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New Indian Express
09-08-2025
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Speed demon Nihal turns to Prasanna, Gukesh's former coach, to become Classical ace
CHENNAI: Nihal Sarin is addicted to chess. One view at his profile on and it's fairly obvious. As of Saturday evening, he has played over 55,000 games on that platform alone. It also brings about his tendency to feature in speed chess (bullet or blitz). He's one of the best in the world in the quickest time controls but it can come in the way of his Classical preparation. It's kind of why Sarin, who became a GM a month after turning 14 in August 2018, approached Vishnu Prasanna at the back end of last year. Prasanna, one of several super coaches from this part of the country, considered Sarin's request before saying 'yes'. "We met at Global Chess League (GCL) last year," Prasanna, who worked with D Gukesh for a long time, said. "I have been working with him since March and we have had decent results. Right now, we are looking to see what we can do at the World Cup, Grand Swiss and generally get his ratings (in Classical) higher. That is my main goal." While Gukesh, 19, Arjun Erigaisi, 21, and R Praggnanandhaa, 19, have added more bows to their Classical quiver, it's perhaps fair to say that their compatriot has slightly fallen behind in the game's oldest format. The 21-year-old, whose Classical rating is 2692, is 'stagnating for a while', according to Prasanna. Considering ratings alone, it's easy to make that case. Most other Indian players have breached that 2700-mark, a milestone considered elite territory. 'I think he's very good at other formats," Prasanna said. "Like eSports and online chess. He doesn't really need my expertise there. He's already at the top. We came up with some ideas for the eSports World Cup and it worked well, especially in the qualification stage."
Time of India
08-08-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
India to host third edition of Global Chess League in December; adds to country's busy chess calendar
India will host the third edition of the Global Chess League (GCL) from December 13-24, 2025. The tournament, featuring six franchises with six players each including both male and female competitors, will conclude just before the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Qatar. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The Global Chess League was hosted in Dubai for its inaugural edition and London last year. The tournament follows a double round-robin format where each franchise competes against others twice during the event. Previous seasons of the GCL have attracted top chess players globally, including former world champions , , and Hou Yifan. Other notable participants have included rising stars Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, along with established players Alireza Firouzja, Hikaru Nakamura, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The 2025 calendar marks a significant increase in international chess events being hosted in India. The country has already successfully organised several major tournaments this year, including the Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament, the Pune Women's Grand Prix event, and currently the Chennai Grandmasters event. India's chess calendar for 2025 will be further enriched by hosting the FIDE World Cup, scheduled from October 30 to November 27. The host city for this prestigious event is yet to be announced. The growing prominence of India in international chess events faced a minor setback when a planned event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour had to be cancelled. The organisers were unable to secure sufficient funding from Indian corporate entities to proceed with the tournament.
Indian Express
07-08-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Global Chess League to be hosted by India this year after two seasons abroad
After two seasons abroad, this edition of the Global Chess League (GCL) will be hosted by India this year, the league announced on Thursday along with dates for the league. The organisers said that the GCL will be held from 13th to 24th December this year. The dates mean that the league will end very close to the start of the traditional year-ending FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship, which is usually held over the Christmas and New Year window. FIDE has already revealed that the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship this year will be held in Qatar. The first edition of the Global Chess League was hosted in Dubai while last year, the event was held in London. The Global Chess League frequently sees some of the top stars in the sport come out and represent the six franchises. Last season, the Global Chess League had seen stars like former world champions Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Hou Yifan headline teams along with players like Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Alireza Firouzja, Hikaru Nakamura and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Each of the six teams in the Global Chess League have six players each, both male and female. Each franchise plays a double round robin event. The third edition of the Global Chess League being hosted in India means that after years of having just a handful of international tournaments in India, 2025 will see an explosion of chess events in India. This year, the country has already hosted events like the Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament, the Pune Women's Grand Prix event, and the ongoing Chennai Grandmasters event. The FIDE World Cup will also be hosted by India, with the host city yet to be confirmed. The World Cup will be hosted between October 30 to November 27. India was also meant to play host to an event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, but that was scrapped with organisers unable to raise enough funds from Indian corporates for having it.
