Chess Esports: The Rise of a Digital Chess Era! Esports World Cup 2025 Effect

Chess is a sophisticated strategy board game that has existed for centuries. While it has mostly appealed to a niche audience, it remains one of the most popular board games in the world. In recent years, this thrilling game has entered a new phase of its history, thanks to esports software solutions and its introduction into the world of streaming entertainment. 

Although this niche of the gaming industry is mainly dominated by fast-paced action games like Fortnite and League of Legends, slow-paced games like Chess are beginning to make waves in esports, drawing millions of viewers. In this guide, we will explore the rise of chess in today’s digital era, focusing specifically on its inclusion in major esports events such as the Esports World Cup. 

• Chess is gradually evolving into a fast-paced, streamed spectator sport with global appeal thanks to its growing popularity on traditional streaming platforms like Twitch and online platforms such as Chess.com.
• Key events like PogChamps and the Esports World Cup 2025 have propelled chess into mainstream esports, with top esports organizations signing chess grandmasters to compete in these events. 
• Chess viewership has surged in recent years, with platforms like Twitch and YouTube seeing millions of streaming hours and top events drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers. 

What Is Chess Esports?

Chess Esports is a modern version of traditional chess, where competitive games between professionals are played on streaming platforms so fans from all over the world can follow the game live. These streaming platforms have powerful engines that allow esports fans to watch amateur and professional players alike battle it out in real-time so they can enjoy the gameplay and analyze moves right from the comfort of their homes, bringing chess closer to them.

In recent years, various online platforms such as Lichess and Chess.com have incorporated streaming features that have made it possible to broadcast chess matches and tournaments to millions of people in real-time. Chess Esports became an even bigger deal in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a source of entertainment for many bored people all over the world. This niche of the chess industry has sustained the same pace, gradually transitioning from a classic niche sport to a form of mainstream entertainment for a broader audience. 

From Board to Bytes: The Evolution of Chess Esports

Chess is considered an archaic game by many young people. It was created over a millennium ago and has been transmitted across various cultures while keeping its traditional form. 

Despite staying true to its classic roots, the last few decades have been characterized by a significant shift in the way the game is played. Esports is the latest frontier of the game, but the digital evolution of chess began with the development of chess engines, especially in the 20th century. 

Attempts to build chess-playing machines date all the way back to the 1700s. However, it didn’t really become a reality until the advent of modern computing in the 20th century. In 1950, Alan Turing created the first chess algorithm. The initial build was rudimentary, but the technology evolved gradually over time, and by the 1970s, it was capable of playing against human players to a reasonable level. 

Roughly two decades later, one of the most significant milestones in the digitalization of chess was achieved. IBM’s supercomputer, named Deep Blue, defeated the reigning World Champion (Garry Kasparov) in a six-game match in 1997. This marked the first time a computer would beat a world chess champion in a classical match. 

While the development of human vs chess engine algorithms was a major milestone, the wave of popularity that the game of chess is currently enjoying can be attributed to the rise of online platforms that facilitate human vs human chess matches. These platforms have revolutionized access to the game, with online chess players being able to compete against others from anywhere in the world. 

While such platforms existed before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic helped to accelerate the shift towards online tournaments. With traditional in-person board competitions either postponed or canceled, chess lovers turned to online platforms for chess, just like everything else. Many people who were simply looking for new forms of entertainment also discovered chess. They got to participate actively, not just by playing but also by streaming online chess matches between popular streamers and celebrities. 

Major Chess Esports Events

The game of chess is gradually gaining popularity online, thanks to streaming platforms like Twitch and organizations like Chess.com organizing live matches and esports tournaments. Some of the major chess events that online chess players can look forward to are listed below.

Esports World Cup 2025

The Esports World Cup (EWC) is arguably one of the biggest esports events in the world. Introduced in 2024 and backed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it brings together elite professional gamers and esports fans across multiple disciplines. Chess was officially added to the EWC lineup for the first time in 2025, signaling its growing relevance in the global esports scene.

The 2025 event is scheduled to take place from July 31 to August 4, 2025, in Riyadh. It will feature 16 elite players, including top-ranked stars like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, competing in a 10-minute rapid time control format without increment for a total prize pool of $1.5 million. Twelve players will qualify through the 2025 Champions Chess Tour leaderboard, while four more will enter via a Last Chance Qualifier.

PogChamps

PogChamps is an amateur chess event organized by Chess.com. The event, which started in 2020, features popular online personalities (usually Twitch streamers and celebrities with limited chess-playing experience). Pogchamps typically features 12 to 16 amateur players who compete first in a group stage, with winners moving on to a championship stage while others play in a consolation stage. 

Six editions of this online chess competition have been held so far. The prize pools for PogChamps have varied from $50,000 for the first two editions to a $100,000 prize pool for the current edition to be distributed between the Championship and Consolation brackets. Pogchamps has been credited as the event that lit the spark for the popularity of chess esports. Registrations on chess.com skyrocketed, and the number of streaming hours of chess on Twitch increased. 

Champions Chess Tour

The Champions Chess Tour (CCT) is a premier online chess series organized by Chess.com. Originally launched as the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour in 2020, the series has grown into one of the most prestigious online events in professional chess.

