EWC 2026 chess: Arjun, Nihal and Pranesh drop to lower bracket on Day 2

Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin and Pranesh M head into Day 2 of the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 Chess group stage in Paris needing lower bracket wins to stay in contention for the Playoffs. The trio all finished Day 1 in Group A’s lower bracket, where only two players will advance.

Arjun, representing Gen.G Esports, opened with a 2-0 win over S8UL Esports’ Nihal Sarin. His upper bracket run ended against Team Falcons’ Alireza Firouzja, who won via Armageddon after the match was tied 1-1 to secure a Playoffs berth.

S8UL’s Pranesh M also started with a loss, falling 2-0 to Natus Vincere’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Abdusattorov then beat Weibo Gaming’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda 2-0 to lock up the second Group A Playoffs spot.

In Group B, defending champion Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid) qualified for the Playoffs after 1.5-0.5 wins over Virtus.pro’s Andrey Esipenko and GodLike Esports’ Hans Moke Niemann. Team Falcons’ Hikaru Nakamura also advanced from the group, beating Fnatic’s Alexey Sarana 1.5-0.5 and AG.AL’s Denis Lazavik 1.5-0.5.

Day 2 lower bracket matches will decide the remaining Playoffs qualifiers from both groups. In Group A, Nihal faces Team Nemesis’ Wei Yi and Pranesh plays Team MGD1’s Benjamin Bok, with Arjun and Duda waiting in the deciders. In Group B, Esipenko plays Aurora Gaming’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and Team Stallions’ Sina Movahed meets Sarana, with Lazavik and Niemann awaiting the decider winners.

The Playoffs run August 14-15 in a single-elimination format: quarterfinals over four games, semifinals over six games, and a best-of-three sets Grand Final (4 games per set, with a possible third set of two games). The event features a $1.5 million (~INR 14.3 crore) prize pool, with four of eight Playoffs spots already filled.