Team Liquid has announced its expansion into chess with the signing of reigning four-time United States chess champion Fabiano Caruana.
Caruana will represent the North American esports organisation in various competitions, starting with the 2025 Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters.
Whilst chess has been in existence for over a thousand years, the rise of online chess platforms such as Chess.com has seen the ecosystem converge with the esports sector.
Caruana joins the organisation having won the Italian National Championship four times and the US Chess Championship four times with his most recent victory coming in 2024.
“I am really excited to join Team Liquid, an organisation with a long heritage of success,” commented Caruana. “Playing for a team like Liquid and being a part of a wider community can add something new to chess and bring the game to a wider audience.”
The expansion into chess takes the organisation’s total number of rosters to 17. In addition to chess, the organisation fields teams in several games including League of Legends, VALORANT, Dota 2 and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
Why is Team Liquid Entering Chess?
Team Liquid is likely to be one of several esports organisations that will expand into chess. In December 2024, the game was added to the 2025 edition of the Esports World Cup following a partnership between the Esports World Cup Foundation and Chess.com.
The Esports World Cup is set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia later this year. A total of 25 games will be hosting tournaments at the multi-title event. The chess event specifically will feature a $1.5m (~£1.18m) prize pool.
The organisation joins Team Vitality which has also expanded into chess by signing Grandmaster Maxime ‘MVL’ Vachier-Lagrave to its roster.
To provide another narrative, chess has been compared to real-time strategy titles such as StarCraft, an esport in which Team Liquid Founder and co-CEO, Victor Goossens, competed during the early 2000’s.
Outside of chess, 2025 has been a year of expansion for the organisation. In January, it returned to Overwatch esports after seven years away from the scene.
