At around 2.30 am IST, PBG Alaskan Knights emerged ahead of the rest in the Global Chess League (GCL) played in London. This came after their tight win against Mumba Masters. In a third-round encounter, after five consecutive draws on the top five boards, Nihal Sarin pulled the rabbit out of the hat. He defeated Raunak Sadhwani to secure the tie for PBG Alaskan Knights against a tough Mumba Masters outfit.
Like every match-up in this event, featuring the cream of world chess, the duel between Alaskan Knights and Mumba Masters was a well-fought one. With the best of players in each side, the intensity was palpable, and every game, every point was vital. True to the closeness of the competition, the top five boards in the Mumba-Alaskan duel were drawn.
The Mumba side has four Indian players, in their team of six. Vidit Gujrathi, Koneru Humpy, D Harika drew their games. And so did Maxime Vachiar-Lagrave and Peter Svidler. That is why Sarin’s win turned out to be a turning point. This young Grandmaster from Kerala is known to be sharp in the shorter formats like rapid and blitz. This competition being played in rapid is not what he is unfamiliar with. There is a long way to go in this six-team double round-robin competition still. Sarin’s performance, however, has put his team in a position to stake a claim for a finalist’s spot.
Because popular media tend to pay attention mostly to the players who have excelled at the top level — D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vanitka Agarwal from the Olympiad brigade — there creeps in a tendency to overlook the next rung. Sarin and Sadhwani are among the top of what is to come from India. Both were part of the India B team that won bronze at the 2022 Chess Olympiad. The competition between the two, if there is any, is a problem of plenty for Indian chess.
As far as the GCL is concerned, the second edition of it has just begun. There is no point in speculating right now who the favourites are. There are so many top players, from so many countries. Almost the cream of world chess is there in London, for this unique event. Indian youngsters making a difference between one and two at this stage is a statement of the state of things to come.