Why is competitive Chess suddenly booming in the UK? Esports plays a part in it

Craig Robinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 31/07/2026

The 2026 British Chess Championships is set to take place at Warwick University, running from 1st to 9th August. The event itself is a major milestone, on course to be the biggest in the event’s 122-year history. As it stands, over 1,750 entries are confirmed, making it a massive occasion for British chess.

But why is chess suddenly getting so big? We reached out to the English Chess Federation to find out why competitive chess is having such a historic moment here in the UK. The answer is partly thanks to esports, alongside other key historical and cultural moments happening at the same time.

Why esports and online gaming helped chess grow

“Chess has exploded online since COVID,” a representative of the English Chess Federation tells Esports News UK. Chess, historically, has always been a game where opponents play each other in person. Over the years, online chess platforms have grown considerably. There’s many online platforms, ranging from Chess.com, which now has 250 million users. There’s even more niche, yet popular alternatives like WorldChess.com and Lichess.org. It’s where ranked games get the idea of MMR and elo from.

COVID-19 only accelerated that. Those platforms got bigger, letting players around the world compete online and interact in ways that had never been possible before. “For a brief period chess was practically the only sport that was able to pivot from real-life to online,” they say. That pivot proved transformative. 

“Big prize money sprung up for big events like the Champions Chess Tour, and with the big players competing online for big prize money and a new professionalised approach to the broadcasting, chess drew in more fans and began to evolve into more of an e-sport.“

That evolution into an esport has continued since. “Chess has been included in more and more e-sports events, including the successful introduction to the Esports World Cup last year, and again this year,” the federation notes. The Public Investment Fund’s willingness to back chess at the EWC level has given the game serious prize money and visibility, letting the best players compete at major events for life-changing sums.

Esports organisations have also taken notice. Esports brands want to feature chess players, among other niche titles to accumulate points in the EWC grand standings. It means Chess is getting more affiliation with the broader esports ecosystem. The clearest example is Magnus Carlsen, the best player in the world, who is currently signed with Team Liquid. The UK is also sending two Chess players to the ENC later this year. 

EWC is yet to play Chess, with that starting on August 11-15th. But, Esports Charts do have some interesting data on how well some of the events have been doing recently. It’s getting quite a bit of money behind it, along with strong watch time from Twitch stats. The Norwegian event is the most dominant of the events so far. Can’t say I’m surprised.

Outside of esports, other cultural moments have further helped. “There was the lockdown hit The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, which piqued interest and brought in new players,” the federation says. It echoes earlier moments in chess history, from the magical chess of Harry Potter in the early 2000s helping bring the game into the mainstream, however fanciful that depiction was.

The other major factor is India. “We’ve had a golden generation of young players emerge in India which has led to an explosion of chess there and a huge new market for the game spring up,” they note. India has its own unique tastes in gaming and esports, with accessible, mobile-friendly titles dominating. Perhaps there is a correlation between the browser accessibility of chess and the demographics driving that interest. That is one for further study.

As the federation sums it up: “Chess was the perfect game to transition to an e-sport and people are finally realising that.” Over 1,750 entries are now confirmed at Coventry. Bodhana Sivanandan’s potential record is on the line, where she may break a record held since 1939. It seems like a great time for the national scene.

British Chess also had a big event last month at Trafalgar Square, bringing pros, prodigies and other spectacles to the capital and other cities. Where some of these competing players attended.

Craig Robinson, Senior Editor

Craig began his career with Esports News UK back in 2015/2016, looking to write about a passion while studying at Manchester Metropolitan University. He stayed there for several years before moving on to other websites to begin his career after graduating. Now he's back, covering esports adjacent topics and UK stories.

All Posts By Craig Robinson