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Chess Super League Playoffs: Kingslayers, Pivotal Pawns To Clash In Sunday's Final
A graphic showing all the results on day six. Image: Samay Raina/YouTube

Chess Super League Playoffs: Kingslayers, Pivotal Pawns To Clash In Sunday's Final

Rakesh
| 12 | Chess Event Coverage

The Kingslayers and Pivotal Pawns will play the finals of the Chess Super League on Sunday. Two more teams were eliminated from the event: the Brutal Bishops and Ruthless Rooks ended their campaigns in third and fourth positions respectively.

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Qualifier 1: Kingslayers vs. Pivotal Pawns: 4-3 (After Armageddon)

Bo. Fed 1 Pivotal Pawns Rtg 3 - 3 2 Fed The Kingslayers Rtg
1.1 GM Ding, Liren 2799 1 - 0 GM Sethuraman, S.P. 2620
1.2 GM Gupta, Abhijeet 2628 ½ - ½ GM Giri, Anish 2774
1.3 GM Abdumalik, Zhansaya 2507 1 - 0 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 2524
1.4 IM Kulkarni, Bhakti 2388 0 - 1 IM Soumya, Swaminathan 2351
1.5 GM Arjun, Kalyan 2537 0 - 1 GM Gukesh, D 2640
1.6 WIM Savitha, Shri B 2281 ½ - ½ WIM Arpita, Mukherjee 2229

The Kingslayers and Pivotal Pawns played Qualifier 1, meaning the winning team heads straight to the final while the losing team gets a second chance in the second semi-final. This topsy-turvy match had plenty of action moments with each team having an upper head at some stage. After the smoke had settled, the match ended in 3-3, meaning that we needed armageddon to decide the first finalist.

In the tiebreaker, GM Sethuraman SP of the Kingslayers beat the birthday boy GM Abhijeet Gupta to ensure their final progression and forcing the Pivotal Pawns to another match.

Sethuraman was all smiles after an Armageddon win. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.


Eliminator: Brutal Bishops vs. Ruthless Rooks: 3.5-2.5

Bo. Fed 4 Brutal Bishops Rtg 3½ - 2½ 3 Fed Ruthless Rooks Rtg
2.1 GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2726 1 - 0 GM Karthikeyan, Murali 2630
2.2 GM Wang, Hao 2744 0 - 1 GM Radjabov, Teimour 2763
2.3 GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2518 1 - 0 GM Harika, Dronavalli 2511
2.4 IM Karavade, Eesha 2345 0 - 1 GM Muzychuk, Anna 2533
2.5 GM Sadhwani, Raunak 2555 1 - 0 IM Raja, Harshit 2494
2.6 WFM Tarini, Goyal 2164 ½ - ½ WFM Salonika, Saina 2206

The Brutal Bishops and the Ruthless Rooks ended in third and fourth places after a 3-3 tie in the last league match. They clashed again in the eliminator. The winner would face Pivotal Pawns while the loser is eliminated.

The Rooks made a swap while the Bishops played their starting line-up. An exciting match saw the Bishops qualifying with the smallest of margins:

Qualifier 2: Pivotal Pawns vs. Brutal Bishops: 4-2 

Bo. Fed 1 Pivotal Pawns Rtg 4 - 2 4 Fed Brutal Bishops Rtg
1.1 GM Gupta, Abhijeet 2628 0 - 1 GM Wang, Hao 2744
1.2 GM Ding, Liren 2799 ½ - ½ GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2726
1.3 IM Kulkarni, Bhakti 2388 1 - 0 IM Karavade, Eesha 2345
1.4 GM Abdumalik, Zhansaya 2507 1 - 0 GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2518
1.5 GM Arjun, Kalyan 2537 ½ - ½ GM Sadhwani, Raunak 2555
1.6 WIM Savitha, Shri B 2281 1 - 0 WFM Tarini, Goyal 2164

After all the earlier tension and drama, this match would decide the second finalist. The importance and coverage of this match were enhanced when the 13th world champion Garry Kasparov himself joined the live stream to provide his thoughts.

13th World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov joined the live coverage. Image: Samay Raina/YouTube

The Pivotal Pawns cashed in their second chance thanks to their top-two finish in the league stage, while the Brutal Bishops had momentum on their side having won the eliminator just 10 minutes earlier. The Pawns' women boards were pivotal for the win as all three of them scored wins in spite of being underrated on every board!

Zhansaya Abdumalik
Zhansaya Abdumalik. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

All games day 6

The Chess Super League will continue with the playoff and finals on Saturday and Sunday. The games are played with a time control of 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment. The total prize fund of the event is Rs.40 lakh (U.S. $54,000).


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Rakesh
IM Rakesh Kulkarni

Rakesh Kulkarni is the Director of Indian Social Media for Chess.com and a correspondent on chess in India.

Rakesh has earned the International Master title and is a former Commonwealth Blitz Champion and a Commonwealth Bronze medallist in the junior category. Rakesh has a Masters of Commerce degree in Management & Business administration. He now is a professional chess player and trains young talents across the globe on chess.com

Company Contact and News Accreditation:
• Email: rakesh@chess.com
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