Nihal Sarin joins Arjun Erigaisi for the E-Sports World Cup quarterfinals

Nihal Sarin from India is one of the best players in speed chess.

He defeated French player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to reach the Esports World Cup quarterfinals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and joins Arjun Erigaisi in the knockout stages.

The Esports World Cup Championship

The Esports World Cup gathers top esports clubs across 24 popular titles. The event is taking place in Riyadh from 7th July to 24th August, featuring an online chess competition for the first time. 
The inaugural 2024 edition lasted eight weeks, with the 2025 tournament set to be the largest multi-title esports event in history, featuring over 2,000 players, more than 200 teams, and a prize pool of $70 million (approximately ₹602 crore).
After initially losing to Arjun, Sarin won back-to-back matches, first against Dutch player Anish Giri (2-0) and today against Vachier-Lagrave (1.5-0.5).

Earlier in the day, Magnus Carlsen also advanced to the quarter-finals and praised Nihal's skills. Nihal is known for being one of the top players in speed chess.

Carlsen said, “His mouse speed is slow and that competing against a young Indian player like Nihal Sarin could be a challenging match-up. I only played the two qualifier events to qualify with this time control, but it worked out okay for me. My mouse speed isn't necessarily the best, but I play quickly and effectively enough that it doesn’t usually bother me.”

The Roadmap to Qualifinals

Reaching the tournament’s qualifier was not an easy road for Nihal. After failing to qualify through the initial qualifiers, he competed in the Last Chance Qualifier in Riyadh, where he reached the finals of the Winner's Bracket after defeating Russia's Andrey Esipenko, thereby securing his place in the main event.

For all the world news, connect with us @https://thenowindia.in