 "Nihal Sarin is the second Indian Grandmaster to reach the chess tournament quarter-finals at the Esports World Cup 2025. Images: ChessBase India/@S8ulesports on X")
India’s Nihal Sarin stormed into the quarter-finals of the chess tournament at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025 on Wednesday by winning his Loser Brackets matches, as he joins world No.1 Magnus Carlsen and compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the next round.
Sarin defeated Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri (2-0) and French player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (1.5-0.5) in Group B matches to qualify for the quarter-finals of the tournament being played in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Also Read | ‘Magnus respects Gukesh’: Nihal Sarin defends World No. 1 after table slam reaction
Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi (Group A), Hikaru Nakamura (Group C) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Group D) have also qualified for the final eight-stage. While Vladislav Artemiev, Andrey Esipenko, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi, Fabiano Caruana and Jan-Krzysztof Duda have been eliminated.
The biggest shock elimination was that of Duda, who resigned on move five in Armageddon after a mouse slip forced a blunder from his end and cost him at least $20,000 in prize money earnings.
Nihal reaches quarters; Giri slams his mouse
On Tuesday, Levon Aronian (Group A), Erigaisi (Group B), Alireza Firouzja (Group C) and Carlsen (Group D) had qualified for the quarter-finals by winning their respective groups.
Meanwhile, Kerala GM Nihal’s victory over Anish Giri is going viral on social media after the veteran Dutch Grandmaster banged his mouse in frustration. Giri’s instinctive action was reminiscent of Carlsen banging the table in June after losing a match against world champion D Gukesh at Norway Chess 2025.
Also going viral is Nihal attending the event of Giri’s key getting crushed at the Esports World Cup 2025. As a symbolic act, a player’s key is crushed at the tournament after they are eliminated.
The chess tournament at the EWC has a mega prize pool of $1.5 million. The eight players reaching the quarter-finals are guaranteed at least $85,000 (approximately Rs 75 lakh) together. The winner of the chess tournament will earn $250,000 (approximately Rs 2.2 crore).