Business Times
02-08-2025
- Business
- Business Times
China polysilicon firms plan 50 billion yuan fund to shut a third of industry capacity
[BEIJING] Chinese producers of polysilicon, a building block for solar panels, are in talks to create a 50 billion yuan (S$8.9 billion) fund to acquire and shut down roughly a third of production capacity and restructure part of the loss-making sector, GCL Technology Holdings said. The top polysilicon producer said on Thursday (Jul 31) that plans were being discussed to acquire and shut at least one million tonnes of lower-quality polysilicon capacity. 'It is sort of like the Opec of the polysilicon industry, wherein total supply for a specified timeframe has to be agreed by the central committee and production quotas to be allocated to producers,' GCL's investor relations director Jun Zhu said. The plan is one of the strongest signals yet that the heightened rhetoric against overcapacity rolled out by the Chinese government this month is translating into action. Chinese industries, from solar to electric vehicles, are grappling with massive overcapacity and vicious price wars that are wiping out profits. Beijing restructured industries including polysilicon, steel and cement in previous waves of reforms more than a decade ago. However, this latest round is expected to be more difficult, given that many of the problem sectors are now filled with private firms and there are fewer growth sectors to pick up the slack. The polysilicon acquisition vehicle would be launched late in the third quarter of this year and would start making purchases in the fourth quarter, both of excess capacity and of market inventories, Zhu said. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The proposed closures would leave approximately two million tonnes of capacity remaining in the market, he added. China's production capacity was 3.25 million tonnes at the end of 2024, according to Bernreuter, an industry research group. GCL chairman Zhu Gongshan said at an industry conference in June that major firms were working to restructure the industry, while local media Caixin reported producers were in talks to create an acquisition fund. Reuters is reporting the size, scope and timing of the plan for the first time. China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China has a near-monopoly over solar-grade polysilicon, producing 95 per cent of the world's total in 2024, according to Bernreuter. China's share of the rest of the solar supply chain, including cells, modules and wafers has also reached over 80 per cent in recent years. Polysilicon prices are up nearly 70 per cent this month, alongside a range of other industrial commodities as Beijing's rhetoric, plus smaller initiatives from various ministries and provincial governments, led markets to bet supply side reform was on the way. Financing questions It is unclear where the money to finance the vehicle would come from given major players GCL and Tongwei are losing money. 'No one knows how the capacity acquisition will be implemented, because there's no past experience to refer to,' said UBS analyst Yishu Yan, adding that most of the companies in the sector are indebted. Also unclear is how active a role the provincial and central governments will play in the vehicle and the factory closures it plans to make. Jun Zhu said the vehicle's central committee would be made up of producers, lenders and potentially regulators, without specifying who they would be. Local governments are increasingly expected to fall in line with restructuring plans, given signals this week that the highest levels of China's government are determined to combat price wars, Yan of UBS said on Friday, even though local officials might privately baulk at the employment and GDP impacts of plant closures. Top Chinese leaders called again for disorderly competition among enterprises to be reined in, including tightening oversight of local governments' investment promotion practices, at a meeting on Wednesday of the Politburo, a top decision-making body of the Communist Party whose July gathering typically sets the economic tone for the rest of the year. Involution is a term widely used in China to describe a situation where intense competition leads to diminishing returns. 'My own feeling is that the anti-involution campaign has been escalated' after the Politburo meeting, Yan said. 'It will be politically incorrect to still push back.' Yan had previously said any plan to shut capacity may face opposition from local governments, where officials are scored on jobs and economic growth. Many of these governments also have stakes in local private solar firms. 'If the solar companies are facing bankruptcy or to be acquired, there could be some pushback by the local governments,' she said in an interview in mid-July. Natixis economists, in a note on Friday on China's anti-involution drive, cautioned that mergers and acquisitions alone may not shrink investment in renewables by enough to fix oversupply. 'All in all, it seems quite clear that the very large number of zombie renewable companies needs to shrink, possibly via defaults. If social stability is too important for such a clean-up to happen, the mergers and acquisitions, the Chinese government seems to be willing to push need to bring about a massive reduction in capacity for this sector to see the light at the end of the tunnel,' the economists wrote. REUTERS
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive-China polysilicon firms plan $7 billion fund to shut a third of industry capacity
By Colleen Howe BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese producers of polysilicon, a building block for solar panels, are in talks to create a 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) fund to acquire and shut down roughly a third of production capacity and restructure part of the loss-making sector, GCL Technology Holdings said. The top polysilicon producer told Reuters on Thursday plans were being discussed to acquire and shut at least 1 million metric tons of lower-quality polysilicon capacity. "It is sort of like the OPEC of the polysilicon industry, wherein total supply for a specified timeframe has to be agreed by the central committee and production quotas to be allocated to producers," GCL's investor relations director Jun Zhu said. The plan is one of the strongest signals yet that the heightened rhetoric against overcapacity rolled out by the Chinese government this month is translating into action. Chinese industries, from solar to electric vehicles, are grappling with massive overcapacity and vicious price wars that are wiping out profits. Beijing restructured industries including polysilicon, steel and cement in previous waves of reforms more than a decade ago. However, this latest round is expected to be more difficult given many of the problem sectors are now filled with private firms and there are fewer growth sectors to pick up the slack. The polysilicon acquisition vehicle would be launched late in the third quarter of this year and would start making purchases in the fourth quarter, both of excess capacity and of market inventories, Zhu said. The proposed closures would leave approximately 2 million tons of capacity remaining in the market, he added. China's production capacity was 3.25 million tons at the end of 2024, according to Bernreuter, an industry research group. GCL Chairman Zhu Gongshan said at an industry conference in June that major firms were working to restructure the industry, while local media Caixin reported producers were in talks to create an acquisition fund. Reuters is reporting the size, scope and timing of the plan for the first time. China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China has a near-monopoly over solar-grade polysilicon, producing 95% of the world's total in 2024, according to Bernreuter. China's share of the rest of the solar supply chain, including cells, modules and wafers has also reached over 80% in recent years. Polysilicon prices are up nearly 70% this month, alongside a range of other industrial commodities as Beijing's rhetoric, plus smaller initiatives from various ministries and provincial governments led markets to bet supply side reform was on the way. FINANCING AND PUSHBACK It is unclear where the money to finance the vehicle would come from given major players GCL and Tongwei are losing money. "No one knows how the capacity acquisition will be implemented, because there's no past experience to refer to," said UBS analyst Yishu Yan, adding that most of the companies in the sector are indebted. Also unclear is how active a role the provincial and central governments will play in the vehicle and the factory closures it plans to make. Jun Zhu said the vehicle's central committee would be made up of producers, lenders and potentially regulators, without specifying who they would be. Yan at UBS said any plan to shut capacity may face opposition from local governments, where officials are scored on jobs and economic growth. Many of these governments also have stakes in local private solar firms. "If the solar companies are facing bankruptcy or to be acquired, there could be some pushback by the local governments," she said. ($1=7.15 yuan)
