Carlsen heads the lineup at Esports World Cup chess event

Chess returns to the Esports World Cup in 2026 from Aug 11-15 following a successful debut at last year’s event. On its biggest stage ever, Chess cemented its place in the larger esports ecosystem, drawing impressive viewership numbers while packing the arenas.

This year, Chess expands with a 21-player pool that now includes a play-in stage prior to reformatted group stage and playoffs.

Chess’s biggest star and the inaugural EWC champion Magnus Carlsen will return this season to defend his title. Joining him, among others, are the other two top three players from the Speed Chess Championship this past October – Alireza Firouzja and Denis Lazavik.

Carlsen (Team Liquid) claimed the inaugural title last year, not dropping a single set along the way. His biggest test came against long-time rival Hikaru Nakamura (Team Falcons), needing seven games to break the draw in a back-and-forth affair.

Carlsen moved on to the final, decisively beating Firouzja (Team Falcons) with 3-1 victories in both sets. Carlsen’s victory was one of three game championships claimed by Liquid, securing a second-straight (though much closer this time around) 2nd place finish for the club in the EWC Club Championship.

The current remaining slot allocations for the event will see the top three players at Chess.com Open Championship (March 14 – April 26) qualifying together with the top six players according to the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) Circuit Points Rankings, not including already qualified players.

The top 4 players from DreamHack Atlanta and at the EWC Last Chance Qualifier will also make the cut.

It should come as no surprise that Carlsen is the consensus favorite heading into EWC 2026, as both the defending champion and the winner of the Speed Chess Championship. The greatest Chess player of the modern era, Carlsen has been a Grandmaster for more than two decades, and any result shy of another first place finish at EWC 2026 would be a disappointment for both himself and Team Liquid.

Like Carlsen was in the 2010s, Firouzja is a dynamic Chess prodigy, and has proven to be a worthy and consistent adversary to Carlsen since being named Chess.com’s Rising Star of 2021. Between Firouzja and veteran Nakamura, Team Falcons has a strong two-man lineup.

Currently, Nakamura holds the most CCT points amongst players that have not qualified for EWC 2026 yet, though it seems heavily likely that he will return to compete in Riyadh this summer.