Global Chess League 2023: Triveni Continental Kings wins title

Triveni Continental Kings beat upGrad Mumba Masters in the final to win the inaugural Global Chess League on Sunday in Dubai.

Title winning team Triveni Continental Kings posing with Global Chess League trophy. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Denmark’s Jonas Buhl Bjerre beat upGrad Mumba Masters’ Javokhir Sindarov in a sudden death match as Triveni Continental Kings won the inaugural Global Chess League on Sunday in Dubai.

Mumba Masters and Continental Kings, the top two teams after the ten rounds of the double round-robin tournament, played out a draw in both rapid and blitz rounds in the final.

The match was decided in the sudden death where Harika Dronavalli vs Sara Khadem, Alexander Grischuk vs Yu Yangyi and Koneru Humpy vs Kateryna Lagno also ended in a draw played in blitz time controls of 3 minutes plus two seconds of increment per move.

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The prodigy board of the match-up was lopsided, with the Uzbek teenage sensation, Sindarov beating Jonas five out of six times they had played in the tournament, four wins coming in the final. However, the Danish struck back when it mattered the most under pressure.

The sudden death match between Jonas and Sindarov was all but a draw before the latter missed a mate-in-one as Jonas check-mated him to lead Kings to the inaugural title of GCL.

Jonas Buhl Bjerre (right) of Triveni Continental Kings after the match. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Kings were struggling after the first six matches, winning only two and losing four to sit in the last position of the points table before scripting an epic comeback story for the ages.

Led by Levon Aronian as an icon in the top board and Jonas as a prodigy, Kings had Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi (Superstar Men), Kateryna Lagno, Sara (replacement for Nana Dzagnidze) (Superstar Women),