Divya Deshmukh teams up with Carlsen; Sindarov, Nihal in same team for GCL

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2 min readMumbaiJun 29, 2026 07:47 PM IST

For the 4th season of GCL, defending champions Alpine APL Pipers have added Magnus Carlsen and Divya Deshmukh along with Koneru Humpy, Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi. (Express Photos)

Defending champions Alpine APL Pipers have retooled their roster by adding Magnus Carlsen, Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi and reigning world rapid champion Volodar Murzin for the upcoming season of Global Chess League, to be held in Bengaluru from September 3 to 13. This will be Deshmukh’s first GCL while Carlsen will return after sitting out season 3. World champion Gukesh, women’s world championship contender Vaishali Rameshbabu and R Praggnanandhaa have skipped this season.

Meanwhile, at the GCL Draft held in Mumbai on Monday, the FYERS American Gambits managed to put together an intimidating line-up bolstered by recent Bullet Chess Champion Nihal Sarin, world championship contender Javokhir Sindarov and three-time world blitz champion Bibisara Assaubayeva.

The fourth edition of the Global Chess League will see five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand switch teams for the first time in league history, swapping his Ganges Grandmasters jersey for PBG Alaskan Knights, where he will be joined by Arjun Erigaisi. The team will also have Turkish phenom Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who has been praised as the most talented 14-year-old the sport has ever seen, the youngest grandmaster in chess history Abhimanyu Mishra and veterans like Kateryna Lagno and Nino Batsiashvili.

Two-time winners and last season’s runners-up Triveni Continental Kings made their most decisive moves before the draft, retaining Season 3 MVP Alireza Firouzja, China’s Wei Yi and Zhu Jiner. Then they picked up the promising Indian pair of Aravindh Chithambram and Pranav Venkatesh while also picking up Alexandra Kosteniuk.