The Global Chess League Season 3 was held at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai from December 13 to 23, 2025, where Alpine SG Pipers emerged as the winner.

The Global Chess League Season 3 is the world’s first and largest official franchise Chess league, bringing fans together to witness the game in a never-seen-before avatar. It is the only league in professional sports with a joint team format, featuring both men’s and women’s players on the same team, competing for the ultimate prize.

The league aims to take the game to millions of fans with new and innovative formats, bringing in a new perspective to the game of chess. FIDE and Tech Mahindra have joined hands to promote the game of chess through interactive technology-enabled platforms by leveraging next-gen technologies.

Season 1 of the League was held in Dubai in June 2023, while Season 2 was held in London in October 2024.

The Global Chess League Season 3 was organised in Mumbai with six Teams- PBG Alaskan Knights, Triveni Continental Kings, Ganges Grandmasters, Upgrad Mumbai Masters, Alpine SG Pipers and Fyers American Gambits.

Every team consisted of one Icon Player, two superstar male Grandmasters, two superstar female Grandmasters and one Junior U21 star Grandmaster. The six icon players were D. Gukesh (PBG), Alireza Firouzja (Triveni), Vachier-Lagrave (Upgrad), V. Anand (Ganges), Fabiano Caruana (Alpine SGP) & Hikaru Nakamura (Fyres AG).  

The tournament had two parts — the preliminaries, which were held in a double round robin league system– and the finals, which included matches between teams finishing 1st and 2nd in the preliminaries as well as between teams finishing 3rd and 4th in the preliminaries.

The opening ceremony included the unveiling of the GCL Season 3 trophy. The ceremony was led by Anand Mahindra, Chairperson of the Mahindra Group, whose presence underlined the league’s ambition and growing global stature.

The preliminary tournament saw the defending champions, Triveni Continental Kings (Alireza Firouzja, Wei Yi, Vidit Gujarathi, Zhu Jiner, Alexandra Kosteniuk, M Maurizzi and Coach Grandmaster Van Vely), dominating the event with 8 wins and just two losses. Alpine SG Pipers (Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, R. Praggnanandhaa, Hou Yifan, Nino Batsiashvili, Leon Mendonca and Coach Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay) finished second on a superior tie-break.  

The much-awaited final of Global Chess League Season 3, held on 23rd December, however, turned out to be an absolutely one-sided affair. Alpine SG Pipers, owned by SG Sports and Entertainment, who had not been able to impress in the preliminaries, made a brilliant display in the finals, winning both the matches easily, i.e. 4-2 and 4.5-1.5, against Triveni Continental Kings, thereby clinching the title.

The presence of Rohan Gupta, Director, SGSE, Tennis superstar Mahesh Bhupati, CEO, SGSE and an encouraging message from Sanjay Gupta, Chairman, APL Apollo Tubes Ltd did the magic.

Team	M	W	L	D	MP	GP
Alpine SG Pipers	2	2	0	0	4	8.5
Triveni Continental Kings	2	0	2	0	0	3.5

Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja of Triveni Continental Kings and Chinese Grandmaster Hou Yifan of Alpine SG Pipers were awarded the Male Player of the Tournament and the Female Player of the Tournament, respectively. 

Global Chess League Season 3

Team Composition of the six teams was as follows:

PBG Alaskan Knights

1 GM Gukesh D 2692

2 GM Erigaisi Arjun 2714

3 GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2703

4 GM Lagno Kateryna 2452

5 IM Khademalsharieh Sarasadat 2356

6 GM Dardha Daniel 2592

7 Coach GM Swayamsh Mishra

Triveni Continental Kings

1 GM Firouzja Alireza 2754

2 GM Wei Yi 2751

3 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2650

4 GM Zhu Jiner 2435

5 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2450

6 GM Maurizzi Marcandria 2506

7 Coach GM Van Wely

Ganges Grandmasters

1 GM Anand Viswanathan 2727

2 GM Keymer Vincent 2640

3 GM Sindarov Javokhir 2704

4 IM Shuvalova Polina 2360

5 IM Tsolakidou Stavroula 2358

6 GM Sadhwani Raunak 2611

7 Coach GM Vishnu Prasanna

Mumba Masters

1 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2730

2 GM So Wesley 2702

3 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2707

4 GM Koneru Humpy 2448

5 GM Dronavalli Harika 2435

6 GM Daneshvar Bardiya 2498

7 Coach GM Pentala Harikrishna

Alpine SG Pipers

1 GM Caruana Fabiano 2751

2 GM Giri Anish 2685

3 GM Praggnanandhaa R 2663

4 GM Hou Yifan 2536

5 GM Batsiashvili Nino 2346

6 GM Mendonca Leon Luke 2498

7 Coach GM Pravin Thipsay

American Gambits

1 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2732

2 GM Artemiev Vladislav 2727

3 GM Rapport Richard 2702

4 GM Assaubayeva Bibisara 2461

5 IM Injac Teodora 2360

6 GM Murzin Volodar 2642

7 Coach GM Srinath Narayan

[Inputs from Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay]