GCL: Pipers upset Triveni Continental; upGrad Mumba win

Mumbai, Dec 19 (PTI) American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana ended Alireza Firouzja's winning run on the 'Icon' board in a late scramble to help Alpine SG Pipers upset Triveni Continental Kings 12-8, while PBG Alaskan Knights continued their revival with a 9-7 victory over Fyers American Gambits in the Global Chess League, here on Saturday.

Host team upGrad Mumba Masters then defeated Ganges Grandmasters 11-6 to leapfrog Triveni Continental Kings to the top spot on better game score.

Playing white in the reverse fixture, Anish Giri's clinical victory over Wei Yi gave Alpine SG Pipers early advantage. Nino Batsiashvili then registered her fifth win in six matches by beating Alexandra Kosteniuk to put the Pipers in the driver's seat.

But defending champions Triveni Kings wriggled out of a difficult situation with Zhu Jiner defeating Hou Yifan on the women's board and Marc'Andria Maurizzi ending Leon Luke Mendonca three-match winning run as the the had changed hands.

However, an error from Vidit Gujarathi allowed R Praggnanandhaa to push for victory before Caruana gave the finishing touches in a marathon 77-move game that could have gone either way.

The American GM had managed to advance his 'a-file' pawn for a queen by move 60 but needed to find the right moves under tremendous time pressure.

"Alireza is in a very good form. I think I could have lost or it could have been a draw. But at the end there was a time scramble and I had one second on the clock. But I am happy that I won," said Caruana after the game.

Earlier, Arjun Erigaisi registered his second straight win and Sara Khadem turned the tables on Teodora Injac to help Alaskan Knights win their second consecutive match in the competition.

While Arjun dominated Vladislav Artemiev to win in 45 moves, Sara registered her first win of the competition by forcing Teodora to resign after 40 moves.

However, Alaskan Knights hopes of improving their game points by registering a bigger margin victory were dashed when world champion D Gukesh went down to Hikaru Nakamura on the 'Icon' board despite the Indian having a slight advantage for most part of the 44-move clash.

In the match between, Mumba Masters and Ganges Grandmasters, GM Wesley So, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Koneru Humpy won their respective games. On the 'Icon' board, Ganga Grandmasters' Viswanathan Anand managed to build pressure on Maxime Vachier-Lagrave but could not convert with black pieces. PTI AM AM KHS