The video is a narrated, on‑site tour of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2026 venue in Bangalore. The presenter walks viewers through the playing hall at the Lalit Ashok, showing six competition tables, big audience screens, headphone commentary setup, and team dugouts. He highlights the lighting system that can change colors for each team and explains how players will enter the hall via a dedicated vehicle/buggy route. The tour then moves to the adjacent fan zone, describing its large open space, stage, potential chess simul events, autograph sessions, and a registration kiosk. The presenter points out the specially branded Global Chess League van that circulates the city distributing tickets, and a custom‑decorated bridge featuring chess pieces and league branding. The video continues to the ITC Windsor hotel, the official accommodation for the 36 world‑class players, showcasing the lobby, welcome banner, and a castle‑like ambience. Finally, the host gives a quick look at the dinner spread—biryani, egg curry, chicken, fish, noodles, pasta, and more—while noting that chessboards are set up for players to play while eating. Throughout, he mentions key personnel (commissioner Gaurav Rakshit, tournament director Bharat Singh Chauhan) and emphasizes the scale and planning required to host such a global chess event.
Chapters
Hi everyone, welcome to this video. I am here in Bangalore, a very noisy Bangalore, because we are at the field of play of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2026. And you can see everyone working here. You can see, uh, Gaurav Rakshit, who is the commissioner of GCL. You have the tournament director there, Bharat Singh Chauhan. The broadcast team is here, the arbiters are here. And these are the tables on which players will play. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 6 tables. And this is the big screen here where I guess the broadcast would be there. But maybe not, not the broadcast. There will be the, uh, the boards because the players can look at the boards here. This is where we have the audience who will be sitting, and it's quite a good, good number of people who can come here and watch this unfold if you are In Bangalore, you have to come here. And if you are in India, well, a flight to Bangalore is not too much of a big thing. Yeah, let's go down. You can see everything is work in progress because the tournament does not start tomorrow, it starts day after tomorrow. So they have some time. Look at the big screen up here. This is the screen on which the audience will be able to hear the commentary so that the players can't see it. And there's another screen over there, and the audience will have headphones so that they can tune into the commentary.
Okay.
And they can sit here and the players won't get disturbed through that. So it's very well planned. I believe these are the 2— if you can look there and this one, these are the team dugouts here. where the teams will sit. Everything is getting ready. But the reason why I'm shooting this video is because we wanted to show you what it takes to build such a huge event where 36 of the best players of the world are coming in. Let's come here. This is the side from which one team will enter, and the other team will enter from the other side, from that side. But you can see here, it's such a beautiful, uh, beautiful Lighting that they've done, and I believe this lighting could very well change with the colors of the team that's entering. So very smart call here. Let's go out because the playing hall was this one. Have to be careful here. And you can see here, this is how the playing hall looks from the back side. Well, it's actually the playing venue is the Lalit Ashok in Bangalore. And now let's go outside and try to see what are the other things that are happening here. So this This place here, right opposite the playing venue, is the fan zone. Now, if you are a fan and you've, you've seen the match and there's still some time for the next match, or you have a ticket for just one match, you can come into the fan zone. There's a lot of noise here, but bear with me. Look at this, there's a stage here. There are a lot of things happening, all sorts of work, and I believe that might be the commentary booth in the distance over there somewhere. We'll go outside. It's very noisy and dusty, but the fan zone is huge. Maybe a view from here will show how big that is. So you can see here the fan zone stretches in the distance here, and I think it's a very nice space for fans to hang out. And I guess they'll put some chessboards here, there'll be events that will be happening here, so You may get to play a simul, you may get to meet some players, some signing, autograph signings, and all of it. Now there are also some things that are happening here. I'm pretty sure this is related to the league. I don't know what's happening, but this is the road from where the teams will enter. And the very interesting thing that the league has built is that the players enter in not walking. They will have some kind of a vehicle or buggy or something from the, from the player zones that is there. So there's a player zone there, and let's go there and see. So we walk a bit here. Okay, coming here, this will be the kind of registration point. There'll be a registration kiosk for everyone coming here. Maybe they have to show their tickets here, get their bands and all of it. And the player zone which I was talking about is going to be here. So the teams will have their players here before the game or after the game. Let's have a look at a Added a bit. And you can see here, this is the space where maybe the player zones will happen. There's also another space here. I'm not so sure just as yet what this is, but looks like another huge space. There's a memory wall there. I guess this might be the place where there could be potentially interviews happening. I'm not so sure what they are building here with all of this. Oh, maybe this is the place. Maybe this could be the VIP zone, and this could be like— if you look at here, they've spoken about Tech Mahindra as a company. So maybe this is the VIP zone that they are building and the memory wall and so on. So wow, it's amazing how many things are happening in this venue. But the players are not staying here. They are staying at another hotel which is roughly 5 minutes by a cab. 5 minutes? It's it's like eight hundred meters away, or maybe let's say six to seven minutes by walk. It's the ITC. Okay, I'll look at it. ITC Hotel. And let's go there and see that hotel because that will also give you some idea of what's cooking.
