Oleksander bortnyk

S8UL Grandmasters Nihal Sarin: S8UL, a global name in esports and gaming content, has officially qualified for its third title at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 after Indian Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram emerged victorious in the Road to EWC qualifier held at DreamHack Atlanta, becoming the first Indian player to secure qualification for the Chess main event at the prestigious tournament.

The qualifiers featured a group stage followed by playoffs, with matches featuring two games per series and Armageddon as the tiebreaker, all played at 10 minutes with no increment. The group stage consisted of two double-elimination groups, with the top four players from each group advancing to the playoffs. Aravindh advanced to the Upper Bracket (UB) semifinals from Group B after registering victories over Kyler Raines, Justin Liang, Oleksander Bortnyk, and Christopher Woo.

In the UB semifinals, Aravindh once again faced Woo and defeated him 2-1 after the opening two games ended in draws, clinching victory in the Armageddon game. He followed it up with another 2-1 win over Alexey Sarana in the UB Final to secure his place in the grand final, where he once again faced Sarana. The grand final was played in a double-match format, where a Lower Bracket (LB) win triggered a single Armageddon decider if required. After Sarana won the opening two games of the final from the LB side, Aravindh showcased immense composure under pressure, fighting back to win the Armageddon decider and come out on top in the qualifiers.