The World Rapid and Blitz Championship, which will be held in Samarkand in the last week of the year, will bring together almost all the strongest chess players in the world. More than 200 grandmasters will take part in the open tournament, and 125 in the women's tournament. In addition to the titles, participants will compete for a solid prize pool, which is $700,300 for the open tournament and $<>,<> for the women's tournament.
Competitions will be held according to the Swiss system. Men will play 13 rounds in rapid, women will play 11 rounds, and blitz will play 21 and 17 rounds, respectively. Rapid games will be played with a time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds per move, in blitz - 3 minutes + 2 seconds per move.
The main focus of the championship will certainly be on Magnus Carlsen. The eminent Norwegian made a fundamental decision not to participate in the battles for the chess crown in the classics, but he did not lose interest in rapid and blitz. On the contrary, according to Magnus, these dynamic formats are the future of the sport.
A year ago, at a similar tournament in Almaty, Carlsen became the first in both types of the program, and he did it for the third time in his career. In total, the living legend has four victories in rapid and six in blitz. No other player in the world can boast of such a selection of rewards. The closest pursuer is Alexander Grischuk, who won gold in blitz three times. However, his last triumph dates back to 2015, so it is unlikely that the Russian can be attributed to the favorites of the upcoming battles.
Who will seriously compete with Carlsen in the campaign for the fourth golden double is Fabiano Caruana. The American spent 2023 at a fantastic level: he won the first stage of the Grand Chess Tour in Romania, two more in St. Louis, became third at the World Cup, and also confirmed the title of US champion. Thanks to such a powerful performance, the 31-year-old grandmaster climbed to second place in the FIDE world ranking for the first time since October 2021. To date, his best result is silver at the World Rapid Championships, dated 2014, when Caruana represented Italy.
Interestingly, just a month ago, the American sharply criticized FIDE about the time and venue of the upcoming world championship. He was not satisfied with the fact that, firstly, the beginning of the championship coincided with Christmas, and secondly, the flight to Uzbekistan from North America takes about 35 hours and costs more than $ 4 thousand. And Fabiano decided to make a difficult journey.
World champion Ding Liren, who missed most of the tournaments after the triumphant match for the crown in Astana, will also be absent from Samarkand. But Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost to the Chinese in the main event of the season, will try to impose a fight on the main favorites and repeat the success of two years ago, when he won silver at the World Championships in rapid. According to the Russian grandmaster, he is seriously preparing, since in the tournament, which has the status of the World Championship, you need to play for the first place or not play at all.
This year, Nepomniachtchi cannot boast of particularly bright achievements, although he did not have any noticeable failures either. So, at the World Cup, he showed the best result in his career, reaching the 1/8 finals, and there he lost to Vidit Gujrati in a tie-break. The World Speed Chess Championship ended for Ian in the quarterfinals with a loss to Carlsen. At the Grand Chess Tour in St. Louis, he tied for third place with Le Quang Liem in rapid and blitz and finished fourth in the classics.
In addition to Nepomniachtchi and Grischuk, 33 Russian grandmasters will take part in the open tournament, including Peter Svidler, Vladislav Artemiev, Daniil Dubov and Andrey Esipenko, who are in the top 50 of the world ranking.
Undoubtedly, the most interesting struggle will unfold in the women's tournament. In rapid chess, Tan Zhongyi will defend her crown, beating Dinara Saduakassova in a tie-break a year ago. So far, there has been only one chess player in history who confirmed the world title in rapid - the holder of the classical crown Ju Wenjun, who won in 2017 and 2018.
In general, all seven grandmasters who have ever become champions in the modern history of the tournament (since 2012) will take part in the competition. In addition to the two Chinese women, these are Alexandra Kosteniuk, Antoaneta Stefanova, Kateryna Lagno, Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru. In addition, this year's World Cup winner Alexandra Goryachkina, who broke the resistance of Tan Zhongyi in the semifinals, will also claim the main trophy.
As for blitz, there are three chess players who have won gold twice in a row: Muzychuk, Lagno and Bibisara Assaubayeva. The latter is the current holder of the title and the youngest champion in history. In 2021, the grandmaster from Kazakhstan won the World Championships at the age of 17.
In addition, the winner of the 2012 tournament, Valentina Gunina, will also compete for the title. The Russian was close to repeating her success two years ago, but finished third, just like Polina Shuvalova last year.