GCL 2025: Alpine SG Pipers clinch title to end Triveni Continental Kings’ reign
The reign of Triveni Continental Kings is finally over. There is a new champion at the Global Chess League.
Alpine SG Pipers scored a convincing victory in the final over Continental Kings — the winner of the first two editions — at the Royal Opera House on Tuesday. It was indeed a superb show by SG Pipers, whose campaign hadn’t got off to the brightest of starts, losing both its first matches. And it had reached the final in the most dramatic fashion, too, scoring just one more game point than Ganges Grandmasters in the league phase.
On the other hand, Continental Kings had reached the final with a round to spare. But this morning, the defending champion’s coach Loek van Wely had said over breakfast: “In the final, we start at 0-0.”
And the final certainly didn’t go well for his team. After losing the first match 2-4, the defending champion had to win the second, while SG Pipers had needed only a draw.
But the SG Pipers won the second match by an even bigger margin – 4.5-1.5. Anish Giri shone brightest in the final for them, beating Wei Yi twice. But as coach Pravin Thipsay said, it had been a great team effort throughout the tournament, with contributions from Fabiano Caruana, R. Praggnanandhaa, Hou Yifan, Nino Batsiasvhvili and Leon Mendonca.
“We were keen to finish the final without going into tie-breaks,” said Thipsay about the triumph that came in his hometown.
Earlier, PBG Alaskan Knights took the third place, beating Ganges Grandmasters in tie-breaks.
RESULTS
Final
Triveni Continental Kings lost to Alpine SG Pipers 2-4 (Alireza Firouzja bt Fabiano Caruana; Wei Yi lost to Anish Giri; Vidit Gujrathi drew with R. Praggnanandhaa; Zhu Jiner drew with Hou Yifan; Alexandra Kosteniuk lost to Nino Batsiashvili; MarcAndria Maurizzi lost to Leon Mendonca).
SG Pipers bt Continental Kings 4.5-1.5 (Caruana bt Firouzja; Giri bt Wei; Praggnanandhaa bt Vidit; Hou drew with Zhu; Batsiashvili lost to Kosteniuk; Mendonca bt Maurizzi).
Third place playoff
Ganges Grandmasters bt PBG Alaskans Knights 4-2 (Viswanathan Anand bt D. Gukesh; Vincent Keymer lost to Arjun Erigiasi; Javokhir Sindarov bt Leinier Dominguez; Polina Shuvalova bt Kateryna Lagno; Stavroula Tsolakidou lost to Sarasadat Khademalsharieh; Raunak Sadhwani bt Daniel Dardha).
Knights bt Ganges 3.5-2.5 (Gukesh drew with Anand; Arjun bt Keymer; Dominguez bt Sindarov; Lagno lost to Shuvalova; Khademalsharieh lost to Stavroula; Dardha bt Sadhwani).
Tie-break 1: Ganges lost to Knights 2.5-3.5 (Anand drew with Gukesh; Keymer lost to Arjun; Sindarov bt Dominguez; Shuvalova lost to Lagno; Stavroula lost to Khademalsharieh; Sadhwani bt Dardha).
Tie-break 2: Knights bt Ganges 4-2 (D. Gukesh bt Viswanathan Anand; Arjun Erigaisi bt Vincent Keymer; Leinier Dominguez bt Javokhir Sindarov; Kateryna Lagno bt Polina Shuvalova; Sarasadat Khademalsharieh lost to Stavroula Tsolakidou; Daniel Dardha bt Raunak Sadhwani).
(The writer is in Mumbai on the invitation of Tech Mahindra)
Published on Dec 23, 2025