Crazy day in chess! Magnus Carlsen loses for the first time, boosts Javokhir Sindarov’s GCL final hopes but was denied

ByTech Word News

Magnus Carlsen and Javokhir Sindarov (GCL Photos) BENGALURU: Saturday was the last day of the 2026 Global Chess League (GCL) preliminaries. Two teams, Viswanathan Anand’s PBG Alaskan Knights and Alireza Firouzja’s Triveni Continental Kings, have already been eliminated. Javokhira Sindarova’s American Gambits had an outside chance to qualify for the final here in Bengaluru on Sunday. And the gods listened to their prayers, indeed for some time.The first two positions were taken by Ian Nepomniachtchi of Ganges Grandmasters and Magnus Carlsen of APL Pipers. Both teams lost their matches of the day against Triveni and Alaskan Knights.Carlsen, who plays on the Icon board for Pipers, suffered his first loss of the tournament at the hands of Alireza. Before the start of the GCL, Carlsen warned Alireza that he would “take the f*** out of him”. But when they met earlier in the tournament, when the Norwegian played with black pieces, the game ended in a draw. However, on Saturday, Alireza, playing black, defeated Carlsen to claim his first victory in the tournament.“The tournament was up and down. I think our team had the potential to win the final, but we just had a couple of bad games where we lost by one point,” the 23-year-old grandmaster told reporters after the win over the current world No. “I enjoy scratching the clock. But yes, (it was) obviously a special win.”However, the win was not enough to turn around the qualifiers as the two-time GCL champions finished in fifth place, ahead of only the Alaskan Knights, who won their second match of the day against table-toppers Ganges Grandmasters.

American Gambits suffers from a broken heart

Gambits, the home favourites, had a chance to win their match by a respectable margin of eight points to beat the Pipers and reach the final in the final match of the day. And with the black pieces, they were expected to go all out. And they did too. It worked for a while.Sindarov beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to claim three points, Bibisara Assaubayeva held Harika to a draw and Daniil Dubov drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. But Sara Khadem, Marc’Andria Maurizzi and Nihal Sarin lost their matches against Carissa Yip, Bardiya Daneshvar and Pranesh M.The most shocking defeat came on the Superstar Men board, where Nihal had a considerable advantage over Pranesh but ended up losing in time, ensuring the team would play for third place against the same opponent on Sunday.“In general, it’s always fun to be a spoiler. And of course I like to win. I like to win with the team even more. So it’s just a great way to end the double-round stage,” Yip told reporters after the match.Yip hinted that they beat the Gambits both times, adding ahead of the third-place match: “So right now the track record is on our side. I think we have a lot of momentum, so hopefully we’ll capitalize on that tomorrow.”

GCL 2026 Season 4 Standings

TeamMWLDMPGP1Ganges Grandmasters1064018952APL Pipers1064018883American Gambits1055015864Mumba Masters1055015855Triveni Continental Kings1046012816Alaskan Knights180460

GCL 2026: Schedule for Sunday, September 13

  • Battle for 3rd Place — 3.30pm: American Gambits vs Mumba Masters
  • Final — 6.30pm: APL Pipers vs Ganges Grandmasters