New Delhi: Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi and Dutch Grandmaster Benjamin Bok have secured places in the India Rising: Road to EWC Chess LAN Finals after impressive performances in the closed playoff stage of the tournament.
The Mumbai LAN Finals will determine which player advances to the final stage of the Esports World Cup 2026 scheduled to take place in Paris. The playoffs were conducted online through Chess.com and streamed live on JioBLAST and Chess.com platforms.
The competition featured several top Indian and international Grandmasters competing in a knockout format after qualifying through earlier Swiss format rounds.
Gujrathi, who is also a double Olympiad gold medalist and Asian Games silver medalist, booked his place in the finals after defeating M Pranesh in the quarterfinals and Raunak Sadhwani in the semifinals.
On the other side of the draw, Bok advanced by overcoming Karthikeyan Murali and World No. 11 Arjun Erigaisi in a closely fought contest.
Speaking after qualifying, Gujrathi described the Swiss stage as extremely demanding, saying every round felt like a battle against elite opposition. He added that qualifying from such a strong field made the achievement especially rewarding and expressed excitement about competing in front of a home crowd in Mumbai.
The India Rising: Road to EWC initiative has been launched by JioBLAST and the Esports Foundation to build a pathway connecting Indian chess talent with the growing global esports ecosystem.
The qualifying stage also featured leading names including Divya Deshmukh, V Pranav, Pranav Anand and Aravindh Chithambaram, who has already secured qualification for the Esports World Cup 2026.
The Mumbai finals will now decide who advances to the Paris event, where players will compete for a share of the 1.5 million dollar prize pool.
