Bulgarian chess player Nurgyul Salimova finished her participation in the Global Chess League 2024 team tournament with 5 points.
The competition, which takes place in London, brought together some of the best players from around the world, who were divided into six teams of six. By regulation, each team consists of one “icon” of chess, two other men, two women, as well as one rising star.
Salim played for the Ganges Grandmasters team, which also included former World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India), World No. 3 Arjun Erigaisi (India), Iran’s Parham Mahsudlu, India’s Rameshbabu Vaishali, and Russia’s 18-year-old Volodar Murzin.
In her ten matches in London, Salimova achieved four wins (two over Valentina Gunina, one over Katerina Lagno and one over Elizabeth Petz), two draws (both against Harika Dronavali) and four losses (two against Alina Kashlinskaya and one against Lagno and Pecs). In the last tenth round, the Bulgarian recorded a draw with the black pieces with Harika Dronavali in the success with 12:4 points over the Masters from Mumbai. With more points in her team – 5.5 each, only Arjun Erigaisi and Volodar Murzin finished. For this reason, Grandmasters from Ganges finished in the last sixth place with 8 match points. The Mumbai champions are fifth with 10 match points.
According to the tournament rules, a win with the black pieces is worth 4 points, a win with the white pieces is worth 3 points, a draw is worth 1 point to both chess players, and a loss is 0 points. For a won match, the team receives 3 points, for a draw – 1 point, and for a loss – 0.
The fate of the title will be decided by a final tiebreaker on Saturday, for which the top two teams qualify after ten rounds of competition. These are the Knights of Alaska, led by the Dutchman Anish Giri, and the Alpine Pipers, led by the ranking leader Magnus Carlsen from Norway.
The prize pool of the Global Chess League 2024 is $1,000,000, which will be distributed among the top four teams in the final standings.