S8UL's Nihal Sarin has officially qualified for the EWC 2026 chess event, and this will be his second time representing his country at the Esports World Cup.
Indian chess prodigy Nihal Sarin, who plays for S8UL Esports, has done it again. He’s officially qualified for the Chess main event at the EWC 2026 Chess, becoming just the second Indian to make it this year after his teammate Aravindh Chithambaram. This is huge for Indian chess, and honestly, it feels way bigger now that it’s part of the Esports World Cup.
How Nihal qualified for EWC 2026 Chess event?
Nihal didn’t get direct entry through the big events. He finished fourth at the Chess.com Open 2026, just one spot away from the top-three cutoff. But he still got 100 leaderboard points and kept grinding on the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix circuit.
A strong second-place in the Spring Split gave him enough points to finish with 139 overall, which was just enough to lock in his spot via the CCT Leaderboard.
Last year, Nihal qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier and even reached the quarterfinals, where he lost to Magnus Carlsen. So he’s already proven he can handle the pressure at EWC.
Aravindh is also going to EWC 2026
Aravindh Chithambaram, also from S8UL, qualified through DreamHack Atlanta earlier this year. He’ll start in the Play-In stage, while Nihal jumps straight into the Group Stage thanks to his CCT ranking. Both are now the only Indian players to qualify for the Chess event so far.
EWC 2026 Chess format and prize
The Chess event at EWC 2026 runs from August 11 to 15 in Paris, with a massive $1.5 million prize pool (around ₹14.3 crore). The format changed this year. It starts with a new Play-In stage, then moves to Group Stage, Playoffs, and finally the Grand Finals. Games are double-elimination in the earlier stages and single-elimination in Playoffs, with longer matches as you go deeper.
Nihal directly makes it into the Group Stage, which is 16 players split into two groups. Top four from each group move to Playoffs.
Well, Chess is not the only game where we'll see S8UL. The club is also competing in Honor of Kings, Fortnite and other titles with Indian players, but this Chess qualification feels different. It’s pure skill, pure pressure, and no shortcuts.
EWC 2026 itself runs from July 6 to August 23 in Paris, with over 2,000 players from 200 clubs across 100+ countries. The total prize pool is around $75 million. Chess is just one of 24 games, but for Indian fans, it’s the one we’ll be watching the most.
Now everyone’s waiting to see how deep Nihal and Aravindh can go. If last year is anything to go by, India better get ready for another big run.