"The secret is the strength of the players" - Mastermind manager Pravin Thipsay opens up on draft strategy for Ganges Grandmasters

Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna award-winning Grandmaster, was recently announced as the manager for the Ganges Grandmasters in the first edition of the Global Chess League.

Thipsay was the mastermind behind the team and has helped build what is a formidable squad for the Grandmasters with Viswanathan Anand as the Icon Player. With the Grandmasters one of the favorites to win the trophy, Thipsay has certainly been one of the best managers in the league.

Expand Tweet

Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, Thipsay revealed how he assists the young players, meticulously planned for the Player Draft and also shed light on the secret behind the side's success.

Read excerpts from the interview below.

Q: The Global Chess League is like a one-of-its-kind league. There's lights and cameras everywhere and so much glamor is associated with the league. Sometimes, especially the young players, might have some nerves and feel a little bit of pressure. So how do you help calm them down? How do you help them relax and prepare them mentally for the matches?

A: Well, I think it's a new thing for sure, and the youngsters do find it difficult to adjust to new things. So there could be some anxieties. Also, playing only one hour a day is something they're not used to. I mean, they play several rapid games or they play a classical game.

So to some extent, there are some things which are new to them. At the same time, chess is not new to them, especially rapid chess. And they're all very good players and very seasoned. I must say that the players chosen are the best in their own category. As a result, they have played several games.

For example, many players from the Junior Under-21 category have already defeated the world champion, Magnus Carlsen. So from that point of view, I think they are sort of professional in their approach to a great extent. So it's not a great thing to make sure that they are at the best. New thing was they always played well for their countries.

We have a team which has six players from different countries. So that amalgamation process or gelling process takes some time. But of course, we have legends like Vishwanathan Anand and Hou Yifan. Overall, all the members are very easy to get along with. So from for my team, I think it's just normal. We just behave as if we know each other for many years.

Q: The team has been phenomenal so far and is one of the favorites to win already. But what is the secret behind the warriors' success?

A: The secret is the strength of the players. I must point out that we are the highest rated average team. So that's one of the reasons. To get these players into the auction was a bit of a challenge, because in a draft, everybody knows their rating list and you have to choose the best when somebody else is also bidding.

So that's one of the factors which was tougher. But with regard to performance, they're all great players. So let me say Viswanathan Anand, we don't need any introduction. Hou Yifan was the youngest woman to become a female grandmaster. She broke all earlier records. At the age of 12, she was the only player to have played Olympiad at that time. She was world champion so many times.

Even other players, like we look at every one of them, (Richard) Rapport has been the trainer of a player in this World Championship. And Domínguez (Pérez) has been the trainer of (Fabiano) Caruana. So when the Caruana-Magnus Carlsen match was taking place, Domínguez was the trainer. So, you know, they have good experience.

Bella (Khotenashvili) won the gold medal, individual as well as team gold medal for Georgia in the World Team Championship, which is just like Olympiad, but restricted only to one player from the continent, and she has been world under-16 champion once.

And well, (Andrey) Esipenko was also world under-16 champion. And before he became grandmaster, he defeated (Sergey) Karjakin, where Karjakin was World No. 2. And that game was known as his move, his particular sacrifice was known as the Move of the Year 2017 when he was not even a Grandmaster. So we had to do a lot of hard work studying all these 36 players and then choosing.

The other managers also had that task. Somehow we just felt that we got the players we were looking for.

Q: Getting Anand in the draft - how were the emotions? Because I'm sure all teams must have been vying for him.

A: Yes, in fact, generally teams wanted Magnus and Anand and it was a bit tough because of that. Magnus, because of his rating and Anand, because of his popularity and strength and long duration of play and his wisdom where he always rises to the occasion.

So these are some of the factors which have seen a lot of demand. But yes, I think somewhere we had to outbid the others, isn't it? There were three teams wanting to have Anand and we were lucky to have chosen him.

Q: What was some of the thought process that went into the draft?

A: So in the draft, there was also a study of personalities. I don't know about others, but what I did was that I looked at the games and the personalities of the players from which I could gather out the play because that just often reflects in your nature.

So I was able to find some qualities in some players, which I presume they have. Because there were moves suggested that side, some players showed very good spirit of play, and even in bad positions, some players have shown great progress.

The process was to study all the games and look at the possibilities, how would this player be in this particular context, something of that sort. So we're putting some combinations and at the same time, we had absolute support from the team owners, of course, and they were always open to studying these players and discuss those possibilities.

What's important was it's not that always you get your players because there's a rating list. Say everybody builds for top seed or second seed or third seed and then goes on with the limited.

So then you have to make out (a strategy) - you get one best in the category then you say we're not going to get the second best. So let's wait and bid for this gentleman or this lady, because there may not be a great demand for that. But while we have studied, maybe we see players are almost of the same rating.

You have to look at the quality of game and the personality. We had our own idea and discussions in this. And I'm sure the other teams also had and that's how we ended up not getting all six players we wanted, but we got six players, six highest players in three categories. So that's the reason why we thought we would be in a little better place than others.

Also, of course, in sports, there's a lot of uncertainty and you never know what happens. But that was our idea to get the best players and also the personalities who have something special other than a chess player.

Q: Any one strategy that was formulated which worked wonders in the match that you would like to share if there's anything?

A: Well, one of the aspects was we're playing for winning this tournament and we're still obviously playing very well, despite suffering an unfortunate loss yesterday. The idea was that we'll concentrate on some players who are little known, but they have great ratings.

That was when I began my study, I started concentrating on highly rated players and their lives and other information about them and their best games. So we discussed - somebody has a particular quality, somebody doesn't have a particular quality, but has something else. And we discussed this and after these discussions, we thought we go for this option.

If you don't get, we go for this option. We made several combinations - if you don't get Rapport, what do we do? Something of that sort. If you don't get Anand, what do we do? So we made several combinations and those combinations were able to get us a good team, I think.

Q: Lastly, how does it feel being a part of the Global Chess League and the Ganges Grandmasters?

A: I would like to mention that chess is a game which is played in 195 countries and the other games, which are great games, but they're not so popular. They also have their league. So I must thank Tech Mahindra for this great venture, and of course, Viswanathan Anand has been a part of this as well, and also, FIDE for this great step.

And of course, our own team owners who played a very important role, the Kotaks and the entire team. I can see that as many as three or four executives from the group are here.

I think we look forward to a good tournament. A lot is remaining in the preliminaries. Then even if you're first or second, you still have to play these last two rounds with the other team, and then that's going to be the real day. It's going to be a tough day, I think.