Indian Chess Grandmaster Nihal Sarin has been making headlines for being the only Indian to secure a direct invitation to represent India at the Esports Nations Cup 2026 for Chess.
Nihal is the only indian who has qualified automatically through the Champions Chess Tour leaderboard.
Where will the Esports Nations Cup be held?
This Esports Nations Cup, a chess tournament, will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2 to November 8. The tournament will feature around 128 players, who will compete for a prize of $600,000, which is 5.7 crore Indian Rupees.
Nihal has earned this position after showing strong play throughout CCT 2025-26, including the Speed Chess Championship, Chess.com Open, and the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix circuit.
Before qualifying from the CTC leaderboard, he missed out on his direct qualification through Chess.com Open, but Nihal still managed to collect his ranking points through his consistent performance across multiple games.
Nihal Sarin Joins Other Bigg Chess Names
Nihal Sarin finished at 139 leaderboard points, becoming one of the top six players in the overall Esports Nations Cup Chess rankings.
This direct qualification victory has placed Nihal among the other top players in the Chess world, including world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Denis Lazavik.
The Esports Nation Cup Chess will start with a round-robin stage, comprising 16 groups with 8 players each, then the best performers among these will move forward for the 64-player single-elimination playoff round.
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Only two players from a single country can come forward to represent, with Nihal already securing one place. Indian fans are now waiting for the next name, who will come forward in the same place.
The other Indian Player will qualify through the regional qualification way, which is scheduled to take place in June.
Nihal Sarin has also represented esports organisation S8UL Esports and competed at the Esports World Cup.
Nihal has described this opportunity to represent the country as a very special moment. He also told how eagerly he is waiting to compete against some of the strongest players across the world, and make India proud.
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