Third season of Global Chess League set to kick off with star-studded field

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
12/14/2025 – The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League returns for its third season from 14 to 23 December, continuing its franchise-based format that combines elite male and female players in the same teams. Featuring a $1,000,000 prize fund and a joint team structure with fixed lineups, the league again brings together established stars and juniors, with the title to be decided through a double round-robin stage followed by a two-match final.
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Icons in Mumbai: Anand, Gukesh, Nakamura, Caruana, Firouzja and MVL

The third season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (TechM GCL) will take place from 14 to 23 December, continuing the franchise-based competition that brings together elite players in mixed-gender teams. The league features a joint team format, with men and women competing alongside each other, and carries a total prize fund of $1,000,000. The first two editions of the event were both won by Triveni Continental Kings, who return as the defending champions.

The prize fund is divided across several performance criteria. $500,000 is allocated based on teams' final standings, while $450,000 is distributed according to game points scored during matches. An additional $50,000 is awarded to the overall winning team. This structure places consistent emphasis on results across all boards throughout the tournament, not only on match wins.

Each team fields six players in a fixed order for the duration of the event. The highest-rated player, designated as the Icon, plays on board one. Boards two and three must be occupied by men, boards four and five by women, and board six by a junior player born in 2003 or later. This composition rule is a defining feature of the league and is designed to integrate established stars with younger talent in a single competitive framework.

Global Chess League 2024

Triveni Continental Kings celebrating their 2024 victory | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The competitive structure of the league is divided into a Preliminary Stage and a Final, with progression and the title decided through a combination of game results and match outcomes:

Preliminary Stage

  • Played as a double round-robin, with each team facing every other team twice.
  • Teams are ranked by match points, which determine the final standings.
  • The top two teams at the end of this stage qualify for the Final.

Final

  • Contested between the top two teams from the Preliminary Stage.
  • Played as a best-of-two set of matches.
  • The team that scores the most match points across the two matches is crowned champion.

Time control

  • All games are played with 20 minutes for the entire game, with a 2-second increment starting from move 41.

Game points (used to decide individual matches)

  • 4 game points for a win with the black pieces.
  • 3 game points for a win with the white pieces.
  • 1 game point for a draw.
  • 0 game points for a loss.

The team with the higher total of GPs wins the match.

Match points (used for standings)

  • 3 match points for winning a match.
  • 1 match point for drawing a match.
  • 0 match points for losing a match.

Additional regulations

  • Before each match, a coin toss determines which team has the choice of colours.

Global Chess League 2025

Teams

Global Chess League 2025

Triveni Continental Kings upGrad Mumbai Masters Ganges Grandmasters
Icon GM A. Firouzja GM M. Vachier-Lagrave GM Vishy Anand
Superstar Men GM Wei Yi GM W. So GM V. Keymer
Superstar Men GM Vidit Gujrathi GM S. Mamedyarov GM J. Sindarov
Superstar Women GM A. Kosteniuk GM Koneru Humpy IM S. Tsolakidou
Superstar Women GM Zhu Jiner GM Harika Dronavalli IM P. Shuvalova
Prodigy GM M. Maurizzi GM B. Daneshvar GM R. Sadhwani
Alpine SG Pipers American Gambits PBG Alaskan Knights
Icon GM F. Caruana GM H. Nakamura GM Gukesh D.
Superstar Men GM Praggnanandhaa R. GM R. Rapport GM A. Erigaisi
Superstar Men GM A. Giri GM V. Artemiev GM L. Dominguez
Superstar Women GM Hou Yifan GM B. Assaubayeva IM S. Khadem
Superstar Women GM N. Batsiashvili IM T. Injac GM K. Lagno
Prodigy GM L. Mendonca GM V. Murzin GM D. Dardha

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Topics: Global Chess League 2025
Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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