Ukrainian esports organization Natus Vincere (Navi) competed in the competitive chess scene by snapping stars Grand Masters Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Oleksandr Bortnyk. Meanwhile, GM Wei Yi, the world number 9, has also been signed by a Chinese team.
The eSports organization continues to invest heavily in chess ahead of the 2025 Champions Chess Tour. The $150,000 event is the first of two qualifying events for the 2025 eSports World Cup (EWC), the world’s largest gaming festival.
After Team Liquid announced on Friday that superstars GMS Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana had signed, Navi created the splash by adding three powerful grandmasters to the lineup.
Navi featured the Grandmaster trio in Saturday’s video. The eSports organization wrote in a post on X/Twitter.
We’re making an epic move! Navi has officially entered the world of chess! @Chesscom
Please welcome your grandma @nodirbekgm, @wesleyso_and @bortnykchess! pic.twitter.com/j1cxigapyd
– Navichess (@navichess) February 15, 2025
Founded in 2009, Navi is considered one of the most successful esports organizations in the world, and has been successful in games such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Valorant. With the acquisition of current world number sixth and former world rapid champion Abdusattorov, Bortnyk, a former world number two and online speed chess expert, will make Navi a serious player if the player qualifies I’ll make it a candidate.
This weekend, Wei Yi became the latest player to join the wave of Grandmasters acquired by the esports organization. The 25-year-old from China joined Weibo Gaming (WBG), owned by a Chinese social media company.
In the announcement, WBG said:
In the future, Wei Yi will write a new chapter using WBG. We hope he will bring more glory by combining esports and chess. At the same time, we hope that with this detailed cooperation, more young people can understand and love this ancient, interesting, competitive intellectual game.
The eSports World Cup prizes are directed not only to individual sports ($1.5 million for chess), but also to the overall layout of all the games combined. Esports organizations are signing up to as many games as possible to win the grand prize.
Chessable Masters has play-in open for all Grandmasters today. The playoffs, which are knockouts of 16 players, including invited stars such as GMS Carlsen, Caruana and Hikaru nakamura, begin on Tuesday, February 18th and end on February 21st.
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