5 months ago
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Hou Yifan hadn’t precisely acceptable the Arabian Sea — conscionable a stone’s propulsion distant from her edifice — connected occurrence during the archetypal fractional of the Global Chess League. She conscionable won 1 of her six games, drew 2 and mislaid three.
Since then, she has won 3 games connected the trot, 2 of them connected Sunday, successful beforehand of different afloat location astatine the Royal Opera House. Her splendid show, with achromatic pieces successful some games, has brightened the chances of her squad Alpine SG Pipers making it to the final. The lucifer against upGrad Mumba Masters pitted Hou against her aged rival Koneru Humpy, whom she had beaten for her 2nd World rubric backmost successful 2011. Then she came crossed Bibisara Assaubayeva, who has been a coagulated performer for Fyers American Gambits. The erstwhile World accelerated and blitz champion hadn’t mislaid a azygous game, but she was outwitted by the mastery of Hou’s end-game.
The 2 lucifer victories person taken the SG Pipers to the 2nd spot connected the table. They present person 15 lucifer points and 78 crippled points, but are down the Triveni Continental Kings. The two-time defending champion, successful fact, made it to the last yet again, with a lucifer to spare, aft its 14-5 triumph against Ganges Grandmasters. It has 21 lucifer points and 92 crippled points.
Three teams are going into the past time of league connected 12 lucifer points – Mumba Masters (83 crippled points), Ganges Grandmasters (71) and Alaskan Knights (62).
The results: upGrad Mumba Masters mislaid to PBG Alaskan Knights 8-10 (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave bt D. Gukesh,;Wesley So drew with Arjun Erigaisi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov mislaid to Leinier Dominguez; Koneru Humpy drew with Kateryna Lagno; D. Harika mislaid to Sarasadat Khademalsharieh; Bardiya Daneshvar bt Daniel Dardha)
Fyers American Gambits mislaid to Alpine SG Pipers 7-8 (Hikaru Nakamura drew with Fabiano Caruana; Vladislav Artmiev drew with Anish Giri; Richard Rapport drew with R. Praggnanandhaa; Bibisara Assaubayeva mislaid to Hou Yifan; Teodora Injac drew with Nino Batsiashvili; Volodar Murzin bt Leon Mendonca).
Ganges Grandmasters mislaid to Triveni Continental Kings 5-14 (Viswanathan Anand mislaid to Alireza Firouzja; Vincent Keymer drew with Wei Yi; Jovakhir Sindarov bt Vidit Gujrathi; Polina Shuvalova mislaid to Zhu Jiner; Stavroula Tsolakidou mislaid to Alexandra Kosteniuk; Raunak Sadhwani drew with MarcAndria Maurizzi).
upGrad Mumba Masters mislaid to Alpine SG Pipers 7-8 (Vachier-Lagrave drew with Caruana; So drew with Giri; Mamedyarov drew with Praggnanandhaa; Humpy mislaid to Hou; Harika drew with Batsiashvili; Daneshvar bt Mendonca).
(The writer is successful Mumbai astatine the invitation of Tech Mahindra).
