8/1/2025 – The Esports World Cup began on Tuesday, 29 July. Sixteen of the world's best players competed in blitz chess (10+0) for prestige and a prize fund of $1.5 million. Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen will face each other in the final, while Hikaru Nakamura will take on Arjun Erigaisi in the match for third place. Follow the games live with commentary. | The final starts at 15.00 CEST (9.00 ET, 8.30 IST).
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YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
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Final
The Esports World Cup is a tournament series for online and esports games, first held in 2022 under the name Gamers8. The tournaments take place in July and August in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This year, chess is included in the tournament programme for the first time. The partner platform is chess.com.
The Chess Esports World Cup now serves as the final tournament of the Champions Chess Tour. The prize fund amounts to USD 1.5 million, with USD 250,000 reserved for the winner. The remaining participants receive at least USD 50,000 (places 13–16).
In addition to the individual competition, the results also contribute to a team ranking across all esports disciplines.
Final and Match for third place
Live games
Chess.com live commentary
Commentary by the ChessBase India team
Format
Phase 1
4 groups of 4 players – GSL format Time control: 10 minutes, no increments Armageddon as tiebreak 2 games per match
Phase 2
Knockout stage Time control: 10 minutes, no increments Armageddon as tiebreak
Round of 8: 4 games per match Semifinals: 6 games per match Grand Final: Best of 3 sets
The first two sets consist of 4 games. If necessary, the final set consists of 2 games.
Players and teams
2025 CCT Points Qualification (11)
Alireza Firouzja [Team Falcons] Arjun Erigaisi [Gen.G Esports] Fabiano Caruana [Team Liquid] Hikaru Nakamura [Team Falcons] Ian Nepomniachtchi [Aurora Gaming] Jan-Krzysztof Duda [Twisted Minds] Magnus Carlsen [Team Liquid] Maxime Vachier-Lagrave [Team Vitality] Nodirbek Abdusattorov [Natus Vincere] Vladimir Fedoseev (unable to participate, replaced by Andrey Esipenko) Vladislav Artemiev [Team Spirit] Wei Yi [Weibo Gaming]
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know.
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