French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave commented on the conflict over the clash of dates between the Grand Chess Tour and the Esports World Cup. MVL explains that contracts for both tournaments were signed before the date conflict became known, and notes that both events are non-invitational.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

France's No. 2

“It’s just strange to me that these two very important events would collide. And there are two main reasons why this is an issue.

The first — is that people signed contracts. For example, I signed a contract with Team Vitality in good faith, saying I needed to play in the Esports World Cup because I qualified for it.

The second — is that at the same time, without knowledge of the clash, I signed a contract with the Grand Chess Tour. I’m obligated to play in the Sinquefield Cup by the contract. And then it turns out that the tournaments will suddenly clash…

And this problem has arisen not only for me, but for many other players. We have two contracts that we signed in good faith, and we are being forced to breach one of them. And that’s not really nice.

This wouldn’t be a problem if, let’s say, the Esports World Cup was an invitational event. But both of these tournaments are tournaments you qualify for. This results in us essentially taking away the opportunity from other players to compete in such events.”

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: Eric Rosen