GodLike Esports has teased a chess signing, and the clearest clue to the player’s identity is hidden in the scripture its video quotes. The organisation’s 30-second teaser, posted on Sunday evening with the line “The clock starts now!”, flashes Sanskrit verses from the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita over a battlefield. In the Gita, those words are spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra. That points straight at grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi, India’s highest-profile esports chess player, although GodLike has named nobody and no deal has been confirmed.
The teaser lands eight days after Team Apex Gaming used a similar playbook to sign Vidit Gujrathi. TAG’s dark chessboard teaser on 7 November named nobody, and TalkEsport’s breakdown at the time found that it fitted Vidit more closely than any other grandmaster, which TAG confirmed two days later. The two organisations are also on opposite sides of India’s ugliest esports dispute this year, after GodLike co-owner Kronten filed an FIR against a TAG manager.
The verses GodLike chose were spoken to a man called Arjuna
TalkEsport went through the video frame by frame. It opens on a softly lit chessboard, cuts to the GodLike crest stitched in gold on what looks like a new jersey, and then runs two Gita verses in glowing Sanskrit over a battlefield. In the first, Krishna says that whenever righteousness declines, he manifests himself. In the second, he says he comes to protect the good and destroy the wicked, before the screen fades to “Stay tuned”.
Those are among the most famous lines Krishna speaks to Arjuna, the archer-prince of the Mahabharata, as the war at Kurukshetra is about to begin. Esports teasers in India often hide a player’s name in the imagery rather than show a face, as TAG did with Vidit, and a battlefield sermon addressed to Arjuna is about as direct as that gets. There is another Indian grandmaster with the name, Arjun Kalyan, but Erigaisi is the only Arjun with an elite rating and a track record in esports chess.
Erigaisi’s record in both forms of the game makes him a natural target. He became only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to pass a 2800 rating, and he was one of the first top grandmasters signed by an esports organisation, joining Gen.G in February 2025, according to Chess.com. At this year’s Esports World Cup, he reached the quarter-finals of the chess event for Gen.G in a tournament with a $1.5 million prize pool.
What we checked beyond the video, and what it still doesn’t prove
Nothing outside the teaser confirms the move yet. As of Sunday night, GodLike’s X account did not follow Erigaisi or any other chess player, and his own X profile lists a different sponsor and has not mentioned GodLike. His last post, in late September, celebrated India’s silver medal at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. Gen.G has not commented on his status, and several fans asked whether any deal would be a loan or a full transfer.
One apparent clue turns out to be nothing. The teaser carries the hashtag #DilSeRedBull, which some fans read as a hint at a Red Bull athlete. GodLike, however, adds that tag to routine posts as part of its partnership with Red Bull India, including a “Deadly Duo” post on 10 November. Red Bull’s best-known chess face in India is International Master Tania Sachdev, a presenter and commentator, and nothing links her to this teaser.
A smaller group of fans named R Praggnanandhaa instead, but the video contains no reference that fits him as neatly as the Arjuna verses fit Erigaisi. Other replies asked whether this was the “big announcement” Kronten had promised, and some fans concluded that it was not. GodLike has not said when it will reveal the signing, and until it does, the Arjuna reading remains TalkEsport’s analysis rather than a confirmed deal.
Why GodLike would want a grandmaster right now
A top grandmaster would put GodLike in a small group of Indian organisations with elite chess players. S8UL signed Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram ahead of the 2025 Esports World Cup and added GM Pranesh M this year, while TAG landed Vidit, who has since received the Arjuna Award. Losing that race to TAG in the middle of their feud would sting, so the timing of Sunday’s teaser looks deliberate.
A big name would also change the subject for GodLike. Since Jonathan’s exit, the organisation’s headlines have been about ownership stakes, recordings and FIRs, as Kronten detailed in his first stream. If GodLike follows TAG’s timeline, the reveal will not be long in coming, since TAG took two days to go from its teaser to Vidit’s name.
