This year, the World Rapid and Blitz Championship took place in the Kazakh city of Almaty and during the days from 26 to 30 December these two game rhythms will be played: from 26 to 28 the rapid rhythm with a time control of 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move made and from 29 to 30 the blitz rhythm (lightning) with 3 minutes per player and 2 seconds per move.
Some of the most outstanding players were: the current world champion Magnus Carlsen and his challenger for the title in 2018 Fabiano Caruana, the previous winner of this fast-paced tournament Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the number 1 blitz player Hikaru Nakamura, the recent winner of our tournament M. Amin Tabatabaei, the winner of the candidates tournament to qualify and play the Women’s World Championship Tingjie Lei, the former world champion Aleksandra Kosteniuk (2008 to 2010), among other players.
After 13 rounds, Magnus Carlsen won with 10 points on his scoreboard, beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov, streamer Eric Hansen, Dutch Jorden Van Foreest, a draw against his former World Championship 2021 team member Danil Dubov, among other scores against elite players, proving once again that his level is still the best.
On the other hand, Zhongyi Tan won the women’s closed category with 8.5 points, tied with Kazakhstan’s Dinara Saduakassova. Among its players were: Valentina Gunina, several times European champion; Aleksandra Goryachkina, two times world junior and Russian champion or Humpy Koneru, the second woman to surpass 2600 ELO points.
