New Delhi: It has been a week of double happiness for Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin. First, it became an official qualification for the Sports Chess World Cup. Shortly after, the 21-year-old became the first Indian to earn a direct qualification invite to the main event of the inaugural edition of the Esports Nations Cup (ENC) 2026.While both Nihal and his S8UL teammate Aravindh Chithambaram have successfully qualified for the upcoming Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 Chess Main Event, Nihal stands alone as India’s direct invitee to the country-based ENC tournament, where he will represent Team India Esports.He earned his spot on the Official Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2025-2026 leaderboard through his superior performance.
Why did Nihal get ENC invitation over Arvind?
Looking at the CCT leaderboard, a major point of confusion arises that Arvind Chithambaram has a staggering 1,017 points compared to Nihal’s 139 points. Still, Aravind missed the direct ENC invitation.
The answer is where those points were earned during the eligibility period (September 2, 2025 – May 26, 2026). To ensure that players who qualify directly for the Esports World Cup stay at the top of the table, 1,000 points are manually added to their CCT standings.However, ENC’s selection criteria strictly evaluated individual performance in specific online qualifier events. The majority of Aravindh’s points came from his offline victory at DreamHack Atlanta, an event that ENC did not consider when selecting the direct invitees.A similar situation occurred with 2026 Candidates participant Andre Espinco, who also finished in the top four at the DreamHack Atlanta event. Despite earning more CCT points overall, his points came mainly from offline qualifiers. As a result, the direct invitation to Russia was handed to Ian Nepomanacci.Nihal, on the other hand, navigated the online CCT circuit with skill. His strong campaign spanned the Speed Chess Championship (SCC) 2025, the Chess.com Open (CCO) 2026, and the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix (TTGP) split.After missing out on direct CCO qualification by a single spot, he earned 100 key leaderboard points, adding to his tally through consistent performances in the TTGP Autumn, Winter and Spring divisions. Finishing with 139 points, he moved into the top six of the official ENC chess rankings.
Will Nihal Sarin be the only Indian in ENC?
ENC 2026 presents a rigorous model designed to maximize global representation. Direct invites are limited to exactly one player per country or region, awarded to the highest ranking individual on the leaderboard.A total of two players per country are represented in the finals. Since Nihal secured a direct invite, one more Indian player can still qualify through regional competition.In addition to the 64 direct invitees, including international grandmasters such as Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and Alireza Ferozja (France), 61 players will qualify through regional qualifiers managed by Chess.com. India’s regional qualifiers are scheduled for June 6-7 and June 13-14, 2026. The last three slots will be filled by wild cards.The inaugural edition of the Main Event will take place from 2 to 8 November 2026, featuring 128 players competing for a prize pool of USD 600,000 (~ INR 5.7 crore).Speaking on the motivation to include chess in ENC during an exclusive chat with TimesofIndia.com, Fabian Scheuermann, Chief Games Officer, The Esports Foundation said, “Platforms like Chess.com and Twitch, along with a new generation of creators and grandmasters, have brought chess into the same digital environment as many professional players regularly play. Creating a shared culture and familiarity that allows audiences to naturally engage with it.“Scheuermann also admitted that the use of direct ranking, regional qualifiers and wild cards was deliberate, adding, “We were very conscious of creating a system that reflected both performance and opportunity. Half of the field is made up entirely of players qualified through the CCT rankings, which is limited to one player per nation, to ensure equal representation of many players in the world.”“When you put all three together, you get a field that is elite and globally representative.”
