Chess | After breaking even in season three,GCLset to expand, says chairperson Dubey

The Global Chess League has broken even in just the third season, beating the expectations of the organiser Tech Mahindra. “When we started the league, we were hoping to do it in five to seven years, but we have done it even sooner,” the GCL’s chairperson Peeyush Dubey told the The Hindu. “One of the reasons is that chess has grown much more popular during the last three years.”

He said the league could interest the world’s major tech companies. “Even in Season two last year, we had some initial interest from sponsors,” said Dubey. “But this year, if you look at the sponsor slate, it is like any other league in the world. Yeah, it is thrilling. IBM, AMD, Microsoft, Google… they are all here.”

The third season, which ended in Mumbai on Tuesday, was the first in India for GCL, after travelling Dubai and London. Dubey said already four cities had expressed interest to host the fourth edition, to be held from September 2 to 13, next year. “We were surprised by the response from the audience in Mumbai,” he said. “I think for any game, it is important to be where the fans are.”

Dubey said there were plans to expand the league. “If we continue to see the kind of response that we are getting, we do not think that we will only have to contend with one big league in the year,” he said. “It is possible for us to have some other formats, like a minor league with the same teams in a different country and then bring it back to the key location. Unlike most other sports, it is possible for us to create a league which has multiple engagements throughout the year rather than only one big thing.”

Dubey said chess never received the recognition and the commercial success that some of the other games received. “We believe that is primarily because the sport is seen as a solitary game, which does not make it very exciting for the spectators to watch, and that is what we wanted to change with the GCL,” he said. “We felt there was a good opportunity. We are glad that GCL is delivering on that promise.”