The 2025 edition includes two major online events in February and May, with a combined $300,000 prize pool. It serves as the main qualification pathway for the Esports World Cup Chess 2025. The top 12 players from the CCT leaderboard qualify directly, joined by 4 players from a final Last Chance Qualifier.

Matches in the 2025 CCT are played with a faster 10+0 time control, enhancing excitement and accessibility for online audiences. This tour is a central piece of the global competitive chess calendar, attracting top professionals from around the world.

The Inclusion of Chess in the Esports World Cup 2025

In a truly exciting moment for the game of chess, the Esports World Cup Foundation, in partnership with chess.com, recently announced that it will be introducing chess to the 2025 edition of the Esports World Cup event. It will be played in a rapid chess format with a time control of 10 minutes per player (with no room for additional time). This timing will offer players sufficient time to showcase their strategic skills, while also maintaining a fast pace that will make the game enjoyable for people watching, entrenching chess in the thriving competitive scene.

A preliminary Champions Chess Tour online event took place between February and May 2025. Twelve players qualified for the main EWC event through this tournament, while the final four spots were determined through a final last chance qualifier in Riyadh. The participants in this tournament will include amateur and professional players alike, competing for a $1.5 million prize pool. The decision to connect chess with other video games at the World Cup event may pave the way for other strategy games to join the lineup in the future.

Top Chess Esports Teams and Pro Players You Should Know

Until recently, esports organizations only focused on video games, which means they only included professional video game players competing for top-tier esports titles. However, this has changed over the past few years, especially with the inclusion of strategy games like competitive chess in major esports tournaments. This is a truly exciting moment with the potential to elevate competitive chess in the eyes of the broader esports community. Some of the major esports organizations that have now signed chess pros for their team to participate in online chess competitions are listed below. 

Team Vitality 

Team Vitality, a French esports organization, was one of the first to venture into the chess sports space. The team signed Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (popularly known as MVL) in February 2025. MVL represents Team Vitality not just in the EWC but across other online tour events in the chess world as well, including the Champions Chess Tour.

Wolves Esports

Wolves Esports is the official esports team of Wolverhampton Wanderers football club. The team recently signed China’s youngest grandmaster and three-time Chinese chess champion, Yu Yangyi as its representative to compete against other chess players at the Chess Esports World Cup.

NAVI

Ukraine’s Natus Vincere (popularly known as NAVI) recently signed chess pros to join its esports family. They include Nodirbek Abdusattorov, currently ranked sixth in the world, Wesley So, who finished in the top 16 of the 2025 Chessable Masters competition, and Oleksandr Bortnyk, who became a grandmaster in 2015 at the age of 19. Leo Team, another Ukrainian team participating in the EWC, also signed Grandmaster Anton Korobov to its ranks. 

Aurora Gaming

Serbia’s Aurora Gaming team recently signed current Blitz Chess World Champion Ian Nepomniachtchi to its team. The Russian chess champion is ranked 10th in the world and will be competing in the Champions Chess Tour ahead of the EWC. 

Team Falcons

Chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was recently signed to join a Saudi Arabian esports team called Team Falcons. The grandmaster is currently ranked second in the world and has significant experience playing some of the biggest games in esports tournaments. In 2020, he represented TSM as a chess streamer. Team Falcons also signed Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja to its esports family, bringing the tally of top ten ranked players in its team to two. 

Team Liquid

Global esports organization, Team Liquid, recently announced the signing of two top-tier chess players ahead of the 2025 Esports World Cup. The team now has the legendary Magnus Carlsen (current world number one) on its team alongside world number two Fabiano Caruana.

Inside the Competitive Format of Chess Esports

Just like classic chess tournaments, chess esport tournaments come in different competitive formats depending on the event in question. Many major chess esports events start with an online qualifier where esports organizations compete for a chance to proceed to the main tournament based on how they rank in the qualifier. 

These qualifiers are either open to any chess streamer registered on the platform hosting the event or limited to rated players. Many chess websites, such as Chess.com, Lichess, or FIDE Online Arena, have ratings for professional players, which determine who can participate in certain tournaments. Some tournaments are also invite-only. 

Checkmate Live is a good example of a free-to-play online chess tournament platform open to any registered player. This platform was built in collaboration with CrustLab. You can read our chess esports case study to understand the design process and all the efforts that went into creating this platform. 

On the other hand, Pogchamps invites popular streamers and other online celebrities to play the classic game, with a specific focus on amateur players instead of those with over-the-board titles like Grandmaster or International Master. The competitions themselves can be played in different formats, from round-robin tournaments to knockout matches, non-elimination matches, or a combination of various formats.

Another thing that varies for different competitive chess esports events is time control. This is one of the things that makes the online game distinct from the in-person version. Organizers of these online tournaments favor time control styles that allow matches to progress faster.

Not only do faster time controls emphasize quick thinking and tactical awareness in this strategy game, but they’re also perfectly suited for the fast-paced nature of esports matches. This is necessary to keep viewers engaged. A few events feature longer or classical formats, especially for the biggest games, allowing more strategic planning and calculations. 

