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Marcandria Maurizzi registered a last-gasp win over Volodar Murzin on the prodigy board to help defending champions Triveni Continental Kings beat Fyers American Gambits 8-7 and consolidate their position at the top of the leader board in the Global Chess League (GCL) in Mumbai on Saturday.
It looked like American Gambits had thrown the race for the top two spots wide open, having hammered second placed Mumba Masters 16-1 in the first match of the day and had taken a 7-4 lead against the Continental Kings after Theodora Injac defeated Alexandra Kostenieuk on the women’s superstar board.
This meant that Maurizzi had to beat world rapid champion Murzin on the prodigy board with black to earn four game points to extend Continental Kings lead at the top of the table and he did that in style to win the match for his team and also earn the Player of the Match award.
Earlier, Mumba Masters’ hopes of sealing a final spot suffered a major setback after they were crushed by American Gambits in the reverse fixture.
Vladislav Artemiev started the team’s march with a convincing win over Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura then beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the icon board in 55 moves.
Player of the Match Richard Rapport then put the result beyond doubt with a win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In fact, Bardiya Daneshwar was the only Mumba Masters’ player to earn a point after he drew with Volodar Murzin.
Second-placed Mumba Masters’ slip up opened the doors for the other teams and Ganges Grandmasters’ closed the gap with a 10-9 win over Alpine SG Pipers.
Vincent Keymer defeated Anish Giri and 2025 World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov got the better of R Praggnanandhaa to put the Grandmasters in the driver’s seat. But Hou Yifan and Leon Luke Mendonca won their respective matches with black to bring Pipers back in contention.
This meant that the game on the icon board between Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana was important to decide the outcome. The Indian legend managed to hold on in 39 moves to ensure that the team scored valuable three match points and take their tally to 12.
