When Insurekot Sports Private Limited (ISPL) backed out of their deal to own Ganges Grandmasters days before the Global Chess League 2026 auction, panic set in. There was no one to run the franchise, no coach to guide the players, and no team to play in. The situation was so dire that the league had to step in and arrange temporary management to keep the team alive.Cut to September 13. The same side, with new management brought in at the last moment, an almost entirely new set of players assembled in haste, and a coach who joined at the eleventh hour, ended up scripting the biggest underdog story of the season. The Ganges Grandmasters beat defending champions Alpine APL Pipers to lift the GCL Season 4 title.Also Read | Headphones, ‘Play Along’, Festival Zone: Chess’s bid to cut ice with spectatorsAfter running Ganges Grandmasters for three seasons, ISPL, owned by the Kotak Group, decided to quit their franchise ownership ahead of the fourth season. The move left the GCL in limbo, eventually leading Tech Mahindra to turn to Team MGD1 to take over franchise operations temporarily, with the possibility of full-time ownership if things fell into place.Although new to franchise ownership, Team MGD1 comes with pedigree. They have made the Chennai Grandmasters a super-elite closed invitational tournament and part of the international chess cycle. They produced the Pune leg of the Women’s Grand Prix 2025, worked with FIDE to host the Chess World Cup in Goa, and had prior experience with the GCL, having been associated with the Mumba Masters in the first season, the American Gambits in the second, and helping with broadcast and the fan zone in the third. Global Chess League champions Ganges Grandmasters.(Picture credit: GCL)Manu Gurtu, co-founder of Team MGD1, explains how it all came together. “About 10 to 15 days before the auction, the GCL reached out to us. They said they were looking for an interim owner or a caretaker because the Kotaks had quit. They wanted somebody fair and impartial, somebody with some standing. And we said, ‘Sure, why not?’”Manu said yes without thinking twice. But now he and his team needed to figure out the team and, before that, a coach with no time on his hands.Also Read | In Esports, Olympic standardisation of hardware a game changerThe first call Manu made was to Adhiban Bhaskaran, roping him in as coach. “We manage so many players, and Adhiban is also one of our players. That just helps us having access to all these players. So I pretty much called up Adhiban and said, you have to do this. I didn’t even give him an option,” said Manu with a cheeky laugh.Story continues below this adThen came the auction dynamics. Unlike the IPL or PKL, teams do not bid with an auction pool. Instead, they bid up to a maximum of 1,000 points and the predetermined rates are then given by the franchise to the organiser.The biggest decision was to let go of the legendary Viswanathan Anand, the biggest pull of Indian chess. The five-time world champion had been a Ganges constant, but the management decided it was time to move on.Instead, they took a punt on Ian Nepomniachtchi on the Icon board, pairing him with the experienced duo of Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez Perez. The side also brought in Leon Luke Mendonca while retaining both women players, Polina Shuvalova and Stavroula Tsolakidou.Nepo was out of form ahead of the event. Shuvalova and Tsolakidou were not the strongest women players on paper.Story continues below this adBut the punt worked. Even Aronian admitted he was proved wrong about his assessment of the women’s board. “I was thinking our girls’ boards are not so strong as the others, but I had no idea what kind of players they are,” said Aronian. Ganges Grandmasters dug out. (Picture credit: GCL)To whom goes all the credit? Adhiban, the part-time coach. From Tsolakidou to Shuvalova and Aronian, everyone was amazed by the energy and spirit he brought in.“There is good positive energy coming from Adhiban, and he was mainly helping the girls. He managed to turn them into a deadly force,” said Aronian.Also Read | Carlsen Interview: On Gukesh vs Sindarov, return to World Championship & moreThe retention worked like a charm for Ganges. Shuvalova scored 21/37, while Tsolakidou, nicknamed “Greekgoddess,” notched up 21.5/37, the most by any player in the tournament. Tsolakidou peaked at the right time after a slow start, winning five of her last seven games to claim the Player of the Tournament award.Story continues below this ad“I already told some of our players when I was joining the team, I was thinking maybe we’ll have a good time, but maybe we’ll finish last. But I discovered that actually we have the secret sauce, which is the strongest girls in the tournament,” admitted Aronian.(The writer is in Bengaluru at the invitation of Global Chess League).