There is a unique opportunity to watch the world elite in action in London this week. The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (GCL) has Norway’s world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, as its absolute star, and also includes seven others from the world’s top 12: Hikaru Nakamura (United States), Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Vishy Anand (India), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), Alireza Firouzja (France), and Wei Yi (China), as well as the world’s top rated woman, Hou Yifan (China).
Russia’s world No 9 and double world title challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi, along with two other Russian GMs, Alexander Grischuk and Vladislav Artemiev, were apparently denied UK visas. Russian women GMs, however, are competing, including Grischuk’s wife, Kateryna Lagno.
The venue is Friends House, Euston, where play starts at 1.15pm BST each day until 12 October. There are three or four 40-minute matches daily, with a varying interval between the end of one match and the start of the next. The event began on Thursday with a 29-move brilliancy, in which Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda checkmated the Indian Vidit Gujrathi.
Six franchise-based teams of six players will compete daily in the chess version of cricket’s Indian Premier League or American football’s National Football League. Each team includes three men and two women grandmasters, plus an under-21 junior. The GCL claims to be the only league in professional sport where men and women play together on the same team.
The format is rapid chess, 20 minutes per player for the entire game, without any bonus time for each move made. Clock scrambles, blunders and checkmate finishes are all more likely than in slower classical games. Spectator tickets can be booked online, while kick.com, lichess and chess.com will broadcast all the games.
Carlsen’s team, Alpine Warriors, were the favourites. The No 1 arrived in London fresh from his victory earlier this week in the online Julius Baer Cup, part of the Champions Tour which Carlsen and Nakamura have dominated for several years. His final game concluded with a remarkable 19-move white king walk to escape the black queen’s checks. The Norwegian is also world top ranked in both rapid and blitz, and is currently rated 2834 in rapid, 52 points ahead of Wei, his nearest rival.
Alpine Warriors also have the best women’s pair. Hou, 30, the all-time No 2 woman, is semi-retired from chess, with an academic career as a professor at Shenzhen University, but her rare appearances show that she retains her skills. Lagno, 34, the world No 7, has won four world rapid and blitz titles.
However, Alpine Warriors suffered a 17-5 defeat by Triveni Continental Kings in round two of the group stage when Carlsen lost on time in a winning position against Firouzja, while three of his teammates were also beaten.
The event looked as if it would include the world top three, as Erigaisi appeared on the monthly Fide list last Sunday as No 3 after Carlsen and Nakamura. However, that same day the Indian star played for Düsseldorf in the German Bundesliga, blundered fatally on move 65 in a drawn position against the 15-year-old Turk Ediz Gurel, ended up with one queen against two, dropped seven rating points, and finished the day down at fifth place in the live ratings.
A player to watch in London is Firouzja, the in-form world No 7, who won the Sinquefield Cup at St Louis in August and whose magical tactical talents have been compared to Mikhail Tal. The Iran-born Frenchman missed the Olympiad, prompting rumours of a fallout with his national federation and a possible future transfer to the US, where the millionaire Rex Sinquefield has created what is effectively a world chess capital in his home city.
India’s Olympiad victory has been officially recognised and financially rewarded after the prime minister, Narendra Modi, received the winning Open and Women’s teams at his residence. Each player was awarded 20m rupees (about £180,000).
Carlsen is again at the centre of another expanding venture, Freestyle Chess. The version, also known as FischerRandom and Chess 960, where the back rank piece formation is decided randomly to eliminate the drudgery of book openings, had a successful debut in Germany earlier this year.
It is going global in 2025 with a Grand Slam of tournaments in the United States and South Africa, as well as at the original venue near Hamburg. Carlsen will compete in all events, and the attraction for grandmasters is the enormous prize funds. The three 2025 contests will each offer $750,000, rising to a million dollars for the 2026 renewals.
The $2.6m Fide world championship match in Singapore, the $1m Global Chess League and the $2.2m Freestyle Grand Slam are all strengthening a trend in international chess where there are now huge rewards at the very top, which drop sharply and progressively for those outside the leading 10, 20 or 50.
3940: 1 Ng7+! Bxg7 2 g4+! when if 2…fxg4 3 Qh2 mate, or 2…Kh4 3 Qg3 mate, or 2…Kxg4 3 Bd1+ Bf3 4 Bxf3+ Kh4 5 Qg3 mate.
