GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Hans Niemann topped Groups C and D of the 2025 Esports World Cup Last Chance Qualifier as the 16-player field was completed for Saturday’s Playoffs. They were joined by GMs Yu Yangyi, Javokhir Sindarov, Anish Giri, Denis Lazavik, Bassem Amin, and Alexander Grischuk, while it was the end of the road for the likes of GMs Vincent Keymer and World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin.
The Last Chance Qualifier Playoffs are on Saturday, July 26, starting at 10 a.m. ET / 16:00 CEST / 7:30 p.m. IST.
After four seven-round Swiss Opens each selected four players, we now have the full 16-player line-up for the Playoffs, a double-elimination knockout tournament that will decide the four players who join GM Magnus Carlsen and 11 more stars in the $1.5 million Esports World Cup chess event that starts Tuesday in Riyadh.
Last Chance Qualifier Playoffs Lineup
| # | Title | Name | Fed | Rating |
| 1 | GM | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 2779 | |
| 2 | GM | Anish Giri | 2748 | |
| 3 | GM | Levon Aronian | 2742 | |
| 4 | GM | Hans Niemann | 2736 | |
| 5 | GM | Javokhir Sindarov | 2722 | |
| 6 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2714 | |
| 7 | GM | Nihal Sarin | 2692 | |
| 8 | GM | Alexey Sarana | 2686 | |
| 9 | GM | Andrey Esipenko | 2679 | |
| 10 | GM | Alexander Grischuk | 2667 | |
| 11 | GM | Basem Amin | 2633 | |
| 12 | GM | Marc’Andria Maurizzi | 2604 | |
| 13 | GM | Olexandr Bortnyk | 2601 | |
| 14 | GM | Jules Moussard | 2591 | |
| 15 | GM | Ahmed Adly | 2589 | |
| 16 | GM | Denis Lazavik | 2580 |
There’s a separate $50,000 prize fund for the Last Chance Qualifier…
…but it’s all about reaching the main event, where the top prize is $250,000.
Let’s take a look at the final two qualifying tournaments that took place on Friday.
Group C: Pragg Shrugs Off Shaky Start To Top Group; Keymer Eliminated
Praggnanandhaa (Team Liquid) is by far the highest classically rated player in the Last Chance Qualifier in Riyadh, so that on the surface it looks no surprise that he finished clear top of his group with five wins and two draws. His start, however, was incredibly bumpy, despite warming up with some Puzzle Rush.
Warming up for #EWC2025 with some Puzzle Rush 🥶 @rpraggnachess https://t.co/HLHMCEsr6Y pic.twitter.com/6yqkr0lzkx
— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 25, 2025
Group C featured eight grandmasters, including five super-grandmasters, but the remaining 28 players were mainly much lower-rated players from the local region. That usually means easy wins for the stars, at least for a couple of rounds, with Giri (Team Secret) tempting his opponent into a disastrous move-six pawn grab a case in point.
Happens. https://t.co/bRE9IgspC9
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) July 25, 2025
Praggnanandhaa, meanwhile, got into huge trouble toward the end of round two. 47.Qd4?? should simply have cost the game, but his opponent also blundered back, failing to take the bishop with check (assuming all the moves were transmitted correctly).
Surviving such a scare can be a launchpad to success, but in the very next round Praggnanandhaa again suffered, was lost for long periods, and only eked out a win on the clock, as his untitled opponent ran out of time.
A fourth win in a row, now against the strong and experienced GM Victor Bologan, meant Praggnanandhaa was flying on 4/4, and he wrapped up qualification in the penultimate round with a win over GM Andrew Tang. That was a wild game in mutual time trouble, with Tang missing winning chances such as the opportunity to take on f7 after 42…Qd8?.
Praggnanandhaa eased through with a draw against Yu (Team Wolves Esports) in the final round, with the Chinese player also making it into the top four. His one loss had been to the most convincing player in the group, Sindarov, who crashed through in the top clash of round three.
Sindarov followed that up with an even more impressive win, over German number-one Keymer, while cheered on by his French Team Vitality colleague GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Let’s go @GMJSindarov @TeamVitality #VForVictory 💛 pic.twitter.com/CMF5BOFa7G
— MVL (@Vachier_Lagrave) July 25, 2025
That’s our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
All four of the Groups ultimately required a 5.5/7 score to finish in the top-four, which meant that two losses were always fatal. That was the fate suffered by Keymer, who after losing to Sindarov also fell to Tang in the next round, with the American GM finding a nice finish.
