Carlsen’s endgame magic casts a spell on Anand's Ganges Grandmasters

Grandmaster (GM) Magnus Carlsen, recognised as one of the strongest endgame players in chess history, dug deep in his bag of tricks to overcome GM Viswanathan Anand and deliver the decisive win for the SG Alpine Warriors in the Tech Mahindra's Global Chess League.

The win capped Alpine's10-8 victory over the Ganges Grandmasters in a battle of co-leaders Wat the Le Meridien hotel on Wednesday.

With his team behind in the match, 6-8, Carlsen went all out in an endgame where Anand seemed to have built an unassailable fortress.

The Norwegian, who famously said he does not believe in fortresses, proved his point as he powered through Anand’s defences and even managed to execute a rare pawn promotion to a knight that is sure to become one of the highlight moves of the tournament.

“I had to keep the game going,” said Carlsen of his decision to underpromote to a knight, instead of a queen, a rare occurrence in tournament games that ultimately proved to be the only move to win the game.

“I thought it was the only chance to win, so (I decided) let’s go and continue this fun fight.”

The Warriors, who have now swept both of their matches with the Ganges, moved to the top of the standings with 15 points, leaving the Grandmasters, who crashed to their second consecutive match loss, in second place with 12 points.

GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the tournament’s leading scorer, nailed the other crucial win for the Warriors, defeating GM Andrey Esipenko. Praggnanandhaa now has 6.5 points from seven games, conceding just one draw – to Esipenko during the two teams’ first encounter in the second round.

The Ganges Grandmasters took an early lead with wins by Richard Rapport, who handed the fifth loss of GM Gukesh Dommaraju, the Warriors’ weakest link with only two draws to show from seven games, and GM Hou Yifan, who defeated GM Paehtz Elisabeth with a strong positional sacrifice in a Sicilian Defence game.

In the other match of the day, the Balan Alaskan Knights continued their rise up the standings with a second consecutive match victory, defeating the Upgrad Mumba Masters. The Knights now have nine points for fourth place, one point behind the Masters, who are at third with 10 points.

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GM Raunak Sadhwani, who has only scored one win against five losses coming into the seventh round, emerged as the surprise hero of the match, registering his team’s only win as the Knights repeated on their second-round victory over the Masters. Sadhwani defeated GM

Javokhir Sindarov for the second time, having beaten the Uzbek prodigy during the two teams’ first encounter.

sports@khaleejtimes.com

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