Global Chess League’s unique format will attract more audience: Vidit Gujrathi

London: Mumba Masters' Vidit Gujrathi is gearing up for the second season of the Global Chess League, which will take place in London from October 3 to 12 at Friends House, and Vidit wish to improve his performance to help his team earn the Global Chess League winning title.

In the first season, Mumba Masters made their way to the finale with a thrilling win over Alpine SG Pipers on the penultimate day of the competition. "Definitely, our eyes are on the trophy this year. But I wish to improve my performance," the 29-year-old Grandmaster said.

Mumba Masters retained most of their squad from the first season, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave returning as the Icon Player while Vidit and Alexander Grischuk returning as Superstar Men players.

Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli have joined once again as Superstar Women, with Raunak Sadhwani as the Prodigy for the franchise in the second season.

"Last year, we got along well with each other, and the team had a great atmosphere. We will be there for around a couple of weeks, and hence, it is important to also have a good time.”

The 'accidental' chess player, Vidit, was born and raised in Nashik, Maharashtra. When he was around 6 years old, he went to play cricket at a club but was advised to wait for a few years as he was not considered old enough. When given a choice to pick between badminton and chess, he went with the latter, as he already used to play the sport against his father at home.

"I saw it as a good opportunity to learn and beat him. It was a complete accident, but a happy one," Vidit recalled.

Despite growing up in a family of doctors, Vidit was surrounded by like-minded chess enthusiasts and began competing in local tournaments. Seeing his parents being called in to work for late-night emergencies, he decided to pursue a career in sports as he viewed it as a more “stable” career option. “I did not realize then that sports can be more volatile. I made a judgment error, but it worked out well,” he laughed.

In 2017, he became the fourth Indian after Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, and Pentala Harikrishna, to cross the 2700 Elo rating - a feat later achieved in 2019 by Adhiban Baskaran as well.

Vidit, who still holds a rating of over 2700, was among the three Indians who competed in the 2024 Candidates Tournament, an eight-man competition held to determine the Challenger for the World Chess Championship 2024.

Despite two major wins over World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, Vidit was unable to win the tournament but said that he has no regrets as he worked hard for it and gained valuable lessons from it.

"It was one of the biggest tournaments that I played in. I trained for months, and I have no regrets. Such a tournament requires a lot of mental toughness to return from setbacks. If given a chance again, I would focus more on getting mentally ready for high stake situations," he said.

Now, Vidit is eagerly looking forward to the Global Chess League, which will be held in London this year.

The first-of-its-kind franchise-based league features six teams of six players in each team - one Icon player, two superstar male players, two superstar female players, and one prodigy in each team.

Each team will play a total of 10 matches in a double round-robin format, with the winner of each match being decided in a best-of-six board scoring system.

"Global Chess League makes the sport more spectator-friendly and exciting for the fans. It is differentiating itself from other tournaments with the format, designed uniquely to expand its reach, bringing more audience globally to the sport," he signed off.