GM Jose Martinez of Mexico, IM Mai Narva of Estonia, and IM Faustino Oro of Argentina emerged winners of the Men, Women, and U21 sections, respectively, of the month-long 2025 GCL Contenders held on the Chess.com platform. They all qualified as Ambassadors for the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2025 main event, to be held in Mumbai, India, from December 13 to 24.
Victory for the winners came in the Finals against GM Andrew Tang of the United States, IM Yuliia Osmak of Ukraine, and GM Pranav Anand of India, in the respective categories.
Men Section
Martinez was seeded directly into the Challengers Knockout phase and duly defeated GMs Diptayan Ghosh, Benjamin Bok, and Andrew Tang comfortably in regular games to win the event title. Just as any effective blitz player, Martinez seems to be gifted with both the abilities needed to play the format efficiently: spotting tactics quickly, and a natural flair for placing the pieces in the correct squares consistently.
In his first game in the Final, he hardly spent any time spotting the tactic when his opponent Tang blundered in a slightly worse position:
His first game against Ghosh in the Quarterfinals was the best example of his effective positional style of play. Though not flawless, the game was a real treat of an example for dark-square play, ending in a win after 67 moves.
One of the most curious games of the whole tournament was Martinez’s second game against Ghosh in the Quarterfinals, when both the players played out a rook-plus-bishop versus rook endgame for a full 105 moves to see the game end in a draw after the mandatory 50 move rule, managing to make all the moves without losing on the clock, even in this time control without time addition after each move!
Tang is of course the eternal quick-play specialist, and he won his semifinal match when his opponent, GM Abhimanyu Puranik, committed an unfortunate blunder in the first game:
Martinez was richer by $7,500 for his efforts, while Tang received $1,000. The other semifinalists, Bok and Puranik, received $500 each, while the losing quarterfinalists, Ghosh, IM Aradhya Garg, Alok Sinha, and Harshal Patil all received $350 each.
Earlier, Ghosh, Garg, Sinha, and Patil had all qualified for the final leg by finishing in the top four of the Titled GCL Knockout Semifinals.
Women Section
Narva played more or less steadily, winning all her matches in regulation time, against Osmak, IM Oliwia Kiolbasa, and WIM Rucha Pujari. Narva’s win in the Final against Osmak was almost one-sided, the second game being a case in point:
Narva was richer by $7,500 for her efforts, while Osmak received $1,000. The other semifinalists, IM Padmini Rout and Kiolbasa, received $500 each, while the losing quarterfinalists, WGM Mitra Hejazipour, WIM Jesse Nikki February, WIM Rucha Pujari, and Angel Ruth Nugroho all received $350 each.
Earlier, Hejazipour, February, Pujari, and Nugoho had all qualified for the final leg by finishing in the top four of the Titled GCL Knockout Semifinals.
U21 Section
This was undoubtedly the most interesting of all the sections, with some of the youngest talents of the world fighting out tooth and nail in delightfully gritty battles.
Just like the winners of the Men and Women sections, Oro dominated the event, winning all three matches against Rosh Jain, GM Denis Lazavik, and Pranav, thus once again justifying his rising star in the global scene.
In the Final, Oro defeated Pranav in the first game, when the latter went wrong in a complex middlegame and allowed a flurry of tactics:
In the second game, Pranav held a clear advantage and looked certain to equalize the score to force an armageddon tiebreak, but went wrong to even lose the game.
But Pranav had played a delightful second game in the Semifinals to equalize the score against GM M Pranesh to force a tiebreaker game and hold a draw with Black to advance to the Final:
Oro was richer by $5,000 for his efforts, while Pranav received $750. The other semifinalists, Lazavik and Pranesh, received $350 each, while the losing quarterfinalists Jain, A Rathina Sabapathi , Jval Saurin Patel, and M Gopal Krishna all received $350 each.
Earlier, Jain, Sabapathi, Gopal Krishna, and Patel had all qualified for the final leg by finishing in the top four of the Titled GCL Knockout Semifinals.
How to review?
You can watch the broadcast on Tech Mahindra GCL YouTube Channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated events page.
GM Sahaj Grover and IM Rakesh Kulkarni hosted the live broadcast at the Tech Mahindra GCL YouTube Channel.
The 2025 Global Chess League Contenders, which took place from September 2-October 12, was an online event on Chess.com to qualify three players for the main event of the Global Chess League, with three sections: Men, Women, and U21. The event consisted of three stages of qualification, with the Open, GCL Titled KO, and GCL Challengers, with a $30,000 prize fund. The Open stage was played at 5+0 time controls, whereas the Titled GCL KO and GCL Challengers KO were played in knockout format with single-elimination brackets and a 10+0 time control.
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