India’s Nihal Sarin has beaten French player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to qualify for the Esports World Cup quarterfinals at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and joins Arjun Erigaisi in the knockout rounds. After initially losing to Arjun, Sarin has managed to pull off back-to-back wins, first against Dutch’s Anish Giri (2-0) and Vachier-Lagrave today (1.5-0.5).
Earlier in the day, Magnus Carlsen made it to the quarter-finals of the chess event, and he was also appreciative of Nihal’s skills. Nihal carries a moniker for being one of the best players when it comes to speed chess.
Carlsen said his mouse speed is slow, and if he runs into someone like young Indian Nihal Sarin, it might turn into a dangerous match-up. “I only played the two qualifier events to get here with this time control, but for me, it worked out okay. My mouse speed is not necessarily the best, but I play fast and well enough that it doesn’t usually bother me,” said Carlsen to Chessbase India ahead of the Esports World Cup.
“We will see, however, you could run into really dangerous matchups here. For instance, we saw in the qualifier how incredibly good Nihal (Sarin) is with very little time on the clock. There could be certain players like him and Alireza (Firouzja); I think, especially if they have a good event, they can use that mouse speed to their advantage,” he added.
However, qualifying for the tournament was not as straightforward to Nihal. After failing to qualify at EWC through the two qualifiers, Nihal had to play through the Last Chance Qualifier in Riyadh, where he reached the finals of the Winner’s Bracket after beating Russia’s Andrey Esipenko, thus qualifying for the main event.
What is the Esports World Cup?
The Esports World Cup brings together top esports clubs across 24 popular titles. EWC 2025 is happening in Riyadh from July 7 to August 24, featuring chess as an online event for the first time. The inaugural 2024 edition spanned eight weeks, while the 2025 event will be history’s largest multi-title esports tournament with 2,000+ players, 200+ teams, and a $70 million (≈₹602 crore) prize pool.
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