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Journalism of Courage
India star Arjun Erigaisi was one of the players that started a fierce bidding war at the recent Global Chess League draft in Mumbai. Unlike other auctions in Indian sports leagues, where teams use actual money to bid on players, the GCL gives each team a 1000 points to bid on players instead. If a team decides to retain a player from the previous season that’s a 100-point dent in their tally. And despite the American Gambits opting to retain two players — Hikaru Nakamura and Bibisara Assaubayeva — they still went as high as 300 points to secure Arjun, despite only having a starting balance of 800 points. Eventually, they lost out, with the World No 4 landing up at Alaskan Knights where he will join forces with world champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
In fact, the team had a cap of 250 points which it overshot to try and snap up Arjun.
Why?
There are a few reasons behind this.
“I have a personal connection with Arjun. And Hikaru rates him very highly, and we felt he would have been a perfect fit alongside him,” said American Gambits co-owner Prachura PP. “I even went beyond the 250-point cap we set for ourselves just to bid for him, crossing 300 points. Still, with PBG holding 1,000 points compared to our 800, we simply couldn’t outbid them.”
The other big reason was that the team will now have Srinath Narayanan as coach, who was the man who guided Arjun’s career early on in his career.
“Arjun was one of our top preferences. Having him alongside Hikaru, our top American player, would have been a powerful combination. However, we had to balance this with the need to save points for later stages of the draft. In an auction like this, you can’t simply handpick the players you want—every team is building their squad at the same time.”
Despite losing out on Arjun, the Gambits have assembled a strong side in the Draft for season 3, to be played in Mumbai. Having retained Hikaru Nakamura and Bibisara Assaubayeva, American Gambits made key acquisitions at the draft, adding Richard Rapport, Vladislav Artemiev, Teodora Injac, and Volodar Murzin to their squad.
Murzin is the current World Rapid Chess Champion. The team’s think tank rates him highly, seeing him as the X-factor for the season.
“He’s not just a prodigy; he’s already performing consistently at the 2650 level and shows remarkable maturity and reliability for his age. It’s safe to say he’s the strongest junior in the world today,” said Srinath.
Echoing this, Prachura said, “Volodar is the strongest prodigy and the current World Open Rapid Champion. We expect him to deliver critical wins for us, as the prodigy board can be a real differential in this format, and we believe we have the best player there.”
The Chess Olympiad-winning coach also spoke about the unique challenges of coaching in a league format, “In a league, flexibility is key. Unlike established events like the Olympiad, where everything is pre-set, here things change constantly. Different time controls and dynamic situations test your ability to think on your feet. The more challenging it is, the greater the opportunity to stand out.”
Discussing the team’s goals for the season, Prachura stated, “Our primary goal is to win the trophy. Second, we want our players to perform to their full potential so we can retain them, rather than constantly reshuffling the squad. Third, we aim to strengthen our brand and show that the American Gambits are here to win, backed by celebrity co-owner Ravichandran Ashwin and chess legend Hikaru Nakamura.”
