Nakamura, Giri, Vaishali Join Global Chess League For Season 2
GM Hikaru Nakamura will lead the new American Gambits team when the Global Chess League returns for a second season, to be held this October in London. The other Icon players leading their teams are GMs Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and another debutant, Anish Giri. With the player draft completed, the full line-ups are now known, including GM Vaishali Rameshbabu joining Anand's Ganges Grandmasters.
The Global Chess League is back for a second season this October 3-12, and after the first edition was held in Dubai the second will now take place in Friends House in London. Chess.com will be partnering with Tech Mahindra and, with $1 million up for grabs, the hype is only set to grow.
The format is the same, with six franchise teams of six players playing each other twice in rapid chess over ten rounds of action, before a final match. Once again there are Icons, two Superstar Women's boards, two Superstar Men's boards, and a Prodigies' board, with the players competing against rivals on the same boards.
The draft was held in Delhi at the weekend, with each team given 1,000 points to bid on players, and we now know the final line-ups. There are big changes almost everywhere!
| Team | Alpine SG Pipers | Ganges Grandmasters | Mumba Masters | PBG Alaskan Knights | Triveni Continental Kings | American Gambits |
| Icon Player | Magnus Carlsen | Viswanathan Anand | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Anish Giri | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Superstar Men 1 | Praggnanandhaa | Arjun Erigaisi | Vidit Gujrathi | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Wei Yi | Vladislav Artemiev |
| Superstar Men 2 | Richard Rapport | Parham Maghsoodloo | Alexander Grischuk | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | Teimour Radjabov | Jan-Krzysztof Duda |
| Superstar Women 1 | Hou Yifan | Vaishali R | Koneru Humpy | Tan Zhongyi | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Bibisara Assaubayeva |
| Superstar Women 2 | Kateryna Lagno | Nurgyul Salimova | Harika Dronavalli | Alina Kashlinskaya | Valentina Gunina | Elisabeth Paehtz |
| Prodigy | Daniel Dardha | Volodar Murzin | Raunak Sadhwani | Nihal Sarin | Javokhir Sindarov | Jonas Buhl Bjerre |
Let's take a look at the teams one by one.
Alpine SG Pipers
World number-one Carlsen is back to lead the Alpine team after some dramatic moments in 2023.
Actually I had no time left and could not find a queen https://t.co/V1N3kuEIVj
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) June 28, 2023
The only teammate remaining from the 2023 season, however, is Indian GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, who has moved from being a Prodigy to a Superstar. 18-year-old Belgium GM Daniel Dardha occupies the last board, while it's notable that we'll have the overall and women's number-ones on the same team, since Chinese GM Hou Yifan joins Carlsen.
India's GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who played with Carlsen in 2023, understandably skips this year's event, since he'll be deep in preparation for the 2024 FIDE World Championship match against the reigning champion GM Ding Liren.
Ganges Grandmasters
Anand once again heads Ganges Grandmasters, though it's remarkable that the Indian legend is the only surviving member of the 2023 team. There are Global Chess League debuts for GMs Vaishali, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Volodar Murzin, as well as for 21-year-old Bulgarian IM Nurgyul Salimova.
Mumba Masters
Vachier-Lagrave's Mumba Masters, who narrowly lost the final showdown in 2023, stand out for having managed to keep essentially the same team, with the only difference being that GM Raunak Sadhwani replaces GM Javokhir Sindarov on the prodigy board.
PBG Alaskan Knights
In 2023 the Alaskan Knights were headed by Nepomniachtchi, but this year Dutch star Giri makes his League debut as the Icon player.
#WallpaperWednesday done right with Anish Giri π€©
— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) August 14, 2024
Take a screenshot and it will remain with you ππ¨π«ππ―ππ« βΎοΈβ€οΈ#TechMGCL #TheNextMove pic.twitter.com/TaJY7UWqE1
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Women's World Championship Challenger GM Tan Zhongyi are the two team survivors from the first season. IM Alina Kashlinskaya, representing Poland, is playing in the Global Chess League for the first time.
Triveni Continental Kings
We now come to the 2023 champions, but Chinese star GM Wei Yi will be the only player in with a chance of becoming a two-time champion. GM Levon Aronian, a late replacement for Ding as he led the Triveni Continental Kings to the title, will likely be playing in the U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis instead (that may also explain the absence of GMs Irina Krush and Leinier Dominguez). Nepomniachtchi, as mentioned, has switched from being the Icon of the Alaskan Knights in 2023.
American Gambits
American Gambits is the new team in 2024, replacing the Chingari Gulf Titans (whose Icon, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, is in the new squad). Despite the name, the team features only one American player, but what a player—Nakamura will be making his debut in this year's Global Chess League.
Proudly announcing World Number 2, Hikaru Nakamura as our Icon player!@GMHikaru @AmericanGambits @ashwinravi99 #GCL #Thenextmove pic.twitter.com/Kqcgfg4coj
— Prachura (@Prachura1) July 24, 2024
As well as businessmen Prachura P P and Venkat K Narayana, the team is also co-owned by a famous Indian cricketer, spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin.
Who's your pick to win this year's event?
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Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
