bengaluru nihal sarin has already earned a name for himself as one of the most promising chess players of the current era and the 18yearold indian is now eager to emerge a stronger player while competing with accomplished grandmasters during the upcoming global chess league gclfor sure playing with or against stronger players always helps us to push ourselves to the limit and it always makes you a better playerin our team we have top players like jankrzysztof duda and shakhriyar mamedyarov and it is a big opportunity for me to play alongside and observe them sarin told pti on thursdaysarin will play for chingari gulf titans in the inaugural gcl which will be held from june 21 to july 2 at the dubai chess culture club in association with the dubai sports councilthe gcl is the firstofitskind league that brings together the worlds top men and women grandmasters aiming to give a global fillip to the sport by making it more spectatorcentricbeyond personal level sarin currently the world no 59 as per the latest fide rankings believed a global league such as gcl will increase the footprint of chess in indiachess is a rapidly gaining popularity as a competitive sport in the country and a league like the gcl is absolutely crucial for it and i think it will take the sport to the next level and bring lot of more aspiring players into chess said sarin who hails from thrissur kerala saidi am really looking forward to this tournament as such an initiative was missing from the sport for a long time a strong global league is the foundation of any sport so this is an excellent initiative that has arrived at the right time he addedsarin said the titans owned by the web3 short video app major chingari have a wonderful team combination and they are looking to go all the way in the tournamentwe have assembled a fantastic team with the right blend of youth and experience i will be trying to give a good foundation to the team and we are confident of going the distance in the gcl said sarinapart from sarin duda and mamedyarov the titans have assembled premier players like daniil dubov alexandra kosteniuk polina shuvalova and andrey esipenkosarin had also shown a rare streak of sportsmanship when he chose to resign after just three moves against ding liren during the speed chess championship online in december last year after the chinese gm lost his internet connectionit had won the indian many admirers in the social media and sarin said it was a natural thing for him to accept that coursethese things happen in sports i know ding had many internet issues previously also so when his internet connection got cut again i resigned and gave the game back to himit was unfortunate for him because i was losing the game on the board and on the clock when he lost the net connection so it was just fair for me