Yeah.
So now we are entering into the premises of the ITC Hotel. ITC Windsor is the hotel. There's also another ITC in Bangalore, that's the ITC Gardenia, but that's not the place. This is ITC Windsor. And now when you walk here, it's a very unique uh, kind of location.
Why?
Because Bangalore is filled with a lot of traffic, but if you look at this street here, there's no traffic. While if you come here with me, this road is filled with traffic. Like, there are so many vehicles down there, completely clogged up. And we are going to go above. This road. So it's a small bridge that we have here to take us to the ITC Hotel. But before we go to the hotel, I want to show you a very cool thing that has been planned by the organizers, and that is the Global Chess League van. Now look at this. This is the Global Chess League van, and here We have chess pieces. We also have all these players up there. There's Nihal, there is Vishy Anand, Magnus, Arvind, Harika, Stavrula. And this van actually goes through the city of Bangalore. And what was told to me is that it would distribute tickets to people on the streets. So it's a very novel idea. To promote the event at a local level. So good job there by the organizers. And now coming here to this bridge. So firstly, the bridge has a rook here and a pawn, and there is Tech Mahindra Global Chess League written here. And look at the lighting. This bridge is actually dedicated to this event. So you can see here this Tech Mahindra Global Chess League branding, and there's also the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League branding there. It's, it's very nice because it has this kind of nice point Where you can see the traffic in the city. At the same time, you can just walk here. And then taking a right turn here, we enter the premises of the ITC Windsor Hotel. There are 36 players who are playing here. All of them will be staying in this hotel. I think it's one of the best hotels in Bangalore. And they just have to go through this route to the playing venue. Let's go in, guys. We are now at the official hotel for the players who are staying here, the ITC Windsor Hotel, and this is where the players are. And look at the hotel, it's actually Feels like some kind of a castle. And this is the lobby area. If you go towards this side, this is where all the chess things are happening. But just have a look at this beautiful. Hotel, the chandelier here, and it looks so classy. I'll also take you to my room later. Let's go here. Already when you are here, you can see like the chess players walking around, the team owners there, and it's really a nice feeling when you enter a chess event on day one because you get to see everyone. Just now I saw Vishy Anand walking. There was Yaskarner Dogmas here. And what the hotel has done very nice is that they have a very dedicated place to welcome all the players, give them a room. So you can see here, this is the welcome banner of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. There's also— I think they are, they are putting this on the players to welcome them. So that's also a very cool thing.
Hello!
I think tonight Magnus and Anish and everyone's going to come, so they'll be here. And this is the place where we have the dinner that's happening. I'll give you a small tour of the dinner. I think the full food tour we'll do later, but let's have a look. Just have a look at the spread here. You have a biryani, you have egg curry, you have chicken here, you have fish here, you have garlic noodles here. You have Buddha Delight. I don't know what that is. They have pasta here. You have a biryani here. You have rice, roti, dal. I don't know what this is. Guti vankaya. There is paneer. So these are actually the main course, but apart from this as well, there are a lot of things here. And you will see the chess players can have their food in peace Here, it's a very nice setup. There are also chessboards put up there, so if someone wants to play while eating, that's also a very cool thing. And here there are some breads. There are some really nice things here. I'm going to end this over here. We'll have a separate food-related video if you want it. Please write it in the comments. But for now. This was the venue, the the hotel, and we'll go to the room now.
This kettle over here has no wire or anything, so I called a guy. कि भाई गरम कैसे करूँ? फिर मैंने यहाँ पे भी देखा normally ये connected रहता है, so यहाँ से मैंने बोला connected है ऊपर जा रहे कहाँ पे है wire नहीं है इधर भी gap नहीं है। फिर वो आया मैंने बोला kettle कैसे चालू करूँ? वायर कहाँ है? तो बोला जस्ट ऐसे प्रेस करो। मैंने बोला क्या? How is it working? कहाँ से कनेक्टेड? वो बोला पता नहीं कहाँ से, but बस यही करना है, हो गया आपका। So it is insane this kettle. It's too good man, too good. Hello guys, I'm here. There's a very big passage. It does feel like it's there for What do you say for exercising? Basagar. And then that's the room. Cozy room है, अच्छा। I guess. Yeah, here's the washroom. It's nice. Everything is fine. Super cool. I did miss my lunch. I— but you're— They have some fruits and some stuff, some thoughtfully designed macaroons.
