Fabiano Caruana and R Praggnanandhaa are among seven leading players who have complained against the scheduling conflict between the Esports World Cup and the Grand Chess Tour, who have major events lined up in the month of August.

Caruana and ‘Pragg’ had signed an open letter along with Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja urging the EWC as well as the GCT to arrive at a compromise and rearrange their dates to ensure that the world’s best players get to compete in both events instead of being forced to choose between the two.

Hikaru disagrees with open letter to EWC and GCT organisers

World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura, however, disagrees with Caruana, Praggnanandhaa and the other chess stars contributing to the open letter. According to the American Grandmaster, the scheduling conflict between the Esports World Cup – in which chess makes a second appearance after a successful debut last year – and the Grand Chess Tour is a “good thing” for chess.

“I think this conflict — is actually a good thing. The reason is, I’m going to be honest, I think that every single player who signed this letter — they aren’t going to bring any more viewership or any more interest to events,” Nakamura was quoted by RookReview as saying.

“For example, if players will play in St. Louis, I don’t think that’s going to affect EWC, because Magnus will play, I will play, Alireza as well — and vice versa.”

‘I don’t want to call it a cartel or something’

Nakamura, who will be headlining the Esports World Cup in Riyadh along with world No 1 and defending champion Magnus Carlsen, added that having more tournaments in the calendar would mean more opportunities to players who normally don’t get invited to leading tournaments.

“Additionally, I think that one of the big problems I see with chess currently is that there are a handful of tournaments. I don’t want to call it a cartel or something — but essentially the same Top-15 players receive invitations to all events. And the players between Top-15 and Top-25 are not substantially worse than most the players in the Top-10…

“I think having this conflict is actually going to be a good thing. Because it’s going to provide more opportunities for players across the board. We’re not going to be in a situation where you have 10 players just hogging up all the invites and getting all the money,” the 38-year-old added.

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‘If Magnus was playing Grand Chess Tour’: Caruana sheds light on GCT vs Esports World Cup conflict

The
Last Chance Qualifier for the Esports World Cup takes place from 6 to 8 August, with the main event then taking place from the 11th to the 15th of that month.

The 11th season of the Grand Chess Tour, meanwhile includes the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz (2 to 6 August) and the Sinquefield Cup (10-20 August) taking place around the same time, both events taking place in St Louis, USA.

R Praggnanandhaa is among a group of leading chess players who have spoken out against scheduling conflicts involving two major events that are set to take place later this year. Besides ‘Pragg’, world No 3 Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the other chess stars who have put their names in an open letter addressed to the Grand Chess Tour and the organisers of the Esports World Cup.

The Last Chance Qualifier for the Esports World Cup – in which chess makes its second appearance – takes place from 6 to 8 August with the main event then taking place from the 11th to the 15th.

The 11th season of the Grand Chess Tour, which gets underway in May in Poland, has events scheduled around the same time, with the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz taking place from 2-6 August and the Sinquefield Cup from the 10th to the 20th of that month.

‘Discussions have since stalled completely’

In the open letter addressed to the organisers, Caruana, Praggnanandhaa and the other players made it clear that a solution to the issue was a “clear and immediate priority” for them. The letter added that the issue had been flagged earlier, but changes to the schedule were yet to be made.

“Resolving the situation is now the players’ clear and immediate priority. Players and teams raised this issue with both organizers earlier and received replies, but no scheduling adjustment followed,” read the letter.

“Discussions have since stalled completely, leaving players with no visibility. With qualification paths already underway, the conflict is becoming concrete,” it added.

Here’s the full letter, shared by French Grandmaster Vachier-Lagrave:

Two major chess events. One calendar clash.
We’ve published an open letter calling for better coordination between the 2026 Grand Chess Tour and the Esports World Cup — so qualified players can compete in both. pic.twitter.com/jPq3jMU0Hu

— MVL (@Vachier_Lagrave) February 10, 2026