Billed as the IPL of chess, this will be the second season of the Global Chess League, a ridiculously strong six-team competition run on a franchise system. Each team comprises six players and will take part in a double-round all-play-all, before the top two sides play off for the title. All games are a brisk 20 minutes per player – without any increment – so expect plenty of dramatic time scrambles.

Last year’s inaugural Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in Dubai saw a quite gripping final: Triveni Continental Kings and upGrad Mumba Masters finished level at 6-6. Two rounds of extra time or rather blitz failed to alter the equilibrium, meaning a penalty shoot-out type scenario: a series of sudden death blitz games began, ending when the young Danish Grandmaster Jonas Bjerre defeated teenage Uzbek Olympiad star Javokhir Sindarov.

Following his dominant performance in the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship – crushing Hans Niemann 17½-12½ then Alireza Firouzja by a whopping 23½-7½ in the final in Paris – all eyes will be on the dominant world number one, Magnus Carlsen, who heads up the Alpine SG Pipers. Their two ‘superstar men’ are 19-year-old Indian sensation Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Richard Rapport, with their two ‘superstar women’ also mightily impressive: Hou Yifan and Kateryna Lagno. Throw in 18-year-old Belgian number one Daniel Dardha as the ‘prodigy’ and it’s not hard to see why the Pipers are favourites.

The legendary Vishy Anand is a worthy icon if ever there was one and heads up the Ganges Grandmasters. The former world champion will have to do battle with not just Carlsen, but his fellow icons: Hikaru Nakamura (American Gambits), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Triveni Continental Kings), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Mumba Masters) and Anish Giri (PBG Alaskan Knights).

Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024 participants

Alpine SG Pipers Magnus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa R, Richard Rapport, Hou Yifan, Kateryna Lagno, Daniel Dardha

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

Mumba Masters Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi, Alexander Grischuk, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Raunak Sadhwani

PBG Alaskan Knights Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Tan Zhongyi, Alina Kashlinskaya, Nihal Sarin

Triveni Continental Kings Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wei Yi, Teimour Radjabov, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina, Javokhir Sindarov

American Gambits Hikaru Nakamura, Vladislav Artemiev, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Elisabeth Paehtz, Jonas Buhl Bjerre

The team line-ups were determined by an auction, which took place in August in Delhi. Each franchise was allocated 1000 points for five players in their team (the icon top boards were already decided), with any players they wished to retain from last year costing 200 points. Bidding for each new player began at 50 points and could go all the way up to 800!

To buy tickets for the Global Chess League (Friends House, London) please visit chess.co.uk. Tickets are available for each of the 10 days: Thursday October 3rd to Saturday October 12th. For the very keen, there’s also the option of a season pass, and packages are available for group and chess club bookings – contact info@chess.co.uk for more details.

Play begins at 1pm on each of the first nine days, with further rounds at 3pm and 4.45pm, as well as 2.15pm on some days (the final kicks off at 2.15pm on October 12th). There will be a lot of chess, high quality chess at that, as well as commentary at the venue and analysis for the audience supplied between rounds.

It is raining in Budapest, but rain alone is not the culprit of Carlsen’s woes. After severe accommodation issues (see reports from Monaco, Scotland and Germany / Turkey / England / Anish Giri / Croatia) players had to be scattered among different hotels. GM Stefanova predicted the main problem of the event as accommodation problems transposed to transfers and transportation problems.

Magnus Carlsen is not the only one arriving soaking wet in the playing hall, but has all cameras pointed to him. Will the wet conditions stop Carlsen from helping Norway today? Follow the game live here

After the match Firouzja congratulated Carlsen on the win and said, “Congrats Magnus Carlsen. See you in New York.” to which the Norwegian agreed with a shake hand emoji.

The World Rapid and Blitz collected massive criticism for the timing, cost, and lack of communication. Later FIDE reacted to the problem by changing the format making it a knockout where only the top players will play on New Year’s Eve. Yet, this has not solved the issue yet, as anyone who has a chance to qualify for the final stage will actually have to book an extra night.

