Wolves Esports Signs Chinese Chess Grandmaster Yu Yangyi Ahead of EWC 2025
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- Wolves Esports has signed 2014 Chess Olympiad gold winner Yu Yangyi.
- Chess is about to have an inaugural tournament on the Esports World Cup event, featuring a $1.5 million prize pool.
- Yu Yangyi ranks 28th in the Live Chess Ratings from chess.com.
Chinese chess grandmaster Yu Yangyi has joined Wolves Esports ahead of the Esports World Cup 2025. The electronic sports arm of the English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers officially welcomed a new team member with a post on its website.
As of the time of writing, The 28-year-old chess player is ranked 28th globally by chess.com. Yu Yangyi qualified for the Grandmaster title at the age of fourteen. He won a gold medal in the 41st Chess Olympiad 2014 as a member of the Chinese team and secured the individual gold medal in the same Chess Olympiad, thanks to his performance rating of 2912, the best of the entire event.
It is worth noting that chess is about to debut as a discipline in the Esports World Cup, featuring a $1.5 million prize pool. The tournament will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on July 31 – Aug. 3, 2025.
Wolves Esports joins a growing list of major organizations venturing into the chess esports scene as Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi has joined Korean team Gen.G. At the same time, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana have signed with Team Liquid. Chinese team LGD Gaming has brought in former world champion Ding Liren, and Team Vitality secured Maxime ‘MVL’ Vachier-Lagrave. Esports giant NAVI has expanded into chess as well, adding top players like Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Wesley So, and Oleksandr Bortnyk to its roster. Meanwhile, Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura joined Team Falcons and Aurora Gaming powered up with Ian Nepomniachtchi.
