Bengaluru: Leon Mendonca was dead lost. Across the board, Abhimanyu Mishra, the world’s youngest grandmaster, was comfortably winning. His victory would be enough to fetch his team, PBG Alaskan Knights, the match. In the dugout, Mishra’s teammates, led by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, watched the giant screen.
Mishra’s Controversial Move Alters Match Outcome
In a dramatic finish, Mishra captured White’s rook with just one second remaining but mistakenly placed the promoted queen on e1 instead of f1. This error resulted in two seconds of added time at the end of the move. Mendonca, upon noticing the mistake, stopped the clock and called for the arbiter. Following a review, the clock was reset, the additional time was removed, and Mishra was left with only one second to correctly redo the move.
After the match, Carlsen expressed humility, stating, “I do not deserve the award as much as the man who won us the match,” as he handed over his trophy.
Six teams face each other twice across six boards, with 20 minutes per player and a two-second increment added from move 41.
1 Magnus Carlsen and Anand striding in and out of the playing hall at the Bengaluru five-star hotel venue to fans screaming their names, seeking selfies and autographs, and even yelling, “What was f6?” at Carlsen – a weird move he employed in the opening against World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov. “You’re going through these moments together with the top guys – the joys, disappointments – and you get to see how they handle tough days,” Mishra, who’s on Anand’s team, said. The packed live audience, following the commentary on their headphones, gasped. Mendonca had snatched a win for himself and his team, Ganges Grandmasters, while Mishra, annoyed with himself, stomped off the stage. The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (GCL), in its fourth season this year, is giving the audience its fill of drama and star sightings. There’s world No. GCL’s franchise-based format lends itself to unpredictability. A win with Black is worth more (four points) than a win with White, which earns three. The teams are a mix of top players and young names, both men and women. “Just watching Vishy is such an inspiration. We have team dinners and play bullet and blitz. Yaagiz (Erdogmus) and I sometimes play bullet for hours. He trash-talks, and it gets crazy competitive and so much fun. I’ve realised it’s a terrible idea to look at Arjun’s (Erigaisi) board during my games for cues on how safe the team should be playing. No matter what, he’s always cooking up chaos.”
On Friday, Carlsen chose to give his Player of the Match award, for defeating Sindarov, to teammate Vidit Gujrathi, who beat Daniil Dubov of the Fyers American Gambits.
