Global Chess League 2024: London’s Historical Friends House set to witness chess world’s best

Many of the game’s biggest names, like Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Hou Yifan are in London for the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the second edition of which opens Thursday.

A joint venture between Tech Mahindra and the world chess governing body FIDE, this is a unique event in which every team comprises male, female and junior players.  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Friends House has a fascinating history. The neo-Georgian-style building on Eustace Road in central London won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ bronze medal in 1927 and has many tales to tell.

It was here that Mahatma Gandhi made his first public speech in London when he came for the Round Table Conference in 1931. One of Gandhi’s best-known admirers, Martin Luther King, was accorded a reception at this venue ahead of his Nobel Prize ceremony in 1964.

Six decades later, Friends House will host some of today’s great minds from a different sphere -- chess. Many of the game’s biggest names, like Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Hou Yifan are all here for the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the second edition of which opens Thursday.

A joint venture between Tech Mahindra and the world chess governing body FIDE, this is a unique event in which every team comprises male, female and junior players. The points system is different too – four points for a win with black pieces and three with white. The time control is 20 minutes with no increment.

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The timing of the league could not have been better: right after India’s historic twin triumph at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest and before the World title match between Ding Liren and D. Gukesh starts in Singapore on November 23. Some of India’s gold medal winners from the Olympiad are here – Arjun Erigaisi, R. Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, D. Harika and R. Vaishali.

At the Global Chess League, some of them will be playing against each other. It should be an interesting game when Praggnanandhaa takes on Arjun, for instance. “Such match-ups make the league exciting,” the league’s CEO Sameer Pathak told The Hindu. “And we are all also excited that all the tickets for the weekend are sold out.”

The teams:

Alpine SG Pipers: Magnus Carlsen, R. Praggnanandhaa, Richard Rapport, Kateryna Lagno and Daniel Dardha.

Triveni Continental Kings: Alireza Firouzja, Yi Wei, Timour Radjabov, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina and Javokhir Sindarov.

PBG Alaskan Knights: Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattarov; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Tan Zhongyi, Alina Kashlinskaya and Nihal Sarin.

American Gambits: Hikaru Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Yu Yangyi, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Elisabeth Paehtz and Jonas Buhl Bjerre.

Upgrad Mumba Masters: Maxime Vachier--Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi, Peter Svidler, Koneru Humpy, D. Harika and Raunak Sadhwani.

Ganges Grandmasters: Viswanathan Anand, Arjun Erigaisi, Parham Maghsoodloo, R. Vaishali, Nurgyul Salimova and Volodar Murzin.