Magnus Carlsen and other major names in competitive chess are set to skip the Grand Chess Tour in favour of the Esports World Cup.
Fellow chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura confirmed on his stream that he, Carlsen, and Alireza Firouzja will all miss the GCT series of events to compete in Riyadh.
“As far as I know, neither EWC nor GCT have changed the dates. I’m going to be playing EWC, Nakamura revealed.
“Alireza Firouzja is going to be playing EWC. He made the choice of playing EWC over the Grand Chess Tour. Magnus, of course, will be playing the EWC.”
Carlsen won the first-ever Chess tournament at the Esports World Cup last year, taking home $250k of the tournament’s substantial prize pool.
As the reigning champion, Carlsen automatically qualifies for this year’s event and will represent Team Liquid again.
Meanwhile, last year’s runner-up Firouzja has also qualified for EWC 2026 through the Speed Chess Championship and will represent Team Falcons.
Grand Chess Tour and Esports World Cup Clash
Taking place across four locations, the Grand Chess Tour will run from May 3 all the way to August 28.
This will likely lead to a clash with the lucrative Esports World Cup, which takes place between July and August.
Specifically, the $1.5 million Chess tournament at the Esports World Cup is scheduled to take place from August 11 to August 15.
And with the prize pool of this year’s EWC chess tournament expected to be $1.5m again, it’s no surpirse that players are prioritising it.
Meanwhile, the Grand Chess Tour 2026’s base prize pool is $100k, though there will also be additional prize money available in the finals, Rapid, and Blitz tournaments.
What do you think about chess being included in esports tournaments? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
It can’t be too different to the autobattler TeamFight Tactics at the Esports World Cup 2026.
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