New Delhi: Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin achieved a milestone by securing the first direct qualification invite for India to the main event of the inaugural Esports Nations Cup in 2026. The 21-year-old earned the spot through strong results on the Champions Chess Tour leaderboard during the eligibility period. Although teammate Aravindh Chithambaram accumulated more total points, most came from an offline event not counted for direct invites. Nihal’s points derived from online events such as the Speed Chess Championship and Titled Tuesday Grand Prix splits. The tournament limits direct invites to one player per country to promote global representation. The main event runs from November 2 to 8, 2026, with 128 players and a prize pool of 600,000 USD. Regional qualifiers for India are set for June 2026.
