World’s Greatest Chess Brains To Congregate in Dubai for Global Chess League
As many as 13 World Chess champions, including the reigning champion Ding Liren, five-time winners Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, and four-time Women’s World champion Hou Yifan, will be seen in action when Dubai hosts the inaugural edition of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (GCL).
Leading players from 14 countries will participate in the competition, which will be held at the Dubai Chess & Culture Club from 21 June to 2 July. The tournament, offering a prize purse of $1 million, is in association with the Dubai Sports Council.
All teams will compete in a one-of-a-kind joint team format at the Global Chess League. Each team consists of six players, including at least two women players. A total of six teams will compete in the double round robin, played in a rapid format of a maximum two-and-a-half hour duration. All matches will also be telecast live.
Six more world champions, including 2021 World Rapid Chess champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 2021 World Blitz Chess champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 2013 World Rapid Chess champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2008 Blitz Chess World champion Leinier Domínguez, three-time Blitz Chess World champion Alexander Grischuk, and 2018 World Rapid Chess champion Daniil Dubov, are part of the competition.
Apart from Grandmaster (GM) Yifan, the second highest-rated female player of all time, some of the leading women’s players include GM Koneru Humpy, GM Harika Dronavalli, GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, GM Tan Zhongyi, GM Nana Dzagnidze, GM Bella Khotenashvili, GM Nino Batsiashvili, GM Irina Krush and Elisabeth Paehtz, the 2018 European Women’s champion in rapid chess.
The world’s top-ranked chess player Carlsen will be the star attraction. Apart from winning the World Chess title five times, the enigmatic 32-year-old Norwegian is also the reigning four-time World Rapid Chess champion and his peak FIDE rating has been the highest in chess history.
