2 weeks ago

Indian chess players Arjun and Nihal exit Esports World Cup quarterfinals

Indian chess players Arjun and Nihal exit Esports World Cup quarterfinals
Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin bow out in EWC 2026 quarterfinals · indianexpress.com

There is a big video-game competition called the Esports World Cup.

This year it is happening in Paris, and for the first time chess is part of it.

Four chess players from India went to play there.

Two of them, Arjun and Nihal, played really well and reached the top eight players in the whole world.

Before they could reach the final, they had to win a quarterfinal game.

Sadly, both of them lost their quarterfinal matches.

Nihal lost to a very famous and powerful chess player named Magnus Carlsen.

Arjun was beaten before he could play his next opponent, Hikaru Nakamura.

The same thing happened last year when the competition was in Riyadh.

Nihal also lost to Carlsen last year, and Arjun also went out before facing his opponent again.

So this year ended the same way for the Indian chess players as last year did.

They were close to the top, but not quite close enough.

Key facts

Event
Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 chess competition
Location
Paris
Round
Quarterfinals
Eliminated players
Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin
Winning opponents
Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura
Indian qualifiers
4, of whom 2 reached the top eight
Previous edition
Riyadh (2025), where Arjun reached the semifinals and lost the third-place playoff

Sources

Related news