More GMs sign-up towards 2025 Esports World Cup, Riyadh
Is Esports the future of chess !? Only time will tell as more GMs sign up for the forthcoming 2025 Esports World Cup Riyadh which offers $1.5 million for chess. Last year the Freestyle chess branched off from the cerebral game and now it’s the turn of Esports to woo and pull in chess legends, top Grandmasters et al., for the EWC 2025 to be held at the stunning Boulevard City Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 29th July to 1st August, 2025.
After a lull for a month, last week’s rush saw six Grandmasters sign up for EWC, increasing the tally from 19 to 25. New set of GMs signed up include Uzbek star Javokhir Sindarov (Team Vitality), Russian talent Andrey Esipenko (Team Virtus Pro), age-less veteran Levon Aronian (Team Reject), dark horse Denis Lazavik (Team BDS), unpredictable Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Team Twisted Minds)and the great German hope Vincent Keymer (Team Basilisk).
GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamuara and Ian Nepomniachtchi are the early qualifiers for the Esports World Cup while the cream of elite chess fight it out in the Champions Chess Tour Chess.com Classic qualifier from 18-23 May, 2025 where nine EWC spots are on offer.
The signed in list with respective teams are:
1-2 Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana (Team Liquid)
3-4 Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons)
5-7 Wesley So, Olexandr Bortnyk, Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Team Na’Vi)
8-9 Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev (Team Spirit)
10 Anish Giri (Team Secret)
11 Arjun Erigaisi (Team Gen G)
12 Ian Nepomniachtchi (Team Aurora)
13 Yu Yangyi (Team Wolves Esports)
14 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Team Vitality)
15 Wei Yi (Team Weibo Gaming)
16 Volodar Murzin (Team AG Global)
17 Ding Liren (Team LGD Gaming)
18-19 Aravindh Chithambaram, Nihal Sarin (Team S8UL)
20 Javokhir Sindarov (Team Vitality)
21 Andrey Esipenko (Team Virtus Pro)
22 Levon Aronian (Team Reject)
23 Denis Lazavik (Team BDS)
24 Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Team Twisted Minds)
25 Vincent Keymer (Team Basilisk)
With a mind-boggling prize fund of $ 70 million, the world’s biggest Esports gala will see 25 tournaments being played by 2000 participants running for seven weeks from early 7th July to 24th August, 2025. Esports could very well turn out to be a game-changer that could bring more money into the game of chess, a windfall long due.
The 4 qualification spots to Last Chance Qualifiers at Esports World Cup 2025 Riyadh is up grabs at the DreamHack Dallas event from 23-25 May, 2025.
Official Site: https://esportsworldcup.com/en/competitions/chess
