Grand Chess Tour organizers released an official statement on the conflict over the clash of dates between the Grand Chess Tour and Esports World Cup. The organizers cited the fact that they announced the 2026 schedule in October 2025, while the Esports World Cup announced its dates in January 2026.

Grand Chess Tour

Grand Chess Tour

Premier international circuit

“Since its inception in 2015, the Grand Chess Tour has coordinated with international chess organizers regarding scheduling and continued this practice for the 2026 Tour.

We publicly announced the full 2026 Tour schedule on October 3, 2025, via press release, on our website, on our Grand Chess Tour Finals broadcast, and on our social channels. We moved forward securing venues, sponsors, broadcast partners, vendors and player agreements.

The Esports World Cup chess tournament dates were not announced until January 2026. In January 2026, we also responded directly to the players’ letter and to Esports about the scheduling conflict, but did not receive a reply.

Given our longstanding contractual commitments and the structure of the Tour’s final events, it is not possible to move our August dates. We believe organizers should show mutual respect by not scheduling over long-established and previously announced events.

We respect the players’ desire to compete in as many top events as possible and remain dedicated to open communication across the global chess calendar.”

Elite world chess players have published an open letter addressed to the organisers of GCT and EWC on February 10. Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa R and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave called on the organisers to consider adjustments or practical solutions that would allow players to participate in both events.

The Esports World Cup is a premier annual international gaming tournament and festival held in Riyadh, with a $1,500,000 prize fund. Grand Chess Tour is an annual circuit of international chess tournaments with a $2,000,000 prize pool across 2 Classical tournaments, 3 Rapid & Blitz events and the Grand Finals.

Credit: Lennart Ootes