Chess by Day, Salem by Night: Board Games, Tennis and Nihal Sarin at 7:00 GCL Evening

Nihal Sarin at GCL (Photo by GCL) BENGALURU: The ITC Windsor Hotel, home to the six teams competing in the 2026 Global Chess League (GCL), is in the heart of the city. Walk through security at the gate, past doormen who greet you with folded hands, and a left turn from reception leads to the dining room, where you can find Dutch number one Anish Giri sipping a hot chocolate latte next to his Alpine Pipers teammate and close friend Vidit Gujrathi. Look in the other corner and Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are reading the morning paper.For Nihal Sarin, American Gambits’ most effective player so far this season, the time on the clock doesn’t matter here. It’s still midnight for him. And why wouldn’t it be? “We stayed up around 7 am,” Nihal told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive interaction on Wednesday. “We played the board game Salem. It’s a countdown board game.”Among those who stayed up late with him was his American Gambits teammate and World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, an avid video game enthusiast who, by his own admission, played Counter-Strike between rounds during the Candidates’ victory in Cyprus earlier this year. “Sindarov is a good friend of mine, very humble and down to earth. He is very cool and always smiling,” the 22-year-old added.However, video games never felt the same for Nihal. Suggest him a padel game or a board game instead, and he’ll be the first to raise his hand.Tuesday’s late night wasn’t about squeezing in another round of board games, though. It was about waiting for the US Open men’s quarterfinals between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz.But even staying up until 7am wasn’t enough; the match was delayed after the previous women’s quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro went long and Nihal, a longtime tennis fan, eventually lost his battle with sleep.Amid a schedule that forces him to play nearly two games of intense rapid chess almost every day, Nihal hasn’t lost track of the sport he’s been practicing for years. What about the return of the Williams sisters to professional tennis? “I didn’t expect that at all,” he said, raising both eyebrows. “The tendency to even compete at that level at that age is really extraordinary.”For Nihal, anyone who has been at the top of their game and is still working to prove that they deserve to be called an “absolute legend”.In the context of the GCL, the same goes for five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who has had a quiet season for his new team, the Alaskan Knights. The 56-year-old is winless in six matches and has drawn only twice. But the poor form didn’t dent his legacy as a chess icon one bit in Nihal’s eyes.“People are there to shoot at him, but Vishy doesn’t care what they think. That’s why he’s a legend,” Nihal said. “The role of FIDE and everything doesn’t matter much here, but the way he’s played in some of these games is just outstanding at this age.”

Chess Olympiad in the spotlight

Nihal is part of the Indian team that is preparing to defend its Open title at the Samarkand Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan later this month, which will also be his first appearance in the main Indian Olympic team.By his own description, he is thrilled and excited about it.“I’m very happy because we’re all friends and we’ve been together since the beginning, except for Vidit,” he joked. “He is the old one, not from our generation. But jokes aside, Vidit is a top player who has already won gold for India at this level (Olympics).”

Seeing Gujrathi (FIDE Photo)

Grandmaster and coach Srinath Narayanan conducted an intensive pre-Olympic training camp for the Indian team in late August to prepare for Samarkand. Nihal was part of it.While the Kerala-born grandmaster didn’t divulge many details about the camp, he acknowledged: “Virtual camps are not as useful as in-person camps. But I’m really looking forward to the Olympics,” before casually signing off, “I’m going to take a nap after breakfast.” It was already 2:30 pm on the clock.