The uncertainties in games at the Global Chess League is great for the sport: Giri

Anish Giri
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch once said beating Magnus Carlsen was easier than beating Anish Giri. The modest Super Grandmaster from the Netherlands may not quite agree with that assessment, but his team is proving to be unbeatable at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (GCL).

PBG Alaskan Knights has won all its four matches so far. So Giri indeed looked rather pleased at Friends House here on Saturday when he spoke of how exciting chess has been in the league.

He had missed out last year because of his schedule but is delighted he could make it for Season 2. “Everything is great about the league,” Giri told The Hindu. “We may be playing little chess on a day, compared to other rapid and blitz tournaments, but I am okay with it. You can’t prepare much because the colour of your pieces is decided by the toss. So there is a lot of uncertainty, which is great for sport.”

Exciting

He feels this year’s new time control — doing away with the increment that gives added time for the moves a player makes — has also made the games more exciting towards the end.

“Last year too, we saw a lot of thrilling chess, as there were multiple Armageddons and the final was just spectacular,” says the World No. 20. “This season, I feel, we have got one of the best teams, and there have been some great performances by our players, especially Nihal Sarin and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Praise for Nihal

About Nihal, he thinks the youngster has the potential to do much better than what he is doing in classical chess. “He is a tremendous talent and possibly in some areas of the game he is probably more gifted than all the other (Indian) kids,” he says, “He is extremely tactical and excels in rapid and blitz, but classical chess is different and there are certain areas where he has to catch up very much.

Looking forward to the upcoming World title match, Giri believes D. Gukesh is the favourite against Ding Liren. “I will be really surprised if Gukesh doesn’t win,” he says. “Everything points towards him, including the form of both the players.”

(The correspondent is in London at the invitation of Tech Mahindra)