The FIDE Team Rapid and Blitz World Championship is a relatively recent addition to the FIDE tournament calendar. Three years ago, the idea was conceived by Düsseldorf entrepreneur and chess enthusiast Wadim Rosenstein, who secured the support of FIDE and organised the inaugural event in Düsseldorf, initially without a blitz competition. The new tournament introduced two, perhaps even three, innovations.
Unlike in the Chess Olympiads or the World Team Championships with classical time control, where the federations select and send players, the six players in a team can, but do not have to, belong to the same federation, club or other organisation. One board must be reserved for a woman. Such requirements already exist in some countries and their leagues, but this is a first for such a high-ranking FIDE tournament.
Lastly, one of the players must be an amateur, meaning they have never had a FIDE rating above 2000 in any category (classic, rapid or blitz). This enables chess enthusiasts and sponsors to play alongside top players and may have motivated Wadim Rosenstein in developing this format. After all, it is possible to win an official FIDE world championship title here.
Incidentally, there is no requirement for teams to include top players, so several teams without such players have travelled to London. On paper, the weakest team is Equity Bank Kenya, with an average Elo rating of 1863. However, the team does include two title holders: Ugandan guest player IM Patrick Kawuma and WCM Jully Mutisya, who is set to play on the women's board.
Equity Bank Kenya (on the right)
At the other end of the seedings is the name of the WR (Wadim Rosenstein) Chess Team. Even without Ian Nepomniachtchi – the Russian grandmaster was denied a visa for England – the 2023 Rapid winner and 2024 Blitz winner is once again the Elo favourite.
Jan Gustafsson is captain of WR Chess
Following Düsseldorf and Almaty (Kazakhstan), London is now hosting the third edition of this new world championship. Almost everyone of note in the world of chess is currently at the Novotel London West, competing for points, glory, and a share of the prize money. The total prize fund is €500,000, of which €310,000 is for the rapid tournament and €190,000 for the blitz tournament. The tournament is sponsored by the Scheinberg family.
The FIDE leadership is also represented by a team featuring well-known players Nigel Short, Victor Bologan and former world champion Zhu Chen. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich is playing on the amateur board and opened the tournament at Faustino Oro's board.
Faustino Oro had to face a real heavyweight in the first round, Richard Rapport.
While Faustino Oro ultimately had to concede defeat to Richard Rapport, 14-year-old Chinese player Lu Miaoyi taught Grandmaster Darmen Sadvakasov a lesson in attacking chess in the same match.
After the first day of play with four rounds, Team MGD1, consisting mainly of Indian players, is the only team with four wins. In round four, MGD1 scored an important victory against Uzbekistan, the Uzbek national team, with Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna. Abdusattorov won for Uzbekistan against Erigaisi, Mendonca scored for MGD1. However, the match was decided on the amateur board. Atharvaa P Tayade defeated Nilufarkhon Imomkuzieva with the white pieces.
In the same round, WR Chess dropped a team point in a 3:3 draw against the "Freedom" team. Nine-year-old Mani Sarbartho made up for his team's deficit on the amateur board by beating WR sponsor Wadim Rosenstein.
Wadim Rosenstein resigns
In addition to the teams WR Chess and Freedom, the predominantly English team Malcolm's Mates is also among the chasing pack.
A shared team outfit strengthens team spirit. Here the prize goes to Anish Giri's and Vidit's team Hexamind – very elegant!
Standings after day 1
| Rk. | Team | Matches | + | = | - | Tb1 | Tb2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team MGD1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 68 |
| 2 | WR Chess Team | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 65 |
| 3 | Freedom | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 63 |
| 4 | Malcolm's Mates | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 53,5 |
| 5 | KazChess | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 63 |
| 6 | Hexamind Chess Team | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 62,5 |
| 7 | Uzbekistan | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 60,5 |
| 8 | Duobeniajan Costa Calida ESJ | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 53,5 |
| 9 | Ashdod Elit Chess Club | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 52 |
| 10 | Germany and Friends | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 44,5 |
| 11 | Turkish Airlines Sports Club | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 43 |
| 12 | Rishon LeZion Chess Club | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 38 |
| 13 | Theme International Trading | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 53,5 |
| 14 | Knight Dance | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 51,5 |
| 15 | Rookies | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 47 |
| 16 | Team Hungary | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 47 |
| 17 | Global Ramblers | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 46 |
| 18 | Generation XYZA | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 43 |
| 19 | Mongolia-A | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 38 |
| 20 | Sharks 4NCL | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 25,5 |
| 21 | Perfect | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 22,5 |
| 22 | Hetman GKS Katowice | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 41 |
| 23 | Mongolia-B | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 35 |
| 24 | Barys.kz | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 35 |
| 25 | FIDE MB Team | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 32 |
| 26 | ChessbrahTV | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 28 |
| 27 | Wood Green | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 28 |
| 28 | e-therapeutics | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 25,5 |
| 29 | Chess Rising Stars | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 25 |
| 30 | English Knightmares | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 24,5 |
| 31 | Wood Green Youth | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 23 |
| 32 | ¡Ållez-Y Initiative! | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 16 |
| 33 | Youth KG | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 47 |
| 34 | The MongolZ | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 32 |
| 35 | Oxbridge | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 23,5 |
| 36 | Noval Group Kyrgyzstan | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 22 |
| 37 | Uppsala SSS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 21 |
| 38 | Mother Continent | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 17,5 |
| 39 | Chess Trust Accelerators | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| 40 | OlalaStars | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 36 |
| 41 | UK Chess Challenge Masters | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 26 |
| 42 | Satranc Istanbul | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 25 |
| 43 | Danish Futures | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 23,5 |
| 44 | Hammersmith Chess Club | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 17 |
| 45 | xChess.AI | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
| 46 | Sassy Seniors | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| 47 | Berlin Chess Federation | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| 48 | Berlin Lasker Legends | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 10,5 |
| 49 | The London Legends | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| 50 | ANI | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 21 |
| 51 | Desert Penguins | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 13,5 |
| 52 | Equity Bank, Kenya | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
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