Three teams, one point, two rounds to go. That's where the Global Chess League's group stage stands after Thursday's play in Bengaluru, and honestly, you couldn't have scripted it tighter.

Defending champions Alpine APL Pipers, FYERS American Gambits and Ganges Grandmasters are all sitting on 15 match points after eight rounds. Pipers and the Gambits edge ahead on game points with 73 apiece, the Grandmasters trail by one on 72. CheQ Mumba Masters are still alive in the mix too, on 12 match points and 73 game points, after a 14-5 hammering of Triveni Continental Kings kept their final hopes breathing.

Thursday itself swung like a pendulum. The Grandmasters opened by beating the Pipers 12-4 without dropping a single game, only to lose 13-5 to the American Gambits in the last match of the day. Stavroula Tsolakidou got that run started for the Grandmasters, handing Koneru Humpy her second loss of the tournament. Pipers, stung but not out, bounced back to beat the PBG Alaskan Knights 11-6.

The day's standout performer was Levon Aronian. The two-time World Cup winner turned around a losing position against Anish Giri, grinding out a 61-move win with an extra knight in the endgame, and then beat Nihal Sarin in the day's final match to complete a personal double. His team still lost four of six matches on the night and gave up the lead they'd built, which tells you how the league's format keeps punishing even strong individual boards.

Aronian was named Player of the Match and didn't pretend it was all technique.

"I got lucky, very lucky. But I always believed that that I can find the best moves despite playing very badly in the start. May be not losing the game was what I deserved but winning of course is a huge luck," he said.

Elsewhere on the boards, Candidates 2026 winner Javokhir Sindarov beat Ian Nepomniachtchi, Daniil Dubov got the better of Leinier Dominguez Perez, and Bibisara Assaubayeva handed Polina Shuvalova her first defeat of the season. Marc'andria Maurizzi picked up three points after Luke Leon Mendonca ran out of time on the prodigy board.

Earlier in the day, Magnus Carlsen had put the Pipers back in front against the Grandmasters with a win over Viswanathan Anand, and Koneru Humpy notched her fourth win of the tournament against Nino Batsiashvili before the Grandmasters' late fightback flipped the match anyway.

With three teams separated by fractions and Mumba Masters lurking, Thursday's late fixtures against the Alaskan Knights, American Gambits and Mumba Masters could decide who actually gets to call themselves table-toppers heading into the knockouts. Two rounds. One point. Bengaluru isn't done yet.