GMs Vladislav Artemiev, Parham Maghsoodloo, Wei Yi, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Alexander Grischuk have snatched the five spots available in the $1.5 million 2026 Esports World Cup after competing in the three-day Last Chance Qualifier in Paris. They’re all guaranteed at least $20,000 in prize money, but still need to finish in the top-two of Tuesday’s eight-player Play-In to join the likes of defending champion GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Hikaru Nakamura, and GM Alireza Firouzja in the final 16.
The main event of the Esports World Cup starts on Tuesday, August 11 at 6 a.m. ET / 12:00 CEST / 3:30 p.m. IST.
The Esports World Cup is back, this time in Paris, and it’s only grown from the event that first hosted chess players in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2025. The total prizes available have increased to $75 million, with over 2,000 players in action across 24 esports titles over seven weeks, from July 2 to August 23. In chess, there’s $250,000 on offer for first place, while the winning esports team will take home $7 million.
A scheduling clash with the Grand Chess Tour has deprived us of the likes of GMs Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Wesley So, and Anish Giri, but the 14 players qualified for Wednesday’s Group Stage—all already guaranteed $40,000—represent formidable chess talent.
The remaining two players will be decided in an eight-player Play-In on Tuesday.
As you can see, the Play-In features three players who qualified from DreamHack Atlanta—GMs Aravindh Chithambaram, Liem Le, and Andrey Esipenko—with five players from the Last Chance Qualifier. It was originally going to be four, but GM Alexey Sarana qualified directly to the Group Stage and so didn’t need to take up his DreamHack spot in the Play-In.
That brings us to the Last Chance Qualifier, an opening event in Paris providing a last route into the Esports World Cup.
Last Chance Qualifier: Battling For The Final Keys
The Last Chance Qualifier was open to anyone, with 86 players ultimately competing in four seven-round Swiss groups before a 16-player knockout. It attracted strong grandmasters, but also players just wanting to savor the atmosphere. For instance, IM Malcolm Pein took a break from chess politics.
It’s impossible to overestimate how the EWC has taken over almost every poster board in Paris. Everywhere you look @MagnusCarlsen is grinning at you. This is what confronted me when I got off the Eurostar at Gare de Nord 🙂 https://t.co/79ay1OLCHi pic.twitter.com/zypnLfDxZN
— Malcolm Pein (@TelegraphChess) August 3, 2026
He had some memorable chess moments.
David Howell: “That’s once in a lifetime type of stuff—he should buy a lottery ticket, Malcolm (@TelegraphChess), castling queenside to deliver checkmate. You wait a whole career and you never get that on the board!” https://t.co/kzyZtmIDtV pic.twitter.com/5Htp5gb128
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 4, 2026
In the end, however, the groups, each with four qualifying spots, largely saw the expected players go through. Each had a clear winner: Wei (6/7 in Group A), GM Daniil Dubov (6.5/7 in Group B), GM Andrew Tang (6/7 in Group C), and Grischuk (6/7 in Group D). Strong players missed out, including GMs Laurent Fressinet, Eduardo Iturrizaga, Loek van Wely, Rinat Jumabayev, Saleh Salem, and Aleksandar Indjic, but in just one group were tiebreakers needed to separate the top four from the rest of the pack.
GM Velimir Ivic was the unlucky player to miss out on 5/7, after GM Peter Leko came through in a game of high drama. Both he and his opponent, two-time African Chess Champion GM Bilel Bellahcene, needed to win on demand, but that seemed impossible for Leko when he blundered the exchange.
Peter Leko reacts in shock as he blunders in a must-win game! https://t.co/RzatOMvjWU#EWC2026 pic.twitter.com/Lb57BiFiv0
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 5, 2026
From there, however, sheer willpower took over—that, and the black position being surprisingly tricky to play with little time and no increment.
It’s not often you see a fist pump from Leko!
Peter Leko fist pumps as he wins on demand from a losing position to qualify for tomorrow’s 16-player knockout at the last moment! https://t.co/RzatOMvjWU#EWC2026 pic.twitter.com/c9QpR8eWA5
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 5, 2026
The players who finished at the top of their group, however, had the privilege of starting the 16-player knockout in the Winners Bracket, while those in third and fourth started in the Losers Bracket, with just one “life” and having to win four matches in a row to reach the Esports World Cup. None of those eight players managed, with Leko knocked out 1.5-0.5 in the first clash of the day against French GM Jules Moussard. Let’s take a look at how the five qualifiers made it.
For players starting in the Winners Bracket, the goal was simple—win two matches and you were in the main event. That was achieved by Artemiev and Maghsoodloo.
Artemiev Grabs The 1st Spot
All the matches in both brackets were played using the same system—best-of-two 10+0 games, or best-of-four whenever the winner would qualify for the Esports World Cup. If tied, a single bidding armageddon game would be played, and we got to see that in Artemiev’s first victory against Grischuk. After two incredibly tight games, Artemiev had to win on demand with the white pieces and he did, though only after 46.e5? almost let things slip away.
