The Esports World Cup has surprisingly added a new game into its 2025 tournament—chess! Read on to find out why this thousand-year-old game has been added as an esport.
Chess, The Game Of Kings, At EWC 2025
Officially Declared An Esport In The Competition
Chess is now one of the esports featured in the upcoming 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC), the largest gaming and esports festival in the world. In a major partnership between the biggest online chess website, Chess.com, the sport’s Grandmaster (GM) Magnus Carlsen, and the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), competitive chess will be featured for the first time in this event, bringing attention to the age-old sport to a more public audience.
Ralf Reichert, EWCF’s CEO, shared his enthusiasm for the new addition to their game selection, calling chess "the mother of all strategy games" and having it showcased in the event is a truly exciting moment. "With its rich history, global appeal, and thriving competitive scene, chess is a perfect fit for our mission to unite the world's most popular games and their passionate communities."
Retired world champion and currently the world’s number one player, GM Magnus Carlsen, will also be present at the event as an ambassador, hoping to connect chess to the masses. "I'm thrilled to see Chess join some of the biggest games in the world at the Esports World Cup. This partnership is an incredible opportunity to grow the game, by introducing chess to new audiences and inspiring the next generation of players," he said.
To Be Held In Summer of 2025 in Saudi Arabia
The esteemed event will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 31st to August 3rd, 2025, and will bring together the world’s top chess players from all over the globe, competing for the massive prize pool of $1.5 million USD. However, to qualify for the EWC, interested competitors will first need to rank in the online 2025 Champions Chess Tour (CCT) held in February and May. The top 12 players from the tournament plus four additional players from the "Last Chance Qualifier" will be competing for the $300,000 USD prize pool as well as a slot to compete on the world’s biggest esports stage as the first participants in Chess’ historic esports debut.
To appeal to a wider audience and most especially to esports fans, the 2025 CCT will adopt a new format in its matches. Instead of the classic 90-minute time control used in world championships, CCT matches will be played with a time control of 10 minutes for the entire game with no increment. In case of tiebreakers, a single Armageddon game will be enacted to declare the winner.
The origins of the sport date back to ancient India, 1500 years ago. It has evolved through time, passed on through centuries of generations, and is hailed as one of the world’s most popular forms of entertainment. While most are familiar with tabletop chess, the game’s transition to the digital realm such as through Chess.com and subsequently esports made the sport much more accessible to a broader audience, especially during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic where people were confined to their homes. Popular multimedia outlets such as streaming platforms, influencers, and shows like The Queen’s Gambit, have helped further the reach of the game.
And now with it officially declared as an esport, it will surely bring in more players and enthusiasts.
