Magnus Carlsen, Norway’s world No 1, triumphed again last weekend when he won the 2026 Esports World Cup, staged over four days at the prestigious venue of the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Carlsen retained his title from Riyadh 2025 and took home a monster first prize of $250,000 (£183,000). The time limit was close to blitz, 10 minutes each per player with no per move increment, a format where blunders would be hoped for, and were indeed made, as entertainment for the capacity audience.
The dark side of this format occurs when the players end up trying to win by “dirty flagging”, where they reach king and rook each or a similar dead drawn ending and everything is decided by dexterity with the mouse and by whose clock flag falls first. Carlsen went through the entire event unbeaten, defeating Russia’s Andrey Esipenko and the US’s Hans Niemann 1.5-0.5 in the group stage, India’s Nihal Sarin 2.5-0.5 in the quarter-finals, France’s Alireza Firouzja 4-1 in the semi-finals, and Belarus’s Denis Lazavik 3-1, 3-1 over two sets in the final. Carlsen’s best game was at the very end, when he unveiled a prepared line with a positional queen sacrifice which he had spotted that Lazavik had defended previously.
There was an option of an early draw by perpetual check, but Carlsen wanted more. Lazavik was the positive surprise of the event, continuing his previous strong performances in major online speed events. In classical chess the 19-year-old from Minsk is only ranked the world No 110, but in blitz he is among the super-elite.
Carlsen said: “He just doesn’t beat himself! He plays very solid positional chess and doesn’t put his pieces on bad squares.” Second prize for Lazavik was $190,000. Not losing a game speaks both to the success of that strategy, and of course a little bit of randomness, but I’m happy with that.” There was also a match for third place in which USA’s world No 3, Hikaru Nakamura, who had lost his semi-final to Lazavik, defeated Firouzja.
With the score in the six-game match 3-1 against him, the Frenchman left the tournament hall without making a move and defaulted the fifth game, in response to some technical internet issues in game four. Firouzja is a creative talent, but he has been involved in several disputes with organisers over the years, which most recently included his withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in favour of Paris. It amounts to a negative track record which could seriously limit his future invitations.
Meanwhile, the Sinquefield Cup, one of the world’s premier tournaments, finished on Wednesday: Wesley So (US) and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (India) tied on 5.5/9. After two rapid tie-break games were drawn, as was the Armageddon decider, the rule is that a draw on the board counts as a win for Black. So became the first player to win the Sinquefield Cup three times.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
