Global Chess League unveils six franchises for season 2

London: The Global Chess League on Monday unveiled the six franchises for its second season to be held in London from October 3 to 12 at the Friends House.

The second season will see the debut of a new team, American Gambits, owned by business leaders Prachura PP, Venkat K Narayana, and Indian cricketer and chess enthusiast Ravichandran Ashwin.

The six franchises competing in the second season include Alpine SG Pipers (APL Apollo-led SG Sports), Ganges Grandmasters (Insurekot Sports), Mumba Masters (Unilazer Ventures), PBG Alaskan Knights (Punit Balan Group), and the inaugural season champions Triveni Continental Kings (Triveni Engineering & Industries Limited).

The players will compete in a unique joint team format consisting of six players, including two top women chess players and a prodigy player per team. Adding to the excitement and anticipation among fans, this innovative format will be aired on major OTT and broadcast platforms worldwide.

In the tournament, 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. Each team will play ten matches across black and white pieces.

The teams will play five matches, with all six players in each team initially playing with the white or black pieces against their opponents, followed by a reverse round in which the entire team will play five matches with the reversed colour pieces against the same opponent.

The winning team for every match will be determined by the points aggregated from wins and draws across all six games played in the match. The top two teams will advance to the final round.

"We are thrilled to welcome the teams for the second season of the Global Chess League. We have found the right partners to strengthen the league’s global reach and look forward to bringing an exciting season of chess to fans worldwide. The teams made season one a huge success and we believe that their impact and popularity will continue to expand in the world of chess," Sameer Pathak, CEO, Global Chess League said.