Andrew Tang inflicts a 2nd loss in a row on Vincent Keymer, who is suddenly on the brink of elimination! https://t.co/fPWUZsN0sn#EsportsWorldCup pic.twitter.com/jJ4seXLwdw
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 25, 2025
Winning the last two games couldn’t help Keymer avoid elimination.
Tang, meanwhile, was an agent of chaos all tournament. In round three he’d been outplayed on the board and even the clock by Giri, and was in a lost position on move 84 with 0.2 seconds on his clock, while Giri still had 1.4 seconds. Premoves by the Dutchman would have clinched victory, but two moves later his time had run out while Tang still had 0.1 seconds! A draw, as Tang didn’t have enough material to give checkmate. He looked for his opponent after the game.
Andrew Tang’s perspective of the time scramble — at the end the camera pans to Anish Giri! https://t.co/y0jIuOy6LL pic.twitter.com/uMgy9incgg
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 25, 2025
That draw was followed by a loss for Giri when he didn’t find a remarkable only move vs. Yu.
That left Giri on 2.5/4, far adrift of his colleagues and needing to score 3/3 in the remaining games to qualify—which is just what he did!
The unfortunate player to miss out was Tang, who started with 4.5/5 and only lost to Praggnanandhaa. Playing Black vs. Sindarov in a must-win final round wasn’t ideal, however, and Sindarov only made a draw in a winning position at the end because it was all he needed to qualify.
Group D: Niemann, Lazavik Dominate; World Rapid Champion Knocked Out
The final group featured another strong line-up, with seven grandmasters including reigning World Rapid Champion Murzin (Team AG Global) and three-time World Blitz Champion Grischuk.
Alexander Grischuk is armed and ready! #EsportsWorldCup pic.twitter.com/3gPovNmIV8
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 25, 2025
The most dominant player, however, was Niemann, fresh from taking the runners-up spot in Las Vegas.
Niemann raced to 3/3 despite seeming to be given the hardest pairing of round three. Brazilian GM Alexandr Fier had a playable position before suddenly blundering a bishop to a fork.
Fier blunders a knight fork and Niemann scores a quick win to move to 3/3! https://t.co/18tLfVCtcY#EsportsWorldCup pic.twitter.com/KJbTIEiTUX
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 25, 2025
That meant a draw vs. Spanish GM David Anton did no harm in the next round, before Niemann showed all his online skills to take down the incredibly difficult-to-beat Lazavik (Team BDS) in 110 moves—the time situation made it almost a mission impossible for Black to survive.
Hans Niemann grinds out a 110-move win to beat and overtake Denis Lazavik as leader! https://t.co/Q81bJjbZx6#EsportsWorldCup pic.twitter.com/kSaYPxZg2k
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 25, 2025
Lazavik shrugged that loss off to win all his remaining games and tie Niemann for first place, while in the next round Niemann ensured his own qualification with an impressive turnaround against Murzin, who had earlier correctly sacrifice a piece.
That would end Murzin’s hopes of qualification, since the larger field for the last qualifier led to the curiosity that most of the strong grandmasters were paired against much weaker opposition in the final round. No one was able to make up a deficit, which was perfect for Grischuk, who managed to scrape through despite scoring 0.5/2 against grandmaster opposition.
Egyptian GM Amin also joined his compatriot GM Ahmed Adly in the Playoffs after beating Grischuk and Fier and being able to take a 14-move Berlin draw against Niemann in the final round.
No one is through to the main event yet, however, with the final four spots only set to be decided in the knockout tournament on Saturday. Don’t miss it!
How to watch?
The 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, features chess for the first time, with a $1.5 million prize fund and $250,000 for first place, while chess players are also part of esports teams that share a $27 million prize fund. Twelve players qualified for the main event via the Champions Chess Tour, while four will qualify in the Last Chance Qualifier (July 24-26) in Riyadh. That event has a $50,000 prize fund, with four Swiss tournaments, then a 16-player Playoffs to decide the final four. The main event (July 29-August 1) is first split into four groups of four players. Half of the players will be eliminated before the top eight compete in a knockout Playoff for the top prizes. The time control for all games is 10 minutes, with no increment.
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