The Global Chess League is a multi-million franchise of the Indian IT company Tech Mahindra in cooperation with other Indian sponsors and with FIDE. Its first season took place in Dubai a year ago, when ChessTech observed it with scepticism.
Unlike last year, the second season on 3–12 October in London is going to have a real live audience. Tech Mahindra is keen to improve the fan experience in person and online. The company is inviting an ideas competition or Hackathon with $10.000 in prices. The winners shall be invited to London where they will not only watch the games but also have a chance to pitch their ideas to investors.
“We want to find new ways to connect chess fans with the games and players, both live and during broadcasts”, says marketing manager Ankit Batia. According to the call the idea competition is not limited to digital technology, but submissions can also be on learning and education, engagement and social impact, game format, or sustainability. The hackathon is all online and organised in stages. The first stages are intended to clean up the original proposals before they go public in the later stages, as project manager Gaurav Gupta explained.
There will be a jury that includes FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and FIDE Deputy President Vishy Anand. While the ideas that go through will at first be decided internally, the audience will be invited to vote on the ideas in the later stages. The final presentation will partly resemble the TV show Dragon’s Den. Originally, the deadline for submissions was set for 12 July. ChessTech was told that this deadline is about to be moved to 20 July to coincide with International Chess Day and the buzz around it.