Mumbai, May 27 -- Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin, representing esports and gaming content powerhouse S8UL Esports, has officially qualified for the Chess main event at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 through the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2025-2026 Leaderboard.
He joins teammate Aravindh Chithambaram as the only two Indian players to qualify for the prestigious tournament so far. The CCT 2025-2026 season featured two major events, the Speed Chess Championship (SCC) 2025 and Chess.com Open (CCO) 2026.
The top three players from both tournaments secured direct qualification to the EWC, while players finishing between fifth and ninth in SCC, along with the remaining participants in CCO, earned points toward the CCT Leaderboard based on thei...