The success of the Indian Premier League spawned imitations across Indian sport. From football to kabaddi and now volleyball, handball, rugby, and even arm wrestling, everyone's on the bandwagon. But it's not been smooth sailing: The Indian Super League has been in a muddle for the last few years, and the popular Pro Kabaddi League is scaling back drastically. It's into this chaotic environment that, four years ago, chess stepped in.
The board game, long seen as the haunt of the intellectually elite, has been democratised in unprecedented fashion over the past decade, and the Global Chess League (GCL) is a prime example. Unlike other leagues that seem to be on a downward trend over the past few years, the GCL seems to be on the way up: take the packed venue in Bengaluru (which hosted season 4 of the GCL - won by the Ganges Grandmasters) on weekday evenings for proof. This year, the GCL has had its biggest crowds and social media engagement since its launch, and it's also had its biggest income.
Next year, says Peeyush Dubey, the chairperson of the GCL, the aim is to be bigger and better in terms of all that and pioneer more technological innovations. Last season, for example, they introduced a giant screen inside the playing hall and headphones for all in the audience so they could understand every game. That brought more people into the playing halls, and that has contributed to how Bengaluru has responded to the GCL this year.
This pivot towards technology isn't accidental. Look at the main sponsors for the league, TechMahindra, and the logos that dot the team jerseys. Dubey and Prachura PP, owner of the Fyers American Gambits team, both pointed out how the number of technology companies that are on board as sponsors is because of how they see chess as a natural fit for their brands. This year in Bengaluru, for example, the GCL assumed before the league that they would get in these sponsors from the technology space. "They have all the talent, typically the techie kind in Bangalore. That was our hope that we'll have that. It was one of the assumptions that we made and it was true," Dubey says. For future monetization, tech companies hold the key.
All that is in the background, though. The USP of the league is its ability to showcase the best chess players in the world, on Indian soil, a place where the sport has boomed after the COVID-19 pandemic enforced lockdown (where online chess was a major hit). That connection between fans and players (not necessarily Indian) sets GCL apart.
Global Indian League
Suhail Chandhok, the CEO of the U Mumba franchises that owns a team in the GCL, the PKL and the UTT (Table Tennis) tells ESPN, "I've been a commentator on the PBL (Premier Badminton League), and I remember we had PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal: 5000 people in the audience. Tai Tzu Ying, Carolina Marin: 200 people in the audience. And I'm going, 'what is happening?' And they were world No 1 and 2."
The GCL is very different. Here, the fans crowd the area just outside the playing hall, waiting for a Magnus Carlsen, a Javokhir Sindarov, a Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, a Levon Aronian to walk out, just so they can get an autograph. GCL attracts the best players in the world every year, and that Dubey says, is why the league will always be global: because its superstars are.
The big-name players enjoy the GCL too, especially now that it's happened in India the last two seasons. Carlsen, Sindarov, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, and Levon Aronian have all spoken about how the fandom for chess in India is unrivalled. Carlsen called it "unbelievable".
But that also forms one of the league's challenges. Everything the league does now is India-centric, and it will remain so for the foreseeable future. Dubey says this is because he believes India is the centre of the chess world. Taking the league out of India now would only be to places like the Middle East or Singapore, because that is how they continue to be convenient for its Indian fans to watch.
Is the league, then, a truly "global" league? It is, Dubey argues, because for a Volodar Murzin or a Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, this is global. They don't play often in India anyway, with the country's dearth of top-tier chess events in the FIDE calendar. So, as long as the GCL attracts the best players in the world, it will always remain global, Dubey says.
GCL's upward momentum
And that's what ties up the financial foundation of the league; what makes the owners bullish about the long-term future of the GCL in a country where non-IPL sports leagues are still solving the sustainability puzzle.
The title sponsors of the teams are signed up on long-term deals, and those were at the behest of the sponsors themselves. They know they have gotten on the train early, and they don't want to deboard as it gathers more steam. "I think for the next 20 years, I see India being a dominant force in this sport. And that to me is enough signal that it (GCL) is here to stay. And I think just the quality of players... If you don't have the best players, you know, it's a struggle to sell the league," says Chandok. Prachura adds that the credibility given to the GCL by its affiliation with FIDE gives it an advantage.
Ultimately, though, businesses don't (and perhaps can't) wait too long. What are they putting money into? Are they receiving something tangible in exchange? In four seasons, the GCL franchises haven't broken even, but the league itself is a lot closer to breaking even than the franchises. Both Chandhok and Prachura, however, say the signs are positive. The sponsorships revenues are growing, and that is important, because sponsorships form the biggest chunks of the franchises' incomes. Chandok says that this year ticketing has become an actual valuable resource as well.
With central revenue sharing also a part of the franchises' incomes, the league being in a healthy financial position logically means that the franchises must soon follow suit as well.
Dubey says that just this year they have received more expressions of interest than ever, and had to set a bar for themselves, in terms of the monetary values of deals they discuss. "The audience for chess is expanding," says Dubey, "and when the audience of chess expands, it is good because this is a different demographic than let's say kabaddi or any other sport. So, there are too many companies that need to reach that demographic."
Another aspect that sets GCL apart is uniquely Indian - the government's ban on real-money gaming. Chandok mentioned how this ban has seriously impacted sports league across the country, from the state cricket leagues to the PKL financially. While GCL franchises have now found a way around it, there still needs to be a long-term solution to fill the void this has created, he argues. Other leagues in India have not been able to get the kind of sponsorship GCL has from the tech sector due to the nature of chess, which has contributed to the growth.
Global and Indian at the same time, things are looking up for the GCL for now. Companies are willing to invest in the sport, franchises are seeing avenues to make money back from the sport, and the GCL itself only sees itself becoming bigger and better with every passing year. At the core of it are the two beating hearts of chess at large: the sport's superstars, and India.
