Al-Ain win the World Rapid Team Championship in Astana

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/5/2024 – The final four rounds of the World Rapid Team Championship were played on Sunday in Astana. Al-Ain ACMG UAE, which entered the final day of action in the lead, won the event after achieving a close victory over Theme International Trading in the twelfth round - thanks to a clutch win by Daniil Dubov on the top board. Decade China, with reigning world champions Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun, grabbed the silver, while WR Chess, headed by Magnus Carlsen, took the bronze. | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

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Al-Ain, China and WR Chess reach the podium

There was no lack of excitement in the final rounds of the World Rapid Team Championship. Three teams went into the last two matches with chances of grabbing the gold, but it was the long-time leaders from Al-Ain ACMG UAE who emerged victorious in the end. The Emirati squad collected close 3½-2½ wins in the final rounds to remain atop the standings.

In the 12th round, Al-Ain saw Parham Maghsoodloo losing his first game of the event, against Rinat Jumabayev from the Theme International Trading team. Dmitry Andreikin (Al-Ain) beat Wong Zhenyong on board 4 to even the score - but a 3-3 draw would have only given the squad shared first place.

Luckily for them, Daniil Dubov managed to grab his first win of the event at the most crucial moment, beating Tin Jingyao with white to give his team outright victory.

Dubov came from scoring a disappointing 3½/10 in the previous rounds, as his risky approach backfired repeatedly on the top board. Though Dubov's final win was surely critical, it was the performances of Maghsoodloo (9/12), Andreikin (9/10) and Vladislav Artemiev (8½/11) which prompted Al-Ain's final triumph.

Bo. Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg Rp n
1 GM Dubov, Daniil 2716 FID 4,5 11 2599 2534 11
2 GM Maghsoodloo, Parham 2653 IRI 9 12 2510 2703 12
3 GM Artemiev, Vladislav 2736 FID 8,5 11 2530 2741 11
4 GM Andreikin, Dmitry 2644 FID 9 10 2449 2815 10
5 GM Murzin, Volodar 2591 FID 2 4 2301 2301 4
6 GM Lagno, Kateryna 2466 FID 4 7 2367 2417 7
7 GM Zhu, Jiner 2438 CHN 3 5 2223 2295 5
8 WFM Al Maamari, Wafia Darwish 1899 UAE 3 6 1839 1839 6
9 Galymzhanuly, Ibragim 1890 KAZ 4 6 1715 1840 6

Daniil Dubov

Daniil Dubov | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

Dmitry Andreikin

Dmitry Andreikin | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

Second place went to Decade China, which remarkable featured both reigning world champions in their lineup, Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun. Both Ding and Ju had strong showings, scoring 8½/12 and 8/12 respectively. Even stronger were the performances achieved by Wei Yi and Pang Bo, though - Wei scored 10/12 on board 2 and has now climbed to the second spot in the live rapid-chess ratings list, while Pang obtained a perfect 11/11 on the "recreational board".

The Chinese squad made the most of an innovative rule put forth in this event, one that forces every team to include a player who has never been rated above 2000 in an official ratings list.

Pang entered the event with a 1400 rating, with no rated games ever registered under his name. Notwithstanding, the 26-year-old proved to be a very strong player. He went to university and has a normal job, but never played a FIDE-rated tournament - in fact, it is likely that there are many similarly underrated players in China, where non-rated tournaments are organised all the time.

Bo. Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg Rp n
1 GM Ding, Liren 2775 CHN 8,5 12 2585 2743 12
2 GM Wei, Yi 2771 CHN 10 12 2549 2822 12
3 GM Yu, Yangyi 2708 CHN 8,5 12 2532 2690 12
4 GM Wang, Yue 2710 CHN 1,5 4 2407 2320 4
5 GM Li, Chao B 2602 CHN 0,5 1 2051 0 1
6 GM Xu, Xiangyu 2593 CHN 3,5 7 2580 2580 7
7 GM Ju, Wenjun 2540 CHN 8 12 2326 2451 12
8 Li, Deyang 1847 CHN 1 1 1833 0 1
9 Pang, Bo 1400 CHN 11 11 1824 2624 11

Pang Bo

Pang Bo | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

Ju Wenjung

Women's world champion Ju Wenjun | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

Finally, the defending champions, WR Chess, with Magnus Carlsen on the top board and Wadim Rosenstein (the event's sponsor and organiser) on the "recreational board", grabbed third place. There was no perfect or close-to-perfect performance in this team, though they did need to compensate for Rosenstein's subpar 1/12 score on the bottom board.

Carlsen's 6½/8 granted him the highest TPR in the event, while Vincent Keymer and Alexandra Kosteniuk also had strong showings on boards 6 and 8 respectively.

Curiously, WR Chess were paired up against GMHans.com, led by Hans Niemann, in the final round - which meant a potential over-the-board encounter between Carlsen and Niemann, the first one since their infamous 2022 encounter in Saint Louis. However, Carlsen was not included in the lineup, with Ian Nepomniachtchi taking up the job of playing on the top board and achieving a 36-move draw with the black pieces.

WR Chess won the match by the smallest of margins, thanks to victories by Jan-Jrzysztof Duda, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Hou Yifan.

Bo. Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg Rp n
1 GM Carlsen, Magnus 2827 NOR 6,5 8 2644 2895 8
2 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2753 FID 5,5 9 2590 2670 9
3 GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2742 POL 5,5 8 2615 2756 8
4 GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2732 UZB 5,5 8 2531 2672 8
5 GM Praggnanandhaa, R 2688 IND 6,5 9 2486 2652 9
6 GM Keymer, Vincent 2645 GER 4,5 6 2347 2540 6
7 GM Hou, Yifan 2550 CHN 2 5 2381 2309 5
8 GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2485 SUI 5,5 7 2291 2521 7
9 Rosenstein, Wadim 1887 GER 1 12 1841 1440 12

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen having a look at his teammates' games - Alexandra Kosteniuk and Wadim Rosenstein | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

Hans Niemann

Hans Niemann scored 6/12 on the top board for GMHans.com - in round 11, he drew Parham Maghsoodloo with black | Photo: FIDE / Ruslan Mazunin

Final standings

Rk. SNo Team Group Games   +    =    -   TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 4 Al-Ain ACMG UAE 12 9 3 0 21 635,5 47
2 2 Decade China Team 12 8 4 0 20 682 52,5
3 1 WR Chess Team 12 9 1 2 19 533,5 42,5
4 3 Chessy 12 8 2 2 18 606 45,5
5 6 Team MGD1 12 7 3 2 17 583 44
6 7 Ashdod Chess Club 12 6 2 4 14 545 42,5
7 10 Royal Chess 12 6 2 4 14 450,5 37
8 16 Rookies * 12 6 2 4 14 432 40
9 8 GMHans.com 12 6 1 5 13 505,5 37
10 5 Kazchess 12 5 3 4 13 498,5 40,5

...38 teams

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.