American Gambits rue missing out on Erigaisi, to rework plans for Global Chess League

Mumbai, Sep 30 (PTI) American Gambits head coach Srinath Narayanan says Arjun Erigaisi would have made for a great combination with iconic Hikaru Nakamura but after losing out the bidding battle to grab the top Indian player, they will now rework their strategy ahead of Global Chess League (GCL).

The third edition of the GCL will be played here from December 13 to 24. The previous two events were held in the UAE and London.

"I have a personal connection with Arjun. Hikaru (Nakamura) rates him very highly, and we felt he would have been a perfect fit alongside him. I even went beyond the 250-point cap we set for ourselves just to bid for him, crossing 300 points," said Srinath, one of India's well-known Grandmasters.

"Still, with PBG (Alaskan Knights) holding 1,000 points compared to our 800, we simply couldn't outbid them.

"Arjun was one of our top preferences. Having him alongside Hikaru, our top American player, would have been a powerful combination. However, we had to balance this with the need to save points for later stages of the draft. In an auction like this, you can't simply handpick the players you want-every team is building their squad at the same time," he said.

The six teams in the GCL are, American Gambits, Alpine SG Pipers, Ganges Grandmasters, UpGrad Mumba Masters, PBG Alaskan Knights and Triveni Continental Kings.

Having retained 'Icon' player Nakamura and 'Superstar Women' player Bibisara Assaubayeva, American Gambits made key acquisitions at the draft, adding 'Superstar Men' Richard Rapport and Vladislav Artemiev, 'Superstar Women' Teodora Injac, and 'Prodigy' Volodar Murzin to their squad.

Srinath said that Russian chess prodigy Volodar Murzin would provide the X-factor to the side, adding that 19-year-old has a thinking, and mature head on his shoulders.

"He's not just a prodigy; he's already performing consistently at the 2650 level and shows remarkable maturity and reliability for his age. It's safe to say he's the strongest junior in the world today," said Srinath.

Team co-owner PP Prachura said Murzin being the World Open Rapid champion gives him a lot of confidence in the Russian's abilities.

"Volodar is the strongest prodigy and the current World Open Rapid champion. We expect him to deliver critical wins for us, as the prodigy board can be a real differential in this format, and we believe we have the best player there.

"We want our players to perform to their full potential so we can retain them, rather than constantly reshuffling the squad. We aim to strengthen our brand and show that the American Gambits are here to win, backed by cricketing great and celebrity co-owner Ravichandran Ashwin and chess legend Nakamura," he added. PTI AM AT AT