Chinese language esports organisation LGD Gaming has introduced the signing of Ding Liren, marking his return to chess in 2025.
The seventeenth World Chess champion is the most recent chess participant to affix an esports workforce, as introduced by LGD on Thursday by way of social media platform Weibo. The previous world champion will probably be taking part within the Chessable Masters, which qualifies for the Esports World Cup.
The 32-year-old will probably be making a return after taking a aggressive hiatus following his loss to Grandmaster (GM) Gukesh Dommaraju in December. He’s a member of the Hangzhou Thoughts Sports activities Group, which relies in the identical metropolis as LGD Gaming in Hangzhou.
Except for Ding, different GM gamers resembling Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun Erigaisi, and Fabiano Caruana, have joined Group Vitality, Gen.G Esports, and Group Liquid, respectively. This is because of organisations trying to bolster their line-ups forward of the competitors later this summer season.
Chess gamers can qualify for the 2025 Esports World Cup occasion by way of the 2 Champions Chess Tour (CCT) occasions. Happening in February and Could, it can characteristic a mixed $300,000 (£238,416) prize pool.
The highest 12 from the CCT and the 4 gamers from the ‘Final Likelihood Qualifier’ will then compete within the Chess EWC, going down from July 31 to August 3.
Based in 2009, LGD Gaming is one in every of China’s oldest esports organisations and is especially identified for its efforts throughout Dota 2, League of Legends, Honor of Kings, PUBG Cellular, Crossfire, and Conflict Royale. It beforehand operated in Counter-Strike and Overwatch, however the two divisions disbanded in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
