A couple of months after leading upGrad Mumba Masters to the final of the inaugural edition of the Global Chess League in Dubai last year, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was in Kolkata for the Tata Steel Chess India tournament. During an interview, after winning the event’s rapid title in the eastern metropolis, he told this writer how much he enjoyed playing in the new league.
“I thought the concept was very nice,” the affable Frenchman had said. “It is one of the events that help people get involved and root for a team. There is a future for this event.”
Novel experience
The event was a novel experience for the players as well as the fans. Each of the six franchises comprised top male and female players as well as a junior. The final proved a thrilling affair too, with Triveni Continental Kings winning the title via sudden death.
So the expectations are high for Season 2 of the Global Chess League, which kicks off in London on October 3.
The biggest attraction of the league last year was the presence of some of the biggest names in the game, like Vachier-Lagrave. The line-up was headed by Magnus Carlsen, five-time World champion and the planet’s strongest player of all time.
The Norwegian superstar will be there in London. As will Hikaru Nakamura, a master in the league’s format — speed chess.
Global Chess League’s CEO Sameer Pathak is excited that Nakamura has come on board for the new season. “We have refreshed the whole league by the addition of Nakamura and also Anish Giri,” he told The Hindu at Gurugram recently. “It is pretty exciting to see new players joining the league, as their acceptance is important to us.”
Pathak is also happy that the league is on live television (chess usually isn’t). “Last year the league reached out to 150 countries, through television and streaming platforms,” he says. “Most of the broadcasters were showing chess for the first time. And the numbers were very encouraging. We got the best production house that does cricket, volleyball and other sports.”
Chess could indeed gain from quality television coverage. One recalls the excellent live coverage Norwegian channels had for the 2013 World championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Carlsen in Chennai. The channels had flown in large crews for the match and some of them had told this correspondent how big the following back home in Norway was for the match.
Breaking the mould: The tournament showcased chess as a team game and challenged the long-held view that it isn’t a spectator sport. | Photo credit: Getty Images
Pathak says the franchise owners are also happy with the response to the league. Was it difficult to convince them about the league’s scope as chess is not really a spectator sport like cricket, football or kabaddi?
Making it viable
“Yes, it did take us some convincing and their question was — okay, chess is popular but how can you make it viable,” he says. “Four of the team owners that we have right now have multiple sports teams. Some of them have nine teams, some of them have six teams, some of them have four teams. They understand the value of sports in the country and they are already into different sports.
“The owners of Ganges Grandmasters also have a TT team and a kabaddi team. Mumba Masters and Punit Balan Group also own multiple sports teams. SG Sports’ first team was chess and then they went on to buy multiple teams. Triveni is the one that has solely depended on chess, and the company’s founder chairman Dhruv Sawhney was the president of the All India Chess Federation for several years. We are also glad that cricketer R. Ashwin is owning a franchise now [American Gambits].”
The league’s idea was mooted by Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra Group. It is a joint venture of Tech Mahindra and FIDE, the world chess governing body.
“During the pandemic, Mr. Mahindra actually got hooked on online chess,” says Pathak. “During the Online Chess Olympiad, he tweeted about India winning the gold medal. Samay Raina the comedian [and chess buff] tweeted back. Then FIDE also got involved. You may remember that a similar thing had happened earlier with kabaddi. Mr. Mahindra had supported Charu Sharma’s idea about a kabaddi league and Pro Kabaddi took off. He felt chess deserved a sports league, as the game was born in India and the game was growing very fast.”
Popular appeal: Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen lit up the inaugural edition with their star power. | Photo: Special Arrangement
Pathak says work on the league started in early 2021. “Vishwanathan Anand was our mentor, our go-to man and he was signed up early as Mr. Mahindra did not want us to lose the perspective,” he says. “We came up with new ideas and discussed how we could make it interesting for fans, how to make them start watching chess. You may have noticed that we brought in elements from other sports. For instance, coin toss from cricket, as well as the home-and-away concept. You get four points if you win with black pieces, as it is a hit like an away Test match.”
Teamwork makes the dream work
He says the inaugural season showed chess could actually also be a team sport. “If you look at the videos from the league, you could see the team spirit and that was what we were looking forward to,” he says. “I think it was the biggest takeaway from last year’s league — the way Carlsen rallied his team around him or the way MVL [Vachier-Lagrave] shepherded his team all the way to the final. You know, they all got involved in each other’s success.”
In London, Carlsen will lead The SG Alpine Pipers yet again. His team also includes Hou Yifan, an all-time great in women’s chess and four-time World champion, and R. Praggnanandhaa. MVL remains the captain of Mumba Masters and will continue to have the support of India’s best-ever female players Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika as well as the popular Russian star Alexander Grischuk.
Nakamura is the skipper of American Gambits, while Ian Nepomniachtchi, who was the challenger for the last two World championships, is leading Triveni Continental Kings. Giri and Anand are the captains of PBG Alaskan Knights and Ganges Grandmasters, respectively.
Come October, Friends House in London should witness some fascinating moves across those black-and-white squares.
Published – September 06, 2024 11:14 pm IST
