Global Chess League stays in India

The World Chess League (GCL) will keep residence, for one more season. The fourth version of the league, a three way partnership of Tech Mahindra and world chess governing physique FIDE, shall be held later this 12 months.

The third season was carried out in Mumbai final December, with The Royal Opera Home being the venue. It was the primary time the league, that includes a lot of the world’s prime gamers, was staged in India — the primary two editions had been held in Dubai and London. The occasion in Mumbai attracted an excellent crowd on all days.

Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, who was the coach of final 12 months’s champion Alpine SG Pipers, backed the choice to carry the GCL in India once more. “The league might go to a different metropolis this 12 months,” Thipsay advised The Hindu. “I believe it will likely be good to have it in Chennai, the capital of Indian chess.”

The GCL commissioner Gaurav Rakshit mentioned that India’s ardour for the sport and the quickly rising chess ecosystem had made it a pure vacation spot for the league. “The GCL has performed a pivotal position in reworking chess right into a extra dynamic and spectator-friendly sport,” Rakshit mentioned. “We sit up for one other thrilling season that brings collectively the world’s finest gamers and a world fanbase.”

The FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich mentioned that the league had injected new vitality into the game by combining world-class competitors with an interesting crew format. “India continues to play a defining position within the world progress of chess, each via its distinctive expertise and the fervour of its followers,” Dvorkovich mentioned.