Artemiev took a spot in the Esports World Cup 2.5-1.5 after winning game two against Bortnyk on time, then losing game three, before clinching the match in game four.
Vladislav Artemiev is the 1st player through to next week’s main event of the #EWC2026, where he’s guaranteed at least $20,000! Oleksandr Bortnyk still has a chance via the Losers Bracket: https://t.co/AcfjdCu6NG pic.twitter.com/u6mzHK0NWZ
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 6, 2026
Bortnyk didn’t hide his disappointment, but the day wasn’t over as he dropped down into the Losers Bracket.
Maghsoodloo Also Wraps Things Up Early
Maghsoodloo was the other player to need just two matches. First up was Tang, who not for nothing is often considered the fastest player in online chess.
Pro Tip: Don’t get into a flagging race with Andrew Tang! #EWC2026 pic.twitter.com/iRQAUY2m8m
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 5, 2026
This time, however, he blundered when under pressure in the first game…
…then hit back, then blundered again at the end of the armageddon decider.
Maghsoodloo then faced the formidable Wei, but managed to win 3-1 after grinding out a win in a drawn position in game two and then taking advantage of Wei’s desperate Modern Defense in the final game.
Wei Yi Shrugs Off Loss To Qualify
Wei began the day by beating GM Yaroslav Zherebukh 1.5-0.5, before losing to Maghsoodloo. That parachuted him down into the Losers Bracket, but meant he still had to win just a single match to qualify. He did, overcoming Grischuk 2.5-1.5 in a match that was far less smooth than it looked on the surface. Grischuk missed a huge chance in the first game.
Grischuk’s horror was visible as he played through that game afterward.
It would go from bad to worse for the Russian, as in the next game he was lost in 12 moves, but the match very nearly went to armageddon—Grischuk was winning the final game on demand, but failed to convert.
Wei Yi is through to the #EWC2026 main event after surviving a lost position vs. Alexander Grischuk, but Grischuk has one last chance in a match vs. Andrew Tang! https://t.co/CvwMmV0nJb pic.twitter.com/NcDpRvCLpj
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 6, 2026
The other player to hit back immediately and qualify after losing in the Winners Bracket was Bortnyk.
Bortnyk Finally Makes It
Bortnyk narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Esports World Cup via DreamHack Atlanta, but started the knockout in Paris with a tough challenge—against group top-scorer Dubov. That challenge looked even tougher when Dubov won the first game, but Bortnyk hit back in the second, squeezing out a win from a drawn rook-and-pawn endgame. That momentum carried on into an armageddon win, but then Artemiev won their qualification battle.
Bortnyk shrugged that off, however, and qualified with a 3-1 win over Tang. The first win was the narrowest—at least on the clock. Bortnyk delivered checkmate with just 0.6 of a second to spare.
Tang bounced back immediately and then had chances in both the following games, but Bortnyk grabbed two more wins to seal qualification.
I did it ! I qualified to EWC!
— Oleksandr Bortnyk (@BortnykChess) August 6, 2026
There was still one last chance for Tang in an extra match for fifth place, but instead it was three-time World Blitz Champion Grischuk who made it through.
Grischuk Takes The Final Spot
The final match featured two players who suffered match defeat twice over the course of the day. Grischuk lost to Artemiev, but then knocked out both Moussard and Dubov 1.5-0.5, before running into Wei.
Grischuk got one final chance, however, in a match with Tang, and he got off to a perfect start with a crushing win with the white pieces. Tang looked on course to hit back in the second, but lost his way in a winning position.
That left Tang with the almost impossible task of winning the next two games on demand to force armageddon, but Grischuk never lost control in the third game and ultimately won again to clinch a 3-0 win.
Alexander Grischuk grabs the final spot in the $1.5 million Chess competition at the #EWC2026 — the action starts Tuesday! pic.twitter.com/qKPVUgtB7I
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 6, 2026
Tang still took $8,000 for sixth place in the Last Chance Qualifier, but now the prizes on offer begin to grow rapidly. First, the task of Grischuk and his fellow last-chance winners is to finish in the top-two in Tuesday’s Play-In and join Carlsen and co. in the 16-player Group Stage. If they do, they’re guaranteed at least $40,000.
Don’t miss next week’s action, as Carlsen attempts to crush his rivals’ keys and defend his Esports World Cup title!
How to watch?
The 2026 Esports World Cup in Paris, France, features chess for the second time, with a $1.5 million prize fund and $250,000 for first place, while chess players are also part of esports teams that share a $30 million prize fund. 16 players qualified via the Champions Chess Tour, DreamHack Atlanta, India Rising, or as defending champion (GM Magnus Carlsen), while another five qualified via the Last Chance Qualifier (August 4-6) in Paris. That event had a $50,000 prize fund, with four Swiss tournaments and a 16-player knockout. The main event (August 11-15) features a Play-In to cut the field to 16 players, then a Group Stage with two double-elimination groups to halve it again to eight. Those players then compete in the Playoffs, a single-elimination knockout for the title. The time control for all games is 10 minutes, with no increment.
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