The Esports World Cup 2025 aka EWC, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 8 to August 24, is the second edition of a global multi-game esports tournament organized by the Esports World Cup Foundation, featuring 26 events across 25 esports titles with a record-breaking $71.5 million prize pool. It includes new additions like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Valorant, and most importantly chess, alongside a Club Championship where 40 teams compete for $27 million based on overall performance. The Esports World Cup is one of the Top Events in The Chess Calendar
Esports World Cup participants
There are 16 chess players participating in the finals of the Esports World Cup 2025 – Magnus Carlsen (team Liquid), Arjun Erigaisi (team Gen.G Esports), Hikaru Nakamura (team Falcons), Alireza Firouzja (team Falcons), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (team Twisted Minds), Wei Yi (team Weibo Gaming), Fabiano Caruana (team Liquid), Ian Nepomniachtchi (team Aurora), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Natus Vincere), Vladislav Artemiev (team Spirit), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (team Vitality), Vladimir Fedoseev. Update: Anish Giri, Javokhir Sindarov, Levon Aronian and Nihal Sarin join the finals through the EWC LCQ qualifier. Update 2: Espienko substitutes Fedoseev (news)
The main chess event of the Esports World Cup is taking place July 29-August 1. Chessdom.com will have daily live games as well as videos, reports, and interviews from the EWC.
Update: the final match of the Esports World Cup is Magnus Carlsen vs Alireza Firouzja
Replay the LCQ
Format of the Esports World Cup
The chess part of the Esports World Cup EWC is going to have the following format:
- Stage 1
- 4 Groups of 4 players – GSL
- Time control: 10 minutes with no increment
- Armageddon as tiebreaker
- 2 games per match
- Stage 2
- Single Elimination Bracket
- Time control: 10 minutes with no increment
- Armageddon as tiebreaker
- Round of 8: 4 games per match
- Round of 4: 6 games per match
- Grand Finals: Best of 3 Sets
- First two sets are 4 games
- If necessary, Final set are 2 games
