Chinese esports organisation LGD Gaming has announced the signing of Ding Liren, marking his return to chess in 2025.
The 17th World Chess champion is the latest chess player to join an esports team, as announced by LGD on Thursday through social media platform Weibo. The former world champion will be participating in the Chessable Masters, which qualifies for the Esports World Cup.
The 32-year-old will be making a return after taking a competitive hiatus following his loss to Grandmaster (GM) Gukesh Dommaraju in December. He is a member of the Hangzhou Mind Sports Team, which is based in the same city as LGD Gaming in Hangzhou.
With Chess confirmed to be included in the Esports World Cup 2025 line-up and featuring a $1.5m (~£1.18m) tournament, several esports teams have been making strides to lock in their own Chess prodigy.
Aside from Ding, other GM players such as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun Erigaisi, and Fabiano Caruana, have joined Team Vitality, Gen.G Esports, and Team Liquid, respectively. This is due to organisations looking to bolster their line-ups ahead of the competition later this summer.
Chess players can qualify for the 2025 Esports World Cup event through the two Champions Chess Tour (CCT) events. Taking place in February and May, it will feature a combined $300,000 (£238,416) prize pool.
The top 12 from the CCT and the four players from the ‘Last Chance Qualifier’ will then compete in the Chess EWC, taking place from July 31 to August 3.
Founded in 2009, LGD Gaming is one of China’s oldest esports organisations and is mainly known for its efforts across Dota 2, League of Legends, Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, Crossfire, and Clash Royale. It previously operated in Counter-Strike and Overwatch, but the two divisions disbanded in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
