HomeChessCarlsen, Lazavik To Battle It Out In Esports World Cup Final

Carlsen, Lazavik To Battle It Out In Esports World Cup Final

sportsarena.pro
By sportsarena.pro
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GM Magnus Carlsen scored a 2.5-0.5 victory over GM Nihal Sarin and then won a 4-1 thriller against GM Alireza Firouzja to reach the Final of the 2026 Esports World Cup. Carlsen will face off against 19-year-old GM Denis Lazavik, who pounced on mistakes and gave almost no chances to GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3-2) and Hikaru Nakamura (3.5-1.5). Nakamura will face Firouzja in the Third-Place Match, with Team Falcons guaranteed all the points from that clash of teammates.

The final matches of the Esports World Cup start on Saturday, August 15, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.

Carlsen-Firouzja was a repeat of the 2025 final. Photo: Esports World Cup.

Semifinals:

Quarterfinals:

An intense day’s action left us with just two undefeated players.

Esports World Cup Playoffs Bracket

Another intense seven-hour day of chess action in Paris saw all the best-of-four Quarterfinals and best-of-six Semifinals completed, so that just two matches remain. Let’s start with the Semifinals.

Semifinals: Deja Vu

There was a very familiar look to the four players who reached the Esports World Cup Semifinals, since they’d also faced off in the Speed Chess Championship earlier this year in London.

In fact, the semifinal pairings exactly matched those of the Final and Third-Place Match in London, with the same results. 

Lazavik 3.5-1.5 Nakamura

Denis Lazavik gave few chances to Hikaru Nakamura. Photo: Esports World Cup.

Lazavik has a very particular style of play, with Carlsen describing it as follows: “He just doesn’t beat himself! He plays very, very solid positional chess and doesn’t really place his pieces on bad squares.”

He just doesn’t beat himself!

—Magnus Carlsen on Denis Lazavik

“I think he didn’t have any chance to win at any point,” said Lazavik of his victory over Nakamura, and in fact it was the Belarusian who could have scored more heavily. Nakamura said he was “probably worse” in the first game, but he’d briefly been totally lost when he took on c6.

28…Ne2+ wins, since if the king moves to h1, the black queen gives check from h2 and White is suddenly busted.

The second game was, in Nakamura’s words, “a dead draw from the opening,” while the match hinged on the third game. “I made one bad move and I got punished for it,” said the five-time U.S. champion, whose 26.Ne1? allowed Lazavik’s light-squared bishop to invade the position. The conversion was flawless.

That left Nakamura in the difficult situation of needing to hit back, but he got nothing in the next game with Black and said it should probably have been “a boring draw.” After a long think, however, he mixed things up and blundered a pawn with 27…Qf6?.

The simple 28.Qa8+! and 29.Qxd5 picked up the d-pawn, but this time there was nothing smooth about what followed. Lazavik allowed an easy way for Nakamura to strike back, but fortunately that was missed, since in the end we got to witness a “miracle” save with a sequence of checks and then a stalemate tactic with a desperado queen.

That’s the kind of turnaround that could easily have been the start of a brilliant comeback, but Nakamura got nothing in the next game with White before collapsing in a still-holdable pawn-down rook endgame. He commented: “I spent five minutes on one move, and in this time control you can’t do that. Probably I could have made a draw later, but it is what it is.”

Nakamura had no complaints, saying of Lazavik’s win: “It’s very, very deserved! He played great, and we’ll see how he does tomorrow against Magnus.”

Nakamura answers questions after his loss. Image: Esports World Cup broadcast.

That was a curious statement, given Nakamura’s teammate Firouzja was yet to play his semifinal against Carlsen, but it would prove prophetic.

Carlsen 4-1 Firouzja

Carlsen did Carlsen things, but it was a huge fight. Photo: Esports World Cup.

This was a repeat of both the 2025 Esports World Cup Final and the Speed Chess Championship Final earlier this year and it would, ultimately, have the same outcome. Carlsen commented after it was over: “I think this was by far my best performance so far in the tournament. I think it was a very, very good match. Last year I felt that I was playing better and pressing him on time as well. Today I pretty quickly realized that my best chance was to press him on time in a lot of these situations, and fortunately it managed to work out.”

