Ganges Grandmasters' Final Hopes Alive: Crushing Win Over American Gambits

However, their fate would depend on whether PBG Alaskan Knights could halt the winning run of Alpine SG Pipers in the last match of the group stage later in the day, as the Grandmasters are tied on 15 points with Pipers, with the latter having a game in hand.

Pipers will finish in second spot if they win or draw against the Alaskan Knights or if they score at least six points even in the losing cause, as that will allow them to leapfrog the Grandmasters on better game score. The Alaskan Knights also have a shot at the second spot if they can win all six games with black pieces.

But to their credit, the Grandmasters did their job to perfection to keep their final hopes alive.

At the start of the final day, Pipers, Grandmasters, and Mumba Masters were in a three-way battle to seal the second spot, and Ganges Grandmasters were the first to take the board against American Gambits.

Playing white, Viswanathan Anand shared the spoils with American Gambits’ Hikaru Nakamura on the icon board. But it was Vincent Keymer on the second board who gave the team a leg up with a win over Vladislav Artemiev in 39 moves, and player of the match Raunak Sadhwani defeated World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin in 42 moves to drive home the advantage.

Stavroula Tsolakidou then defeated Teodora Injac to complete the tally and put the pressure on the other teams.

Mumba Masters had a difficult task of beating table toppers Triveni Continental Kings with black, and though Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Vidit Gujrathi and Bardiya Daneshvar got the better of Marc’Andria Maurizzi to give their team eight valuable points, but loss for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lost to Alireza Firouzja on the icon board, Wesley So was outplayed by Wei Yi on the second board, and Koneru Humpy was not a match for Zhu Jiner as they local favorites went down 10-9 and were out of the race for the second spot.

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- IANS