twice, lost twice, and now sit fifth despite 47 game points, the same total as Alpine and Mumba. Anand's clock has reached zero on two consecutive days.

And Alpine, who led from round three, spent Tuesday on the black side of six boards without a single win. They still have five matches left. They have not beaten anybody since Monday morning.

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