BENGALURU: The ITC Windsor hotel, home to the six teams competing in the 2026 Global Chess League (GCL), sits at the heart of the city. Walk in after the security check at the gate, past doormen greeting you with folded hands, and a left turn down the hallway from reception leads to the dining area, where Dutch No. 1 Anish Giri can be found sipping a hot chocolate latte beside his Alpine Pipers teammate and close friend Vidit Gujrathi. Look towards the other corner and Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are reading the morning newspaper.For Nihal Sarin, the most effective player for the American Gambits so far this season, the time on the clock matters little here. For him, it is still midnight. And why wouldn’t it be? “We stayed up till around 7 am,” Nihal told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive interaction on Wednesday. “We were playing a board game called Salem. It’s a social deduction game.”Among those who stayed up late with him was his American Gambits teammate and World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, an avowed video game enthusiast who, by his own admission, played Counter-Strike between rounds during his Candidates win in Cyprus earlier this year. “Sindarov is a good friend of mine, very humble, and down to earth. He is very chill and always smiling,” the 22-year-old added.Video games, however, have never held the same pull for Nihal. Suggest a game of padel or a board game instead, and he’ll be the first to put his hand up.Tuesday’s late night, though, wasn’t about squeezing in one more round of board games. It was about waiting up for the US Open men’s quarterfinal between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz.But even staying awake till 7 am wasn’t quite enough; the match was delayed after the preceding women’s quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro ran long, and Nihal, a long-time tennis fan, eventually lost his battle with sleep.Amid a schedule that has him playing almost two games of intense rapid chess almost every day, Nihal hasn’t lost track of the sport he has followed for years. And what about the Williams sisters’ return to professional tennis? “I didn’t expect that at all,” he said while raising both his eyebrows. “The tendency to even compete at that level at that age is truly extraordinary.”
For Nihal, anyone who has been at the top of their game and is still putting in the work to prove it deserves to be called an “absolute legend.”In the context of the GCL, that applies just as much to five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who has had a quiet season for his new team, Alaskan Knights. The 56-year-old has been winless in six games, with only two draws. But the poor form hasn’t dented his legacy as a chess icon even a bit in Nihal’s eyes.“People are there to take shots at him, but Vishy doesn’t give a crap about their opinion. And that is why he is a legend,” Nihal said. “The FIDE role and everything don’t matter much here, but the way he has performed in some of these games here is simply outstanding at this age.”
Chess Olympiad in focus
Nihal is part of the Indian team preparing to defend its Open title at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, later this month, which will also be his first appearance in India’s main Olympiad squad.He is, by his own description, excited and thrilled about it.“I am very happy because we are all friends and have been together from the start, except for Vidit,” he quipped. “He is the old one, not from our generation. But jokes aside, Vidit is a top player who has already won gold for India at that level (Olympiad).”
Vidit Gujrathi (FIDE Photo)
Grandmaster and coach Srinath Narayanan led an intense pre-Olympiad training camp for the Indian team in late August to prepare for Samarkand. Nihal was a part of it.While the Kerala-born Grandmaster did not reveal many details about the camp, he acknowledged, “Virtual camps are not as helpful as in-person ones. But I am very much excited for the Olympiad,” before signing off casually, “I will go and take a nap after my breakfast.” It was already 2:30 pm on the clock.
