Here is All You Need to Know about Chess at EWC 2026, including key Road to EWC events, the biggest stories from last year and this current competitive season, and the top contenders to watch out for.
Road to EWC 2026: Qualification pathway
Chess’ biggest star and the inaugural EWC champion, Magnus Carlsen, will return in 2026 to defend his title. Joining him, among others, are the top three players from the Speed Chess Championship this past October: Alireza Firouzja, Denis Lazavik, and… Magnus Carlsen?! Well, he can’t qualify twice, so an additional slot will have to be allocated elsewhere.
Here are the current remaining slot allocations for the Chess main event at EWC 2026:
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The top 3 players at Chess.com Open Championship (March 14–April 26)
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The top 6* players according to the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) Circuit Points Rankings, not including already qualified players
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The top 4 players from DreamHack Atlanta
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The top 4 players at the EWC Last Chance Qualifier
*More slots are still to be announced, and additional slots will be reallocated through the CCT Rankings in the event that Firouzja, Lazavik or Carlsen finish in the top 3 at the Chess.com Open Championship.
Players can earn CCT points prior to the rankings’ cutoff through the Chess.com Open Championship, or the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix Spring Split (March 3–May 26).
Chess at the EWC 2025
Watch: Magnus Carlsen wins a $250,000 chess game with 93% accuracy!
As alluded to above, Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid) claimed the inaugural chess title at Esports World Cup 2025, not dropping a single set along the way. His biggest test came against long-time rival Hikaru Nakamura (Team Falcons), needing seven games to break the draw in a back-and-forth affair. Carlsen moved on to the final, decisively beating Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons) with 3–1 victories in both sets. Carlsen’s victory was one of three game championships claimed by Liquid, securing a second-straight (though much closer this time around) second place finish for the club in the EWC Club Championship.
Teams and players to watch
Watch: Magnus Carlsen reacts to his most viral moments
It should come as no surprise that Magnus Carlsen is the consensus favorite heading into EWC 2026, as both the defending champion and the winner of the Speed Chess Championship. The greatest chess player of the modern era, Carlsen has been a grandmaster for more than two decades, and any result shy of another first place finish at EWC 2026 would be a disappointment for both himself and Team Liquid.
Like Carlsen was in the 2010s, Alireza Firouzja is a dynamic chess prodigy, and has proven to be a worthy and consistent adversary to Carlsen since being named chess.com’s Rising Star of 2021. Between Firouzja and veteran Hikaru Nakamura, Team Falcons has a strong two-man lineup in chess, but will it be enough to unseat Carlsen? Currently, Nakamura holds the most CCT points amongst players that have not qualified for EWC 2026 yet, though it seems heavily likely that he will return to compete in Riyadh this summer.
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