India sends four GMs to Esports World Cup 2026 Chess in Paris

India will have four Grandmasters in the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 Chess tournament in Paris, running August 11 to 15, doubling its representation from last year. Nihal Sarin, Aravindh Chithambaram and Pranesh M will compete under S8UL Esports, while Arjun Erigaisi will play for Gen.G Esports.

The EWC Chess event will award a USD 1.5 million (~INR 14.2 crore) prize pool. Nihal, Pranesh and Arjun qualified directly to the Group Stage via their results in the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2025-2026. Aravindh qualified through DreamHack Atlanta and will start in the Play-In stage.

In 2025, India had two players at EWC Chess: Nihal reached the quarterfinals after qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ), while Arjun finished fourth after qualifying through the CCT. The 2026 field increases India’s contingent to its largest so far at the event.

EWC said the Chess tournament will use a revised two-phase format. A new Play-In stage will feature nine players who qualified through the LCQ and DreamHack Atlanta, playing a double-elimination bracket with two-game matches. The top performers advance to a 16-player Group Stage split into two groups of eight, also double-elimination with two-game matches; the top four in each group move on.

The Playoffs will be single-elimination, with four-game quarterfinals and six-game semifinals, and the champion decided in a Grand Final played across three sets. The field is led by defending champion Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid), alongside Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Natus Vincere), and Hans Moke Niemann (GodLike Esports).