IMAGE: Hikaru Nakamura of the American Gambits. Photograph: GCL/X
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a steady game against world number two Hikaru Nakamura but made a significant blunder, losing a piece and ultimately the match, as American Gambits defeated upGrad Mumba Masters 11-6 in the Global Chess League in London on Thursday.
The first match of the day between upGrad Mumba Masters and American Gambits was more about pride than results as both the teams are out of finals contention.
With no pressure on the outcome, Mumba — playing as white — started strong, with their players securing favourable positions on four of the six boards.
Despite Vachier-Lagrave’s setback on the icon board, the Mumba Masters had promising positions on other boards, but more trouble soon followed.
On board two, Vidit Gujrathi had a significantly better position against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but he got into time trouble and lost his advantage.
In a blitz finish, Duda capitalised, winning on time and pushing his team to 8-0 lead.
Peter Svidler drew with Wei Yi, scoring the first point for Mumba. Unfortunately for them, on both women’s boards, Humpy Koneru and Karika Dronavalli misplayed significantly better positions, leading to draws.
Mumba’s only win came on the prodigy board. Jonas Bjerre of American Gambits launched an all-out attack against Raunak Sadhwani, even sacrificing a piece.
However, Bjerre miscalculated, and his pieces were trapped, leaving him completely lost.