Carlsen and Firouzja will not have the chance to play at the Chess Olympiad 2024 before that, as Carlsen is board 1 for Norway, while Firouzja has decided to skip the event More about Chess Olympaid 2024 : Chess Olympiad 2024 live games / Participants open / Participants women / All news about Chess Olympiad 2024

Magnus Carlsen will play Alireza Firouzja in the SCC final. The top French player defeated Hikaru Nakamura 16-11. Firouzja lauded Nakamura’s chess strength through the years, “He is very impressive. It’s a pity I didn’t play him when he was like 25-26, I think it would’ve been a much greater match, much closer match probable. He’s one of the legends, of course.”

Pre-match interviews: GothamChess: Interview with Magnus Carlsen / GothamChess: Explosive Hans Niemann interview

Here is an interview with Magnus Carlsen by GothamChess on various topics.

Replay: Anish Giri reveals moves of the “Beach Game” between Niemann and Carlsen

See also: GothamChess explosive interview with Hans Niemann / GothamChess interview with Magnus Carlsen / Carlsen – Niemann SCC is the Yusuf Dikec of chess

Replay: Anish Giri reveals moves of the “Beach Game” between Niemann and Carlsen

Upcoming: Chess Olympiad 2024 live games / Live blog / Participants open / Participants women / All news about Chess Olympiad 2024 / On Twitter/X here

Follow the live games, with live video and analysis here on Chessdom.com

The timeline of events related to the Carlsen – Niemann case:

Carlsen – Niemann repeats the pattern of Yusuf Dikec. The cheating allegations took the internet by storm in September 2022 (scroll down for the full story below, yes, including Elon Musk!). Now they meet in the Paris Speed Chess Championship SCC semi-final, a match that has the very special electric charge that the chess audience wants. Yet, chances are everyone will follow the semi-final and almost no one will care who gets the gold in the next round.

Carlsen – Niemann SCC 2024 live here

GM Magnus Carlsen qualified for the Speed Chess Championship 2024 Semifinals, live in Paris on September 6, after defeating GM Arjun Erigaisi with a 12-9 score. He will play GM Hans Niemann in the next match, the first time they will meet for a game in-person since 2022. GM Hans Niemann has surged to number 16 in the world on the live rating list after a series of matches he’s organized entitled “Hans Niemann Against The World.”

The timeline of events related to the Carlsen – Niemann case:

SCC Paris 2024 schedule

Sep 6, 2024

Hikaru Nakamura vs Alireza Firouzja — Live from Paris 7:00 PM GMT+5

Sep 6, 2024

Magnus Carlsen vs Hans Niemann — Live from Paris 11:00 PM GMT+5

Sep 7, 2024

Consolation (3rd place match) — Live from Paris 9:00 PM GMT+5

Sep 8, 2024

Title Match — Live from Paris 9:00 PM GMT+5

However, what we see today is actual rating deflation of the top players in the world. In July 2017 there were six players over 2800 (Carlsen at 2822, Kramnik 2812, Wesley So 2810, Levon Aronian 2809, Caruana 2807, and Mamedyarov 2800). The same month the top 10 average was 2781, while there were 47 players above 2700 ELO!

Looking at the 2700chess.com live rating list today, there are two players over 2800 (Carlsen, whose rating is 2832 i.e. higher than July 2017, and Nakamura 2802), the top 10 average is 2776, and there are only 31 players above 2700!

The reasons for rating deflation

One of the major reasons for rating deflation is changes in the rating floors of FIDE. Rating floor was 1800 before 2001, then it was decreased to 1600, 1400, 1200, and finally 1000 in August 2012. While this was recently fixed (and will probably get another fix soon), there is a 10 year inherit problem of players who started with low rating and are scraping points from seasoned players with every draw and decisive game.

Another issue is actually a positive news for chess. A huge influx of youngsters with very low ELO, yet much higher skill. Over time, this new generation is propagating the lower rating through the system, while many of the old stars are fading. Thus, the rate of players falling below 2700 ELO is higher than the rate of repopulating the club.

There are other reasons, ranging from global political instability to local federation issues, from better coaching practices to higher access to chess engines. All this combined forms a thread of deflation in the 2700 club. Yet, as the popular song goes, “always walk on the bright side of life”: the rating deflation makes the 2700 list even more prestigious place to be!

Make sure to check out often the fantastic 2700chess.com website, not only for their tracking of the 2700 club, but also the top women list, the junior top 20 list, and more