GCL chairperson expects Bengaluru edition to be well received

The Global Chess League, the fourth edition of which opens at Bengaluru on September 5, is aiming to bring the mind sport closer to the common man even as it is attracting new investors, including a football World Cup winner.

The GCL chairperson Peeyush Dubey is delighted that former Spanish defender Gerard Pique has picked up a stake in the franchise Fyers American Gambits, whose owners include former India cricketer R. Ashwin.

“The fact that Piquet has become an investor shows the global interest the GCL has generated,” Dubey told The Hindu over the phone from New Jersey. “Most of the sponsors associated with the league in Mumbai last year are with us for this season too, and there are some new entrants as well.”

This is for the second year in a row that the GCL, a joint venture between Tech Mahindra and global chess governing body FIDE, is being held in India, after the first two editions were staged in Dubai and London. “Our team owners, who are predominantly companies based out of India, always wanted us to be in India” he said. “This is where their customers and audience are; and they are able to attract them, and we saw that happening in Mumbai.”

Dubey is confident that Bengaluru would also respond to the GCL with as much enthusiasm. “Bengaluru has been a city that we were very keen in exploring in terms of how it has been talking about the game, how the technology as a technology company that Tech Mahindra is, how Bengaluru offers that kind of alignment as well with how we are looking at chess,” he said. “And, of course, we work with all our franchises and the larger ecosystem to select the city.”

He expects the Bengaluru edition to be bigger than the Mumbai one. “I think last year’s league was very well received across all over the country and all over the world,” he said. “We reached more than 211 million people across the media. For Season-4, we have already received a lot of interest from various institutions, be it schools or chess clubs in Bengaluru.”