NEW DELHI: Coming into the second edition of the Global Chess League (GCL) last year in October, the current Dutch No. 1 Anish Giri had a turbulent time. In the span of one month, his ratings dropped drastically from 2746 to 2724. To put things into perspective, the last time his rating had dipped this low was all the way back in December 2012, when he briefly touched 2720. This time, though, the slide hurt more: for the first time in ten years, Giri had tumbled out of the world’s top 20. The drop demanded a turnaround. Oddly enough, it arrived not in the old-school halls of classical chess but in a fledgling event trying to plant its flag: the Global Chess League (GCL). “I came in with really low confidence,” Giri told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive chat. “And then I saw the

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