Chess will be played at the esports world cup for the first time this year, but who is competing in the inaugural tournament this summer?
Some of the top ranked chess players in the world have signed to esports teams at the beginning of this year, with the game becoming more and more popular.
Fans could be lucky enough to see as many as seven of the top ten ranked chess players in the world (according to live chess rankings) at the tournament.
World number one Magnus Carlsen has already booked a spot in the World Cup but there are still plenty of spots up for grabs alongside the Norwegian star.
The best players in the world have been signed to esports teams ahead of the World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with the record-breaking prize pool sure to attract the biggest talents.
Who is playing chess at the ESWC?
See below for all of the chess players signed to esports teams ahead of the World Cup, as well as their current world ranking (in brackets).
- Team Vitality – Maxime ‘MVL’ Vachier-Lagrave (24)
- Wolves Esports – Yu Yangyi (28)
- NAVI – Nodirbek Abdusattorov (6) and Wesley So (12) and Oleksandr Bortnyk
- Aurora Gaming – Ian Nepomniachtchi (9)
- Team Falcons – Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja (10)
- Leo Team – Anton Korobov
- Team Spirit – Vladislav Artemiev (45) and Daniil Dubov (36)
- Team Secret – Anish Giri (19)
- LGD Gaming – Ding Liren (21)
- Weibo Gaming – Wei Yi (7)
- All Gamers – Volodar Murzin
- Gen.G – Arjun Erigaisi (4)
- S8UL Esports – Nihal Sarin (40) and Aravindh Chithambaram (11)
- Team Liquid – Fabiano Caruana (5) and Magnus Carlsen (1)
All of the above players could feature in the Esports World Cup this year however at the moment only players have qualified for the tournament.
Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi have all qualified for the EWC.
There will be a total of 16 chess players taking part in the inaugural tournament this year, with the top 12 ranked players (based on CCT points) joined by four players who take part in qualifiers.
