Week One of PCL starts on Tuesday, 14th February as the Indian Yogis face the Brazil Capybaras.
The tournament qualifiers took place since the beginning of the month, with Spanish Maniac Shrimps earning a place in the main event, in no small part thanks to Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez who pulled off an unlikely victory on black against a strong Queen’s Gambit Declined line from Vugar Rasulov.
The matches are played in 10 minute rapid increments, with 5 second additions per move. The prize pool sits at $150,000, with $25,000 going to the winning team.
The first day of the main event sees a slew of Grandmasters taking to the board, possibly including five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Carlsen’s team, the Chessbrahs face off against the Charlotte Cobras, another North America based side. The side includes amongst their high ELO ranks, GM Daniel Naroditsky, who specialises in the Caro-Kann defence. Carlsen himself specialises in taking matches away from theory and into uncharted territory.
Naroditsky drew with Carlsen on white in October 2022 in the Aimchess Meltwater Champions, but there are many other potential ties. On the Chessbrahs, there is also Anish Giri, a Dutch-Russian Grandmaster who plays a cagey difficult style.
The first match of the day is Asian team Indian Yogis facing off against the South American Brazil Capybaras.
The Capybaras are headed by their highest rated GM Luis Paulo Supi. The Brazilian was accused of cheating in 2015 by Gotham Knights member and five-time US Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura. The accusation was accepted by the tournament judges and the result reversed. The two could collide later in the PCL.
Saint Louis Arch Bishops come into the tournament as favourites, as three-time PCL champions. SLAB again have GM Fabiano Caruana as their talisman. The 2766-rated player was a Grandmaster by 14 years of age, and became the first American challenger for the undisputed World Chess Championship since 1972 where Bobby Fischer beat USSR defender Boris Spassky.
Indian Yogis and Brazil Capybaras face each other starting at 15:30 GMT on Tuesday, 14th February, followed shortly by Canada Chessbrahs v Charlotte Cobras at 18:00.
