The World Blitz Championship is being held from 16 to 18 November at the GUM Department Store on Red Square in Moscow. It is a double round robin with twenty players, eight of whom are participants of the Tal Memorial, with others who qualified from the 2010 Aeroflot tournament and seeded players. Starting time is 15:00h local (= 13:00h CET; 07:00 a.m. NY), the rate of play three minutes for all the moves plus a two second increment per move. There is live game coverage and video on the official site.

Third day: Aronian wins with half a point lead

Teimour Radjabov was the biggest danger to the leading Levon Aronian in the final rounds. After 36 games the Armenian was 1.5 points ahead of his Azeri rival, and two ahead of last year's winner Magnus Carlsen. In round 37, the penultimate, Radjabov lost with black to Sergey Movsesian, while Carlsen drew against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Aronian's loss (with the white pieces) to Sergey Karjakin did not change the fact that he was now unassailable, a point and a half ahead of the other two.

The only question was: who would finish second. Magnus drew against Alexander Grischuk, while Radjabov beat Boris Gelfand to take second place behind Levon Aronian, who was the sole winner despite a terrible loss to Peter Svidler in the final round.

Progression table for the last five rounds

Final standings (after 38 rounds)

• Full tournament table (be prepared to scroll)
• Cross table after 28 rounds
• Individual rounds:
  R01 - R02 - R03 - R04 - R05 - R06 - R07 - R08 - R09 - R10 - R11 - R12 - R13 - R14
  R15 - R16 - R17 - R18 - R19 - R20 - R21 - R22 - R23 - R24 - R25 - R26 - R27 - R28
  R29 - R30 - R31 - R32 - R33 - R34 - R35 - R36 - R37 - R38

Full report with pictures and videos to follow...

Streaming video coverage

If you feel like it you can follow the entire action of the round four and a half hours of streaming video coverage provided by the organisers. Notze that there is a maximize button which you can use for a spectacular view on a high-res monitor. Get beer and pretzels. And learn Russian!

Pictures from the Blitz World Championship in Moscow

By Anastasiya Karlovich

The Red Square in Moscow in the night

The event took place in the Red Square mall GUM

Cricket expert, TV aficionado, super-GM, dude: Peter Svidler had a great start at this event

Conversation on the side: Ian Neponiachtchi, Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk

Young chess fans waiting for the action to begin

Bring it on! Rauf Mamedov waiting for Magnus Carlsen

... who arrives in great spirits and demolished him in 42 moves

Arbiter Faik Gasanov starts the clock for a top game (which was drawn in 25 moves)

Spectators could follow the action on large flatscreens

Live coverage as a video feed provided by the Russian Chess Federation

Magnus is losing?? Move 69 in the game Vachier-Lagrave vs Carlsen, which ended 1-0

Move 36 in the game Sergey Karjakin vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, which ended in a perpetual

US GM Hikaru Nakamura gives a young Russian fan his autograph

I know how to handle this kid! Boris Gelfand won both games against Magnus Carlsen

The following pictures are taken from the video feed of the Russian Chess Federation

Aronian being interviewed for Russian TV after his victory at the World Blitz

At the prize giving ceremony at the end of the Blitz Championship

Sergey Karjakin speaks to the players and spectators

Magnus Carlsen receives his third prize

In second place: GM Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan

And the winner: Levon Aronian from Armenia

And finally players and dignitaries collect together for a group photo

Links Official tournament site Live video stream by the Russian Chess Federation All games in PGN (or zipped) The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!