Alpine SG Pipers stunned two-time defending champions Triveni Continental Kings to be crowned champions of the third edition of the Global Chess League (GCL) in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The Pipers, who had sealed the final berth after edging Ganges Grandmasters by just one game point, were at their dominant best in the final as they won the first rapid match 4-2 with black pieces and then scored a 4.5-1.5 win with white.

PBG Alaskan Knights finished in third spot after beating Ganges Grandmasters in the tie-breaker.

Triveni Continental Kings went into the final as favourites but the Pipers, who found form in the second half of the league stage, would have felt that the momentum was in their favour.

And that was exactly the case as Nino Batsiashvili and Leon Luke Mendonca, on the prodigy board, once again proved how valuable they have been to the team by winning their respective games.

Nino prevailed over Alexandra Kosteniuk in a bishop-knight endgame, while Mendonca forced Marc’Andria Maurizzi into resigning after 52 moves.

Continental Kings star player Alireza Firouzja defeated Fabiano Caruana on the icon board to bring his team back in contention, but Anish Giri’s win over Wei Yi meant that Pipers took the first match 4-2.

“Yesterday I had a mixed feeling because I had a terrible match but the team reached the final. But today there is no mixed feeling,” said Giri after being named the Player of the Match for his two victories.

On the icon board, Caruana then scored a full point against Alireza, who ran out of time.

Firouzja was named the Male Player of the Tournament.

“It feels great. The last two times, we were quite close to making the final. This time also we barely made it. But in the final everyone showed up with their best game and it is a great feeling,” said Praggnanandhaa after the title triumph.

Earlier, world champion D Gukesh finally managed to beat the legendary Viswanathan Anand when it mattered the most to help PBG Alaskan Knights finish third.

The play-off went to the wire as the Ganges Grandmasters took a 4-2 lead in the first rapid clash with white pieces only for the Alaskan Knights to bounce back with white to take the match into a blitz tie-break.

Anand got the better of Gukesh in the first game of the playoff and had drawn the second, so it looked like the former world champion had the upper hand over the reigning world champion in this competition.