Daniel Dardha’s king rolled over on the chessboard more than once before being picked up roughly and slammed onto a square. Nihal Sarin, with his time shaved down to three seconds on the clock, had to stand up and blitz out his moves. Eventually, there was a draw which was claimed after 99 fast-and-furious moves by PBG Alaskan Knights’ Sarin, which was being appealed by Dardha’s team, the Alpine SG Pipers.
In sharp contrast, another battle between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri in the same Knights vs Pipers match saw a quick surrender after just 20 minutes and 22 moves from Giri.
The Knights vs Pipers clash saw some drama, one that is likely to spill over onto Monday. There is an official appeal that has been registered by the Pipers team captain Pravin Thipsay for Dardha after the arbiter accepted Sarin’s claim for a draw while he was under severe duress on the clock. The Indian prodigy, in fact, had just three seconds on the clock in a format where there are no time increments. But he was in a completely winning position. His opponent, Daniel Dardha, had 17 seconds left, meaning he could have outlasted his opponent on the clock and won. But Sarin claimed a draw by stating that there was no way he could have lost the game as he had a bishop and a pawn more on the board.
Excellent presence of mind by @NihalSarin! In a position where he was winning on the board against Daniel Dardha but very low on time, he stops the clock with 2 seconds left and claims a draw. The draw is given – PBG @balanalaskank Knights defeat @AlpineSGPipers 9-7! #TechMGCL pic.twitter.com/MSFqQczNZH
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) October 6, 2024
The Pipers though were not convinced, taking their protests to the tournament director. Dardha, after all, had still a rook on the board, and 14 more seconds on the clock than his opponent.
If Sarin had lost the game, the result would have gone in favour of the Pipers. For now, the Knights have secured the match with a 9-7 margin, and thanks to a five-match winning streak, find themselves on top of the standings as the only unbeaten team in the GCL.
“The game came into a big time scramble. I had less time while he kept his time advantage. I managed to pose him really good problems. But he fended off the trouble really well and made my winning process much slower,” Sarin later told the official social media handle of GCL.
For the Knights, Tan Zhongyi took down Hou Yifan in the battle of the former world champions from China while Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattarov defeated Praggnanandhaa in a clash of the prodigies.
How one blunder from Anish cost him clash vs Carlsen
In 20 minutes and 22 moves, the game was over as Anish Giri waved the white flag of surrender. Magnus Carlsen’s eyebrows shot up even as he accepted the win, making their clash the shortest decisive result in the second edition of the Global Chess League, being played in London.
The clash between PBG Alaskan Knights and the Alpine SG Pipers saw some drama, but it had not been in the Carlsen vs Giri game.
For now, the PBG Alaskan Knights have won the battle against Alpine SG Pipers by a 9-7 margin. But if the appeal from the Pipers is upheld, then that result could swing.
Playing with white pieces on the icon board, Giri was battling on level terrain against the five-time world champion in a game which saw the Closed Catalan variation on the board at the start.
An ill-advised blunder on the 21st move from Giri, when his rook jumped forward three squares on the board to capture an adventurous pawn on the d4 square proved to be Giri’s undoing. The evaluation bar plunged in favour of the Norwegian immediately. The right move for Giri at that stage would have been to trade queens on the eighth rank. Carlsen responded by slaying Giri’s knight with his own rook.
On the next move, the queens were exchanged. But by then, Giri realised there was no coming from the position he had gotten himself into, that too against a player of Carlsen’s calibre who would be a knight up, and resigned.
(The writer is in London at the invitation of Tech Mahindra)
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