Today I pretty quickly realized that my best chance was to press him on time.

—Magnus Carlsen

The first game was suggestive of the drama we’d witness, with Firouzja spotting some very sharp tactics.

19…Nf4! and 20…Nxg2! forced Carlsen to find a very narrow path to hold, but the three minutes Firouzja took to convince himself to go that route ultimately meant he was happy to take a draw when the dust had settled.

Objectively, Carlsen was then never better (or seriously worse) in the second game, much of which he spent a pawn down, but in terms of the clocks it was a nail-biter. Near the end he looked favorite to flag his opponent, but Firouzja showed his usual acceleration and precision to liquidate everything to bare kings—with 7.9 seconds to Carlsen’s two minutes and 10 seconds. “Yes, I can take more time than the other players—at the end I can make many fast moves,” Firouzja had said earlier in the day, but against Carlsen it was a dangerous game to play.

Alireza Firouzja relies on his incredible speed, but sometimes even he needs more time. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

“The third game obviously was crucial,” said Carlsen, with play initially going very smoothly for the world number-one, who seemed to be positionally outplaying his opponent. Complications arose, however, and the focus changed. Carlsen noted that Firouzja thought for too long, and felt that if he could “set up this construction that he cannot break,” then the time difference would be a huge factor. 42.Qxc6? was a blunder, however, allowing 42…Qe3!, with the idea of …Qf4+, …Rb1, and attacking the white king.

Everything was balanced on a knife-edge: “I missed this idea he had of activating his pieces, and it was really kind of harrowing, where it felt as though I might lose quickly, but I also wanted to make sure he didn’t force a draw, because I didn’t know if I was going to get a better chance to win on time.”

It felt as though I might lose quickly, but I also wanted to make sure he didn’t force a draw, because I didn’t know if I was going to get a better chance to win on time.

—Magnus Carlsen on Game 3 against Firouzja

In the end, even Firouzja couldn’t navigate the complications with so little time, and Carlsen picked up the win.

Carlsen led with three games to go, and would wrap up victory with another two wins, but it was anything but easy: “The last two games were absolute bloodbaths as well, but at that point at least I knew that I had some money in the bank, so I could afford to slip up once and still be OK, but I’m very happy with the way that I managed to fight in those last two games as well, because they were both really difficult. He just never goes down without a fight!”

The last two games were absolute bloodbaths as well!

—Magnus Carlsen

Game four saw Carlsen as well as Firouzja getting into time trouble, and suddenly Firouzja took over on the board.

32.Rxd7! is even winning, though the full consequences of allowing 32…Ne2+ are hard to fathom. Instead 32.Qxe5? handed the initiative to Carlsen, and the world number-one kept the upper hand for almost all of the mayhem that followed.

That meant Carlsen now led by two points with just two games to go, so that Firouzja had to win both on demand to force armageddon. He actually did generate winning chances in the fifth game, but once again it was Carlsen who played faster and just well enough to clinch another win.

Carlsen was asked about some criticism he’s received about his level of play recently and couldn’t help but smile.

In the Final, a repeat of this year’s Speed Chess Championship Semifinal, Carlsen and Lazavik will compete over two four-game sets, with a potential two-game decider if the scores are level at one set each. At stake is $250,000 for the winner, and $190,000 for the runner-up.

Firouzja looked like Carlsen’s greatest rival, but can Denis Lazavik take over that role? Photo: Esports World Cup.

Carlsen said of his young opponent: “He’s really, really good! I think by this point anyone who underestimates him is in for a little bit of a surprise, so he’s earned his right to be here and it’s really no accident.” Lazavik said, “I will be rooting for Alireza because I don’t want to play against Magnus!” but at the same time, he noted that in the Final is the best time to play the defending champion.

Both players will look to recharge after a very long day of chess.

