
Picture Credit: Twitter
The IPL-like competition of chess, the Global Chess League kicked off on Thursday, June 22 with Ganges Grandmasters taking on Chingari Gulf Titans. Former world champions Grandmaster Vishwananthan Anand and GM Hou Yifan scored crucial wins to propel the Ganges Grandmasters to a 10-4 win.
V. Anand, playing after eight months, defeated 25-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda with white pieces. The five-time world classical chess champion from India created counterplay after the Polish started with Rui Lopez opening. Duda made a mistake when he grabbed a pawn with his queen in the 35th move and Anand capitalized to take the win.
“It was a nice game and there were bits of it which I was very proud of. But I did notice one or two inexact moves slip in, especially after I made them. You make them and then realize and think ‘I wish I had seen the other move earlier,’” the 35-year-old said after the game.
Anand secured three important points while You Yifan beat Alexandra Kosteniuk and also gained three points. Hou, a four-time women's world chess champion from China, repulsed a dangerous attack by Russia’s GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, herself a former women’s world champion, in another Rui Lopez encounter and nursed her advantage until the endgame to secure the win after 59 moves.
In the other games, Ganges’ GM Richard Rapport, GM Leinier Dominguez Perez, GM Bella Khotenashvili, and GM Andrey Esipenko settled for draws with GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, GM Daniil Dubov, International Master (IM) Polina Shuvalova and GM Nihal Sarin respectively. In game one of the tournament, GM Alexander Grischuk was the day's other hero, winning with black to give the UpGrad Mumba Masters an unlikely win. On day two of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen joins the fray as Alpine Warriors take on Ganges Grandmasters.