Chess is coming to the EWC next year.
Chess has been around for a very long time and is considered one of the ultimate competitive games, pitting two people against each other in a strategic battle that is near impossible to perfect. At the highest levels of play, those battles can be incredible to watch, and the team organising the Esports World Cup thinks it could rival the top esports when it comes to entertainment value.
Chess will be a part of the 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, joining the event for the first time. Some of the best chess players in the world will head to the event to compete for a massive prize pool, and assuming they are signed by top esports teams, to help their club in the club championship. It’s an idea that, on paper at least, seems natural, with chess being one of the most watched games online and the world cup highlighting the biggest competitive games in the world.
“Being in esports for the last 20 plus years, looking at chess is almost a regular thing, so it’s not the first time we looked at it overall from an esports industry [perspective], said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation. “The Esports World Cup is really the first competition which gives the right surrounding for it, because we’re a foundation which has a clear goal to grow esports, and we have the mandate to go multi-game. So we have kind of all the best games.”
It’s almost surprising something like this hasn’t happened sooner. Chess has long flirted with the esports industry, with many esports teams bringing in chess players to their ranks and the top levels of the competitive scene creating broadcasts in a similar style to esports online. However, until now there has been no major cross over between the two, and certainly no representation for chess at a major esports event such as this.
However, it’s not all smooth sailing when it comes to bringing chess into an esports competition. Chess is, somewhat infamously, a very slow game and events can take weeks to complete, whereas esports tends to favour single weekend events with lots of matches across a single day.
This also impacts the broadcast style chess events have had, which again can be very different to what we are used to in the esports world. But, the team working on the EWC have partnered with both Chess.com and chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen to make sure the event stays true to its chess roots, while also bringing a bit of the esports magic.
“First and foremost, it will be a digital version [of chess] otherwise, we wouldn’t be true to esports,” said Reichert. “We’re definitely going to do our own take on chess. We’ll obviously look what’s worked so far, but we’ll try to innovate and do it a little bit more fast-paced and a little bit more narrative and entertainment focused than you would see at a traditional [chess] broadcast.”
Despite chess coming to the EWC for the first time next year, and there still being a lot of questions of how it will go, the event and Chess.com have signed a multi-year deal to see chess return to the event for years to come. While this may seem risky if the event turns out to be a bit of a flop, the intention is to bring some sustainability to both the chess scene and any esports teams that decide to bring in chess players to compete at the EWC.
With organisations also competing for serious cash in the club championship, Reichert is expecting many to sign chess players before the event kicks off to hopefully earn some extra club championship points. While this would likely be a solid pay day for players that do get signed, the fact there is a multi-year commitment to the game should mean organisations are more likely to offer long term contracts to players, rather than just the chance to represent them for the EWC event.
“In most sports the health and the stability and the opportunities are almost all created by the clubs, which give players financial stability, which give them a home and which give them the opportunity to grow beyond the pure sport as a personality, as a creator, as a media star,” said Reichert. “So the whole involvement between the club ecosystem and the chess players, I feel will bring great value to chess as it has done to most other sports.”
There are still a lot of questions to be answered when it comes to exactly how chess at the EWC will work and look, but there is no doubt that this should be an exciting addition to the event. Despite how different the top esports can be, there will always be a lot of similarities when the events are hosted at the same location with a very similar broadcast style that the industry is used to. But with chess there is more potential to try new things and create a new format, which should not only make for a great event, but could also lead to real innovation across the entire esports industry.
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