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Dubai: World champions, grandmasters to battle it out at first-ever league-style chess tournament

A joint venture by Tech Mahindra and global body FIDE, this new league turns chess into a more exciting game as a team sport

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Parag Shah, Jagdish Mitra, Anand Mahindra, CP Gurnani, Akash Premsen, Ronnie Screwvala, Punit Balan, and Anubhav Gupta were among those present at the Press conference for the inaugural Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. — Photo by Shihab
by

Angel Tesorero

Published: Wed 21 Jun 2023, 10:58 PM

It will be a battle of wits and a war of attrition as iconic chess grandmasters and prodigies compete not individually but as a team at the inaugural Tech Mahindra’s Global Chess League (GCL) kicking off on Thursday, June 22, in Dubai.

GCL, a joint venture by Tech Mahindra and world chess body FIDE, is the first-ever league-styled chess tournament.

There are six teams – backed by corporate sponsors and composed of six players in each team – that will compete in double round-robin matches. The teams will accrue points in rapid chess format, and the top two teams will compete in the final for the top prize as the World Champion Franchise Team.

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Each team is composed of an icon player, superstars, a minimum of two female players, and a chess prodigy who is 21 or younger.

The teams are Ganges Grandmasters (owned by Insurekot Sports); Triveni Continental Kings (owned by Triveni Group / Triveni Engineering and Industries Ltd. and Triveni Turbine Ltd.); SG Alpine Warriors (owned by APL Apollo-led SG Sports); Chingari Gulf Titans (owned by Chingari App (Tech4Billion Group); upGrad Mumba Masters (owned by U SPORTS); and Balan Alaskan Knights (owned by Punit Balan Group).

Members of each team were selected during a drafting session where each team owner had to bid for the player they wanted in their camp.

Innovative chess tournament

GCL envisions chess as a team sport, and no other than Magnus Carlsen — former world champion in classical chess and reigning world champion in rapid and blitz — is the cornerstone of this innovative tournament.

Carlsen is the icon player for SG Alpine Warriors and his team includes three young Indian grandmasters: Gukesh D and Praggnanandhaa R, who are both 17, and 19-year old Arjun Erigaisi. Elisabeth Pähtz, 38, from Germany, and American Irina Krush, 39, are the two women superstars.

Joining Carlsen in the pool of chess icons are former world champion Viswanathan Anand, two-time challenger for the title of World Champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, former Blitz world champion Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, as well the 2021 winner of the chess World Cup Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Turning chess into a team sport

The theme of turning chess into a more exciting game for the global audience resonated during the official opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, who is the icon player of Balan Alaskan Knights, is confident the GCL format will turn chess into a team sport.

Photo by Shihab

He said: “This is very exciting as we now have proper teams. The line-up is very good and the tournament will surely be very successful. It will get a lot of attention from chess fans and from people around the world.”

Targeting 1B chess fans

CP Gurnani, managing director and CEO of Tech Mahindra, said GCL will transform the game of chess. Currently, an estimated 600 million people are active or passive chess players and around 130 million play it online. With GCL, the target is to reach out and make around one billion chess players across the globe.

Indian billionaire businessman Anand Mahindra, who is also the chairman of Mumbai-based business conglomerate Mahindra Group, added that GCL is the fusion of an individual game with all the virtues of a team sport, including collaboration, synergy, mutual support, and fan loyalty to the team.

Photo by Shihab

He noted the time has come for a dramatic increase in the global following for chess. There is also an idealist objective behind the creation of GCL and that is to wean the younger generation away from excessive screen time and instant gratification.

“Chess develops cerebral thinking, deep analytical skills; it builds concentration, patience and focus,” he underlined.

Team line-up

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Angel Tesorero

Published: Wed 21 Jun 2023, 10:58 PM

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