upGrad Mumba Masters, owned by Unilazer Ventures Pvt. Ltd, was one of the 6 teams that took part in the inaugural season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. The team finished as the runners up of the tournament.

In total 6 teams participated in the inaugural Global Chess League namely Triveni Continental Kings, Ganges Grandmasters, SG Alpine Warriors, Balan Alaskan Knights, Chingari Gulf Titans and upGrad Mumba Masters.

The team was led by Frenchman and iconic player GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The rest of the squad comprised of the two queens of Indian chess – Padmashree GM Koneru Humpy and Padmashree GM Harika Dronavalli, GM Alexander Grischuk, GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM Javokhir Sindarov. The team was managed by GM Srinath Narayanan.

Journey of Season 01

upGrad Mumba Masters faced Triveni Continental Kings in the opening match of the Global Chess League. Despite a slow start, upGrad Mumba Masters won a close 8-7 victory to begin their campaign. Thereafter, the Masters dominated the board on a few occasions and ended up second on the points table with sixteen points. Edging out SG Alpine Warriors by record margin in our last league game, upGrad Mumba Masters set up the title clash with Continental Kings.

upGrad Mumba Masters’s clash for the title against the Triveni Continental Kings turned out to be a thriller. The team fought tooth and nail, with multiple rounds of tie-breakers, until the clash finally concluded in a sudden-death Blitz encounter, in the favour of the Triveni Continental Kings