Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, will be paired at least twice in the next few days with the world championship challenger, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the six-team franchise competition based on cricket’s Indian Premier League.

In 2024 the Global League was staged in London, but this year it is back in India at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India’s technology capital, from 5-13 September, finishing two days before the 400-team chess Olympiad opens in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Carlsen will play on the top or icon board for the defending champions, Alpine APL Pipers, as will Sindarov for Fyers American Gambits. Other icons are Alireza Firouzja (Triveni Continental Kings), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Ganges Grandmasters), former world champion Viswanathan Anand (PBG Alaskan Knights) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (CheQ Mumba Masters). The supporting male players include Turkey’s fast rising record breaker Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 15, while the women stars are led by the Candidates runner-up, Bibisara Assaubayeva.

4040: Werner Hug v Lubomir Kavalek, Switzerland v United States, Haifa Olympiad 1976. Black (to move) overlooked a winning tactic here, but the position resurfaced four decades later due to a parallel in the 2016 world title match, With this clue, a knowledgeable chess player should be able to solve the puzzle and demonstrate what Kavalek missed.

Carlsen and Sindarov will play two games, one with each colour, in the preliminary all-play-all, with a third and perhaps a fourth to follow if both their teams reach the semi-finals, third-place match, or final stages. The time limit will be 20 minutes for the entire game, plus a two seconds per move increment from move 41.

The pair have played many times previously, but mostly in the format of Freestyle Chess, where the back rank pieces are randomised. This occasion will be their most important clash yet, because it will include a symbolic match context where one of them can score more points. Hence it may come to be regarded as a pale substitute for a world championship match which will probably never happen.

The GCL is trying to turn chess into a major team sport where elite men and women compete alongside the best junior talents rather than in separate categories. The league has gained increased media and public recognition in its successive seasons, and is building a larger audience. In Bengaluru, it is testing app-based probability forecasts and other innovations.

Although India is central to its story, the GCL wants to become a serious player in global team chess, providing a platform for up-and-coming talents to mix with and compete with the legends of the world game. Carlsen v Sindarov is a powerful symbol of that ambition.

England narrowly missed out on a clean sweep of all three gold medals in the European Senior Team Championships for over-50s and over-65s,which ended at Hersonissos, Crete, on Friday.

England’s 50+ open team of GM Stuart Conquest, GM Danny Gormally, GM Mark Hebden, GM John Emms and IM Graeme Buckley won with 17 match points out of 18, ahead of Italy on 16 and Netherlands on 13. England 2 finished fifth with 11.

England women’s 50+ team of IM Susan Lalic, WGM Sheila Jackson, WFM Petra Fink-Nunn, WFM Helen Frostick and Irina Troshina were the only entrants in their category, so were declared winners.

Gormally, Emms and Buckley (who won all his six games) won individual golds, Hebden silver, and Conquest bronze. Clive Frostick achieved silver for England 2.

England 65+ (GM John Nunn, GM Tony Kosten, IM John Pigott, IM Nigel Povah, and IM Peter Large) scored 16 match points out of 18, but were beaten into silver medals on tie-break by Slovenia, also with 16. Italy were third with 15.

Large won the individual Board 5 gold with 6/7, despite blundering a rook in a winning position in the final round. Nunn and Kosten won individual silvers, while Paul Townsend (England 2) and Edgar Wilson (England 3) won individual bronze.

4040: 1…Rd1+ 2 Kh2 fxg3+ 3 fxg3 Qh3+! 4 Kxh3 Rh1 mate or 4 gxh3 R7d2 + and mate next move. With colours reversed, the tactic is similar to the final game of the Carlsen v Sergey Karjakin world championship match in 2016.