India, Dec. 15 -- The charm, and perhaps the complexities, of franchise-based leagues is that lines tend to get blurred. So, in a room where R Praggnanandhaa was speaking about his 2025 and the Candidates next year, sitting metres across the table waiting for his turn to enter the chat room was Fabiano Caruana, his 2026 Candidates competitor but teammate at Alpine SG Pipers this edition's Global Chess League (GCL).

"It's not like I'm going to give you the names, anyway," Pragg said with a laugh, when asked about assembling a team for the key tournament in March-April.

In a chat with select media here on Monday after the second day's play at GCL, the world No.7 spoke about becoming more ambitious as a player, why the success of D Gukesh ...