Chess announced for the Esports Nations Cup 2026

The Esports World Cup Foundation has announced that Chess will join the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC) 2026 line-up.

The Chess tournament at ENC will run from November 2nd to 8th, 2026, where 128 players will go head to head to be crowned its first champion.

Out of the 128 players participating, 64 of them will be invited based on the Champions Chess Tour rankings. One player will be invited per nation, with the Titled Tuesday Spring Split serving as an additional tie-breaker should the event fail to find 64 unique nations. Cut-off date for direct invites is May 26th, 2026

56 will have earned a spot through regional qualifiers. Two will be held in each region from June 6th to 7th and June 13th to 14th, 2026. Each qualifier features two stages, a Swiss Stage and a Double-Elimination Stage. In the end, eight players from each region will reach ENC 2026.

The qualifiers will be operated by Chess.com, and will take place in the following regions:

ENC 2026 will also feature Wildcard slots, which will be filled by eight players.

The main event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will see all 128 players first compete in a round-robin Group Stage. Players are divided into 16 groups of eight, playing in Bo2 matches, and the top four from each group will advance to the Playoffs.

64 competitors will then play in a single-elimination bracket. Ro64 and Ro32 matches will be Bo2, while the Quarterfinals will mark the shift to Bo4 matches.

The event will be played in a rapid time control, with each player having 10 minutes starting time, with no additional time added after each move. However, Armageddon matches will be used as tie-breakers, meaning the white side gets more time on the clock but must win, while the black side has less time but only needs a draw to win the match.

Chess becomes the latest title to join ENC, alongside other competitive esports games such as Dota 2, Trackmania, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, CS2, Honor of Kings and more.