Anish Giri shared his thoughts on playing with Magnus Carlsen at the Global Chess League 2026. Giri says that in the last tournament Carlsen started playing efficiently, and predicts a plus score for their team.

Anish Giri

Anish Giri

Netherlands' No. 1

“From a purely professional point of view, from chess point of view, and from result point of view, I’m really thrilled with the way Magnus has played in EWC.

I think Norway Chess has been a shock for him. For EWC, he has restructured his chess back to much more conservative playing style.

And I think, when Magnus plays conservative playing style, it is so extremely unpleasant to face him. He basically risks less. Less fooling around, less of this unnecessary creativity for the sake of creativity, which is very tempting when you play chess for so long.

Probably, the way Norway Chess went was so unpleasant, the result was so unpleasant, that I think he decided to just see what it’s like if he just plays for the result.

And you could see that at EWC he didn’t lose a single game in the entire event. He played incredibly efficiently. If he will play in a similar way at GCL, our board one is just going to be a big plus score. And I think that’s tremendous news for us.

And even if ‘Any Magnus’ shows up, we’re still going to have a plus score there. But especially if ‘The Efficient Magnus’ shows up, I think it’s bad news for our enemies.

But the problem is that we also have other players on the team…”

The Global Chess League is an annual franchise-based team competition held since 2023. The event is organized by FIDE in joint venture with Tech Mahindra. The 2026 edition will take place from September 5 to 13 in Bengaluru, India. Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri will play for the Alpine APL Pipers.

Credit: Lennart Ootes