Quarterfinals

Lazavik 3-2 Abdusattorov

Lazavik announced his form early on with an extremely convincing win over GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The Uzbek star had chosen his opponent the day before and may have regretted choosing such a brilliant technical player instead of the more unpredictable GM Hans Niemann. If anyone had chances in the four draws, it was Lazavik, but Abdusattorov’s hope was that he won the bid to have Black in armageddon and need only a fifth draw.

Lazavik has looked absolutely at home in Paris. Photo: Esports World Cup.

It didn’t happen, however, with Lazavik finding a way to win in what should have been a drawn pawn-up rook endgame.

Lazavik commented: “Such positions are very unpleasant, like with Sina [Movahed] I had something similar. It’s quite equal, but it’s not a draw, and finally you get low on time and it’s very hard to defend.”

Lazavik even felt he would have won on time if they’d got down to bare rook vs. rook. 

Nakamura 3-2 Arjun

This clash also saw four draws followed by an armageddon win for White, but the first draw especially could easily have been more. In a strategically busted position—the black a-pawn is ready to run—Nakamura sacrificed a rook.

It was a brilliant but flawed concept, but to prove it GM Arjun Erigaisi had to find what could have been the move of the day. He didn’t, and the game fizzled out into a quick draw.

The remaining three 10+0 games were tense draws. Then in armageddon Nakamura was surprised not to win after bidding 6 minutes 59 seconds. Arjun undercut him with 6:45.

Arjun only needed a draw, but he got his king stuck in the center, came under a heavy attack, and was unable to save the game.

No armageddon was needed in the other half of the draw.

Firouzja 2.5-1.5 Niemann

Niemann could never quite recover from the opening loss. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

This clash was effectively decided in one moment of the first game, when Niemann withdrew his bishop to a8, missing that Firouzja could fork the two black rooks from e6, since the black queen is pinned. A moment of terrible realization followed before Niemann simply resigned.

Niemann had a chance to hit straight back in game two, then narrowly escaped a match-ending defeat in game three, before the final game was a thriller. Black looked busted, but Firouzja found a way to hold things together—then escaped in 132 moves with 8.1 seconds to spare.

The final quarterfinal was a repeat of a quarterfinal in 2025.

Carlsen 2.5-0.5 Nihal

The scoreline would also be exactly the same, with Carlsen getting off to a perfect start against Nihal.

That smooth combination of tactics and positional play is our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.

“The last two games were really messy, so I was really happy not to have to play a fourth!” said Carlsen, but he counterattacked in fine style to win the second, while the deciding game ended drawn with only brief moments of real danger for the defending champion.

Carlsen got to crush Nihal’s key…

…but will he manage to crush Lazavik’s to defend his title? All will be decided on Saturday’s final day of Esports World Cup chess action.

So far Lazavik has done the crushing. Photo: Esports World Cup.

How to watch?

You can follow the 2026 Esports World Cup games on our Events Page. You can watch live commentary on the Chess.com YouTube channel and on both the Chess.com and Chess24 Twitch channels.


The 2026 Esports World Cup in Paris, France has a $1.5 million chess prize fund and $250,000 for first place, while esports teams also share a $30 million prize fund. 16 players qualified via the Champions Chess Tour, DreamHack Atlanta, India Rising, or as defending champion (Carlsen), while another five qualified via the Last Chance Qualifier (August 4-6) in Paris. 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.    

Previous coverage:

  • Group Stage, Day 2: Lazavik Ousts Nepomniachtchi, Joins Arjun, Nihal, Niemann In Quarterfinals
  • Group Stage, Day 1: Carlsen, Nakamura, Firouzja, Abdusattorov Reach Esports World Cup Playoffs
  • Play-In: Esipenko, Wei Yi Join Carlsen & Co. In Esports World Cup Last 16
  • Last Chance Qualifier: Artemiev, Maghsoodloo, Wei, Bortnyk, Grischuk Grab Last Spots In Esports World Cup 
  • Aravindh, Esipenko, Liem Le, Sarana Qualify For Esports World Cup Play-in
  • Chess Returns to Esports World Cup in Paris With $1.5M Prize Fund
  • Magnus Carlsen Wins 1st Ever Chess Esports World Cup



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