WR Chess becomes first World Rapid Team champion!

Clear winners

The WR Chess team won the World Rapid Team World Championship, which was held from Saturday to Monday at the Düsseldorf Rheinterrassen.

The ‘WR’ in WR Chess stands for the Düsseldorf entrepreneur Wadim Rosenstein. He is the initiator of this new tournament, as he sponsored it with his company WR Logistics and played along himself. This was possible due to the special rules for putting together the teams. Of the six boards in a team, one had to be occupied by a woman and one by a recreational player who was not allowed to be rated over 2000 Elo in any FIDE list.

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

Former world champion Mariya Muzychuk competed for Ashdod | Photo: Dariusz Gorzinski

Wadim Rosenstein was once an amateur player in his youth, but then stopped playing tournament chess and now took on the task of playing for his own team.

Wadim Rosenstein | Photo: Dariusz Gorzinski

All the other boards were filled with top players, with Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and former world champions Hou Yifan and Alexandra Kosteniuk taking turns on the women’s board.

Team WR Chess with Vincent Keymer | Photo: Dariusz Gorzinski

Twelve rounds of a Swiss open were played over three days in Düsseldorf. The time control for the games was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. The total prize fund was 250,000 euros. The winning team received 100,000 euros. 

There was also a special prize for the best team below an average rating of 2400, worth 12,500 euros. Three hundred participants — professionals, club players and strong amateurs — took part in the competition.

Master Class Vol. 12: Viswanathan Anand

This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.

With eight wins in the first two days of play, Rosenstein’s WR-Chess demonstrated its superiority and went into Monday’s last day of action with a 3-point lead. Rating-wise, the team Freedom was the favourite, with Viswanathan Anand on the top board and a slightly higher rating average. Freedom had lost a point on the first day against the strong team MGD1, mostly made up of Indian players, and in the first round of the second day of play against WR Chess they lost surprisingly by a 1-5 score.

On the third day of play, WR Chess could afford to draw against Armenia in round ten and in the twelfth and final round against the team of the Berlin Chess Association, and still finished with 22 out of 24 possible points and a 2-point lead.

Second was Freedom (20 points) ahead of Team MGD1 (18 points). The Armenian national team was fourth with 17 points and Germany and Friends, basically the German national team without Vincent Keymer, was fifth with 15 points.

Freedom | Photo: Niki Riga

Team MGD1 | Photo: Niki Riga

Michael Stöttinger’s ASV Alpha Echecs Linz with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on top board, Polish team Columbus Energy KingsOfChess Kraków and the strong Berliner Schachverband, led by Niclas Huschenbeth, all had 14 points and shared sixth through eighth.

The top player according to rating performance was WR Chess’ Jan-Krzystof Duda, who posted a 2921 TPR on board four.

Gukesh played for Kompetenzteam Allstars | Photo: Dariusz Gorzinski

The next ‘Vincent Keymer’ of German chess could perhaps be Christian Glöckler. At 12, the exceptional talent from Erfurt played in the German chess team. He received a special prize for his game against GM Kenny Solomon, which he decided with a piece sacrifice.

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

Photo: Niki Riga

Incidentally, Wadim Rosenstein invited his team and team captain Jan Gustafsson to a 5-day training camp in Dubai for the purpose of team building.

Interview with Nihal Sarin

Interview with Vladimir Kramnik

Final standings

...36 teams

Links

• Official website
• Replay all available games at Live.ChessBase.com
• Full technical information on Chess-Results
• Interview with Wadim Rosenstein, Organiser of the WR Chess Masters
• All ChessBase reports on the 2023 WR Chess Masters