The Global Chess League will roll into the UK capital from October 3rd to 12th. The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League will take part in central London, at Friends House, directly opposite the road from Euston Station and also just a couple of minutes’ walk from the London Underground.

The well-known shop Chess & Bridge are the sole retailer of tickets. There is a season pass for all ten days for any particularly keen Londoners, as well as packages available for business, group and chess club visits. Interested parties should simply email info@chess.co.uk for more details. Click all images to enlarge to browser width.

Hot on the heels of his devastating performance in Paris at the Speed Chess Championship, Magnus Carlsen will head up favourites, the Alpine SG Pipers. Their boards 2 and 3, the ‘superstar men’, are Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Richard Rapport, with the two ‘superstar women’ on boards 4 and 5, Hou Yifan and Kateryna Lagno, while the ‘prodigy’ on board 6 is 18-year-old Belgian number one Daniel Dardha.

This year’s team line-ups were determined by a special auction last month in Delhi. Carlsen plays in London as an ‘icon’, as does Vishy Anand – a chess icon if ever there was one – who will lead the Ganges Grandmasters.

The other teams and their leaders are American Gambits with Hikaru Nakamura, Mumba Masters with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, PBG Alaskan Knights with Anish Giri, and Triveni Continental Kings with Ian Nepomniachtchi:

In London, those six sides will do battle over ten rounds of a double-round all-play-all, before the top two play off for the title on Saturday, October 12th. Excitement is guaranteed with a 20-minute time control without increment. Also, who could forget just how exciting the inaugural Tech Mahindra Global Chess League was in Dubai last year, culminating in that sudden death play-off winner of Jonas Bjerre over Javokhir Sindarov.

If you’re going to attend this year’s Global Chess League with some club colleagues and wouldn’t mind playing some chess at the same time, Saturday 5th October is the Global Chess League Open Team Championship, also at Friends House and hosted by Chess.com. Entry is free, there are cash prizes, and just a device is required to play. Teams may register by contacting organiser Peter Hornsby: pbhornsby@gmail.com.

From the Editorial of Chess Magazine 10/94

You can buy the Hottest Ticket in Town here

Please note that chess.co.uk is an authorised reseller of tickets to the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League and is not the organiser of the event.

Chess.co.uk are not able to issue refunds on tickets purchased, except in the event of the event being cancelled or rescheduled.