World Rapid and Blitz Championship starting

The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships take place in Dubai, from June 15th (opening ceremony) to June 21st, 2014. The Rapid event will be played from June 16th-18th over 15 rounds, at a time control of 15m+10s. The Blitz runs from June 19th-20th and lasts 21 rounds at 3m+2s. The total prize fund for the tournament is US$400 thousand with $40 thousand for the winner of each championship. There are 122 entries with nearly every elite player playing such as leading players: Magnus Carlsen, Aronian Levon, Alexander Grischuk, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Nakamura Hikaru, Sergey Karjakin, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Peter Svidler, etc. Rounds are at 1pm Paris time each day or 8am New York time.

Participants

Click here for complete list of participants

The slaughter house where players will either be the predator or the prey

Organizing Committee chairman Khalid Ali Bin Zayed made the official welcome speech

Left to right: Mr. Ibrahim Al Bannai Chairman of Dubai Chess Club; Mr. Khaled Zayed, the
Organizing Committee Chairman; Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nehayan, President of the
Asian Chess Federation; Geoffery Borg, FIDE CEO; Jamal Modfa, General Secretary of the
UAE Chess Federation; and Abdul Aziz Khoury Deputy President of UAE Chess Federation.

Aside from the oodles of fun guaranteed with so many players playing so much rapid chess, it also means that the Top 100 Rapid and Blitz ratings lists published by FIDE will get a serious shakeup. By a funny coincidence, even those watching the World Cup games in football can comfortably enjoy this action-packed chess event as the times will should not overlap.

As the number one rated player in both Rapid and Blitz, Hikaru Nakamura drew the lots to
determine the colors. Whichever color he chose, all odd number players would also play in
the first round, while even numbered seeds would play the opposite. For the Rapid he drew
black, and for the Blitz he drew white.

“It feels strange not to be number one by rating, it bothers me a bit and
I’m going to change it”, Magnus said after the end of the official ceremony.

Blitzaholic Alexander Grischuk, left of Peter Svidler, is rated over 2800 in both modalities

The media was there with a strong presence

Sergey Karjakin with his lovely new bride

Fabiano Caruana is the second seed in the Rapid event, rated only one Elo point behind
Nakamura. In blitz though, he is 180 Elo behind. Seated next to him is Judit Polgar, without
whom the event would hardly be complete.

Pictures from the official site

Links Official tournament site The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.