The Streaming Boom: Chess Esports Viewership & Fan Culture

The current digital renaissance of the game of chess is all thanks to live streaming technology, with platforms like Twitch and YouTube combining pre-existing video game culture with a newly discovered love for chess. 

Twitch, a live video streaming website created in 2011 to allow users to watch others play video games, currently has tens of thousands of creators broadcasting to millions of viewers daily. In the past, only a small percentage of these users were interested in chess. 

In 2015, an average of 59 people were watching chess streams on Twitch at any given time. By 2020, the number rose to an average of 4,313, demonstrating how much this niche has grown over time. 

Chess grandmasters and Twitch creators like Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura have dedicated several hours to building a large fanbase and active viewership on Twitch by showcasing chess to his followers. These viewers have developed a profound interest in learning the fundamentals of the game and enjoying thrilling matchups between some of the top players in the game. 

The growing popularity of Chess on these streaming platforms has attracted several Grandmasters, international masters, and even casual players to showcase chess and offer live commentary, tutorials, and interactive sessions. 

Levy Rozman (GothamChess) is another important figure who has contributed to the advancement of the game of chess online. Rozman’s YouTube channels offer chess-focused educational content, including beginner tutorials and advanced chess strategies presented with simplicity and humor. 

Chess Esports in Education and Youth Leagues

One of the tools for modernizing education is the incorporation of esports into the school system, and it is more than just a way to pass time or a regular after-school activity. Hundreds of colleges, universities, high schools, and even middle schools now have thriving esports programs and participate in online tour events. These virtual competitions provide an avenue for students to learn teamwork, leadership, resilience, and other real-life skills that can shape their future.

Leading online platforms like PlayVs have emerged to fill this niche, providing a digital platform for scholastic leagues and matches with a specific focus on education and youth education. Fortunately, Chess has always been considered a powerful educational tool. The game requires strategy, alertness, and mental acuity. Schools, parents, and communities are embracing chess not just as a classic board game but also in esports format as a way to help students build their mental agility and problem-solving skills. This combination of entertainment and education is a major driving force elevating competitive chess tournaments in educational settings.

Impact of Chess Variants on Esports Popularity

The inclusion of Chess in the Esports World Cup is just one of several ways that this game is forging an unlikely partnership with the world of esports. However, for this to happen, the traditional board game also has to evolve to adapt to the peculiarities of virtual sports tournaments. 

New chess variants, particularly Freestyle Chess (Chess960 or Fischer Random Chess), are increasingly influencing the esports scene in a way that helps to attract new audiences to the game while presenting novel challenges for more experienced players.

Analyzing Viewership Trends in Chess Esports

Thanks to the popularity of online chess platforms and live chess tournaments on video streaming platforms, chess esports has exploded in popularity in recent years. Some of the most popular chess events on leading online platforms like the Global Championship, organized by Chess.com, and the Titled Arena by Lichess, not only attract top chess players but also get tens of thousands of views. 

For instance, the FIDE World Championship 2021, which currently holds the record as the most-streamed online chess event, had a top viewership of over 612,000. This is followed by the 2023 edition of the event, with a record of over 572,000 viewers. 

The Chess viewership boom extends beyond major tournaments. Online chess is gradually gaining a loyal fan base in the broader esports community, as evidenced by the increase in the average and total streaming hours of chess creators on major streaming platforms like Twitch, bringing chess closer to esports fans. 

By the end of 2020, chess content was streamed for up to 38 million hours on Twitch. This stat has been on a steady increase, with a total of about 44,734,306 million hours at the end of 2024, with an average of 5,093 viewers in each stream. 

The Future of Chess Esports: What’s Next?

The game of chess has become an undeniable global phenomenon played and enjoyed by people all over the world. The possibility of streaming chess content at your convenience is opening the game up to new audiences and entrenching chess in esports. Many tournaments now allow amateur players (especially influencers) to participate in chess tournaments, driving the mainstream appeal and popularity of this sport even further. 

Beyond making chess more popular, it is also evolving before our very eyes thanks to esports. No longer confined to familiar slow-paced board matches, chess is gradually evolving into a faster and more entertaining sport that can be enjoyed by spectators. 

In the coming years, we can expect all kinds of innovation in chess streaming technology, with many platforms expected to introduce interactive features such as AI-powered analysis, VR-enabled gaming, and so on, to further keep fans engaged. We can also expect the stakes to get even higher as the prize pool of virtual chess tournaments increases to the same level as that of other esports competitions. 

Want to Be a Part of the Chess Esports Business?

The current wave of chess esports popularity holds a lot of promise for tournament organizers and online platforms hosting virtual esports matches. It’s no longer about questions like “Is chess an esports?” But about leveraging the abundant opportunities in the classic game by introducing chess to your esports lineup.

As an entrepreneur interested in this niche, you need to partner with a software development company like CrustLab to bring your esport app idea to life. From immersive chess esport apps to advanced management tools, we are experts at building esport solutions to meet the needs of various audiences. Our experience in creating chess esports platforms like Checkmate is all the proof you need about the quality of our services. Contact us today and get help with building innovative solutions to help you thrive in the competitive esports world.