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The arms race is on. After Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at Vitality and Ding Liren at LGD Gaming in China, Magnus Carlsen has joined Team Liquid. The Dutch esport stable, which counts Magic Jonson among its shareholders, had been in talks with the Norwegian GOAT for several weeks. On Friday, the company announced the arrival of the world number 1 and multiple world champion, as well as that of American Fabiano Caruana.
This frenzy by esport organizations to sign up the world’s best chess players comes in the run-up to the esport World Cup, a richly endowed multi-game competition including chess, to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 31 to August 3, 2025.
