GCL: Anand, Yifan lead ‘Gangaj Grandmasters’ to big win over ‘Chingari Gulf Titans’

Dubai. The ‘Gangaj Grandmasters’ made a winning start to their campaign in the ‘Global Chess League (GCL)’ as former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Hou Yifan played brilliantly. ‘Gangaj Grandmasters’ defeated ‘Chingari Gulf Titans’ 10-4 here on Thursday night. In the other match of the day, ‘Upgrade Mumba Masters’ registered a thrilling 8-7 win over ‘Triveni Continental Kings’. Five-time world champion Anand used his experience to take advantage of playing with the white pieces and defeated 2021 World Cup winner Jan-Christoph Duda. This is the first time in chess that the pieces of the entire team were decided by a toss.

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In this competition, winning with white pieces gives three points while winning with black pieces gives four points. After Anand’s victory, four-time women’s world champion Yifan of China gave the team another success by defeating another former women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in a thrilling match. There were draws against the other four players of the team. After this strong performance, Anand said, “My team has started well. It is a chess match played under new conditions. We all were curious to see what would happen and how it would happen. It’s been exciting so far.” Despite losing the toss and playing with the black pieces, Mumba Masters pulled off a one-point win against ‘Triveni Continental Kings’ thanks to Alexander Grischuk’s victory from Russia.