Carlsen and the elite in London for Global Chess League

There is a rare opportunity to watch the elite in action in London this week. The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, now in its second season, brings together Magnus Carlsen, world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura of the US, and many other leading grandmasters to Friends House, Euston, from October 3 to 12. Six teams of six players are each led by an icon, with two male and two female stars and a male junior.

Spectator tickets can be booked online at chess.co.uk. The fast time limit of 20 minutes per player per game, without any bonus time for each move made, guarantees some exciting time scrambles and checkmate finishes. All games can be watched online at lichess.org or chess.com.

Carlsen is sure to take the event seriously, as the games will be rated by Fide, the global chess body, for its monthly rapid list. The Norwegian currently leads that list by a comfortable 52-point margin from his nearest rival, China’s Wei Yi, who is also playing in London.

Alpine Warriors, Carlsen’s team, are the likely favourites not only because of the No 1 but even more because its women’s pair, the all-time No2 Hou Yifan and Russia’s Kateryna Lagno, seem clearly the strongest female duo.

The six teams are franchise-based, so that significant interest will be on how individual performances follow on from last week’s Olympiad in Budapest, where India swept the gold medals. Three of that winning team will be in London, although its leader, Gukesh Dommaraju, will be preparing for his world title match against China’s Ding Liren which starts on November 20.

India’s Olympiad success was officially recognised when the prime minister, Narendra Modi, received the winning Open and Women’s teams at his residence. Each player was awarded Rps20mn (about £180,000).

Only Nakamura of the leading US players will be present in London this week, due to a clash with the US Championship in St Louis, which starts on October 10 and where the world No 3 Fabiano Caruana is favourite to retain his title against a field which includes the controversial Hans Niemann.

A player to watch in London is Alireza Firouzja, the in-form world No 5, who won the Sinquefield Cup at St Louis in August. The Iranian-born Frenchman did not play in the Olympiad, prompting rumours of a fallout with the national federation and a possible future transfer to the US, where the FT reader and millionaire Rex Sinquefield has created what is effectively a world chess capital in his home city.

That in turn raises the interesting prospect of the 2026 Olympiad at Tashkent, Uzbekistan, becoming a serious race between India and the US, with the host nation’s young team, which won gold in 2022 and bronze in 2024, also in the mix.

Meanwhile Arjun Erigaisi, whose 10/11 was the best individual score of the Olympiad, suffered a shock defeat on Sunday when he represented Düsseldorf, the title favourites in the German Bundesliga. Pushing too hard for a win in a drawn queen and pawn ending against the Turkish 15-year-old, Ediz Gurel, Erigaisi blundered fatally at move 65 and found himself in a hopeless position with one queen against two.

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