Global Chess League: Magnus Carlsen joins forces with Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun for Season 1

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will lead the Ganges Grandmasters side as the icon player. The team will also have Richard Rapport, China’s Hou Yifan.

Magnus Carlsen (left), Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren (right) were all picked as icon players. (PHOTOS: FIDE/Stev Bonhage and David Llada; Grand Chess Tour/Lennart Ootes)

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Magnus Carlsen will team up with a trio of young Indian grandmasters — Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R and Arjun Erigaisi — in the inaugural season of the Global Chess League after the World No 1 was drafted as the icon player for the SG Alpine Warriors late on Tuesday.

Irina Krush and Elisabeth Pahtz will also be part of the SG Alpine Warriors team owned by SG Sports.

Meanwhile, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will lead the Ganges Grandmasters side as the icon player. The team, owned by Insurekot Sports, will also have Richard Rapport, China’s Hou Yifan, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Bella Khotenashvili and Andrey Esipenko.

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The draft also saw Triveni Continental Kings (owned by Triveni Engineering & Industries Limited) pick newly-crowned world champion Ding Liren while Balan Alaskan Knights (owned by Punit Balan Group) picked Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost to the Chinese GM at the world chess championship earlier this year. Meanwhile, the upGrad Mumba Masters (owned by U SPORTS) picked Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as the icon player while three Indians — Vidit Gujrathi, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli — will also be in the side. The sixth team in the fray, Chingari Gulf Titans (owned by Chingari App) picked Jan-Krzysztof Duda as their icon player.

The league is scheduled to take place from June 21st to July 2nd, 2023, at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.