Global Chess League 2024 Highlights: Alaskan Knights move to top of table; Alpine SG Masters, American Gambits also win

The PBG Alaskan Knights jump to the top of the table at the end of Day 1 of Season 2 courtesy their commanding performance against Triveni Continental Kings, while American Gambits and Alpine SG Pipers sit at the second and third spots with 11 points each.

Here are the full standings:

PBG Alaskan Knights begin their campaign in style, defeating defending champions Triveni Continental Kings 15-3 on the opening day.

The trio of Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Nihal Sarin win their respective encounters while the Alaskan Kings draw their remaining games, including the battle of the icons featuring Anish Giri and Alireza Firouzja.

Given they played with black pieces, the Alaskan Kings end up collecting 15 points while the defending champions can only collect three points from the drawn games.

Up next, we have defending champions Triveni Continental Kings opening their campaign against PBG Alaskan Knights in what will be the final game of the opening day.

Which team will end up on the winning side? Stay tuned to find out.

Alpine SG Masters also begin their campaign with a victory, collecting two wins with black pieces along with three draws — which includes the Anand vs Carlsen and Arjun vs Pragg matches. Hou Yifan defeats R Vaishali while Richard Rapports does the same against Parham Maghsoodloo.

Ganges Grandmasters collect six points, the same as upGrad Mumba Masters, with three draws and one win — Nurgyul Salimova beating Kateryna Lagno.

Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, the two icons, shake hands at the end of their match. Also setting for a stalemate are Murzin and Dardha.

Both Anand and Carlsen are then busy watching Arjun vs Pragg, which appears to be going down the wire.

The battle that is the highlight of the opening day!

Teammates a month ago, opponents now

The second match of the day is underway, with the Ganges Grandmasters playing with white pieces after the toss.

It’s Viswanathan Anand vs Magnus Carlsen on one board. And in another, world No 3 Arjun Erigaisi is up against fellow Indian R Praggnanandhaa, the two having helped India win the Open gold medal in the Chess Olympiad in dominant fashion last month!

The second season of the Global Chess League features eight Indian players, including the legendary Viswanathan Anand as well as world No 3 Arjun Erigaisi.

Here’s are the Indian players in action in Season 2 and the teams they represent:

Alpine SG Pipers: R Praggnanandhaa

Mumba Masters: Vidit Gujrathi, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Raunak Sadhwani

Alaskan Knights: Nihal Sarin

Ganges Grandmasters: Viswanathan Anand, Arjun Erigaisi, R Vaishali

American Gambits defeat Mumba Masters in the opening game of Season 2!

The Gambits collect 11 points on the board thanks to victories to Duda, Bjerre and Bibisara against Vidit, Raunak and Koneru Humpy respectively. Nakamura vs Vachier-Lagrave ends in a draw, as does Yu vs Svidler. And Harika Dronavalli collects the only victory for Mumba Masters, defeating Elisabeth Paehtz, a victory with black pieces worth four points.

The Gambits finish with 11 points to Masters’ 6.

Nakamura vs Vachier-Lagrave shake hands in the first battle of the icons this season.

The battle of the icons ends in a draw!

Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave share a point each as the their game ends in a staemate.

In the opening game of the day, it’s Hikaru Nakamura’s American Gambits who are playing using white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s Mumba Masters, last year’s runners-up.

According to the tournament rules, each team plays the remaining five teams twice — once in each colour. American Gambits and Mumba Masters are scheduled to face off for a second time on 10 October, and this time it will be Mumba Masters playing with white pieces.

Unlike most team-based chess tournaments, all the players in a team play using pieces of the same colour.

The who’s who from the world of chess will be in action over the next 10 days

Global Chess League 2024 LIVE: Season Two of GCL follows the same double round-robin format, wherein a team plays each of the remaining five teams twice – once in each colour. A victory gives a team three match points and a draw one, and the two teams with the most match points at the end of the round-robin stage then lock horns in the final.

As for the teams themselves, each side will have an ‘Icon Player’ that is the highest-rated player along with a minimum of two female players and one player who is 21 years old or younger.

Global Chess League 2024 LIVE:  Alpine SG Pipers: Magnus Carlsen (icon), R Praggnanandhaa, Richard Rapport, Hou Yifan, Kateryna Lagno, Daniel Dardha

upGrad Mumba Masters: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (icon), Vidit Gujrathi, Peter Svidler, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Raunak Sadhwani

American Gambits: Hikaru Nakamura (icon), Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Yu Yangyi, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Elisabeth Paehtz, Jonas Buhl Bjerre

PBG Alaskan Knights: Anish Giri (icon), Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Tan Zhongyi, Alina Kashlinskaya, Nihal Sarin

Ganges Grandmasters: Viswanathan Anand (icon), Arjun Erigaisi, Parham Maghsoodloo, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Nurgyul Salimova, Volodar Murzin

Triveni Continental Kings: Alireza Firouzja (icon), Wei Yi, Teimour Radjabov, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina, Javokhir Sindarov

Here’s the schedule for the opening day of GCL Season 2 (timings in IST):

Match 1 – upGrad Mumba Masters vs American Gambits at 5.30 pm

Match 2 — Ganges Grandmasters vs Alpine SG Pipers at 8 pm

Match 3 — PBG Alaskan Knights vs Triveni Continental Kings at 9.15 pm

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the opening day of Global Chess League Season 2! The on-board action is set to begin soon with upGrad Mumba Masters taking on the American Gambits in the opening game of the season.

Stay tuned for more updates.