Teammates at Global Chess League, rivals soon: How Praggnandhaa, Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana look at being part of Alpine SG Pipers together ahead of Candidates next year

As the final step to playing in the World Championship, the Candidates is the most gruelling test of character there is, an event where only finishing first matters. At a World Championship, you prepare for one opponent. At the Candidates, you prepare for seven, all of whom come to the table with potent concoctions of prep. It’s an all-out war of an event, to prepare for which, players hold long training camps where they dive headlong into deep lines. In chess, where elite players are anyway guarded about their prep and their seconds, the prospect of playing in an event like the Candidates makes them grow secretive. Understandably, the months leading up to the event, every move that players make on and off the board is hawkishly watched by others for hints of what they might be planning for the Candidates.

“It’s like playing poker. You have the cards, but like, you both show one card each (to the other), you know?” says Giri. “If I tell one of them something about some interesting line, normally I’m revealing something. But now they will be thinking, ‘why is he revealing this to me?’ It’s definitely a very interesting dynamic. We are all the type who really take a lot of time for prep. So for us, every single word that one of us drops to each other is like vital information. So this creates a kind of extra dimension. Like I know that he knows that I know the situation, right? Especially with people like Pragg and Fabi (Caruana) and me, we all like to prepare very hard. We are the types who are really into engine prep.”

Giri says that he’s had a professional relationship with Pragg in the past, playing training games against the Indian on multiple occasions. With Caruana too, Giri says he’s shared many dinners and interactions.

Unlike Caruana and Giri who have already drawn up battle plans for the event, Pragg claims that since it’s not even been a month since his qualification to the Candidates was sealed, he’s not started thinking about the event in earnest.

“We are discussing things normally. I’m enjoying my time. I think it’s the same for others. I haven’t really had too much thought about it. I will (think about the Candidates) once I’m done with my tournaments,” says Pragg.

Caruana dismisses any talk about the Candidates being the elephant in the room in the team.

“We’re certainly not enemies or anything like that. There’s no animosity at all. It’s a typical situation you could have (in regular life) with your colleagues, you may have some rivalry with them. It’s very normal. Since we don’t have to play against each other in the GCL, I’m rooting for them. They’re nice guys. I’m on good terms with them,” Caruana says. But he admits: “All three of us playing in the Candidates means that we can’t share quite as much with each other. I mean, you can’t share quite as much as with someone who I work with. I can’t exactly say what openings I’m working on, for example. Because you never know, right? It might not be important, but you still want to keep things a little bit close to the chest.”

Giri points out that while all three will soon be fighting for the one winner’s spot at the Candidates, there is a strange kinship between them. He also talks about having “weird conversational dances” with the other two where they can show each other an endgame position, but not how you get there.

“When we talk to each other it’s not that you drop hints (about lines you are working on) to try to confuse them. But it’s also like you’re really interested in their opinions (about the line). Like this is such a rare opportunity to talk to someone who is so much like you, and who is in a situation so much like yours. For example, take my coaches. We can talk about prep and everything else. But they are not exactly like me, right? Usually the level (of coaches) is a bit lower (than Candidates contenders), but they’re also not in this very position. But now I can discuss Candidates preparation, and Fabi will understand me much better than anybody else (in the world), because he has to go through exactly the same thing.”

Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. He primarily writes on chess and Olympic sports, and co-hosts the Game Time podcast, a weekly offering from Express Sports. He also writes a weekly chess column, On The Moves. ... Read More

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