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World
blitz and rapid chess championshipThe Official World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships are being held from July 1-11, 2012, in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. It is worth noting that the Rapid Chess Championship is a first in the history of FIDE! The top ten players of the current FIDE rating list have the right to take part in the championships. The total prize fund is US $400,000. Qualifiers are held prior to the finals, with three winners taking part in the finals. In addition two Kazakhstani grandmasters were nominated: Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Dzhumabayev in blitz. Tiebreak rules for first place: (a) results between the players involved; (b) number of wins; (c) Sonneborn-Berger score; (d) Sudden death game: 5 min vs 4 min.
Start of the Blitz World Championship in Astana
Sergey Karjakin vs Peter Svidler in round one: draw in 41 moves
Vassily Ivanchuk vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round four: 1-0 in 37 moves
Nikolai Chadaev, rated 2605, who qualified for the blitz, is in place seven
Favourite to win: Magnus Carlsen took four losses and is in fifth place
Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov with 5.5/15 on place thirteen
Alexander Grischuk vs Teimour Radjabov in round four: 1-0 in 53 moves
Alexander Morozevich, rated 2770, with 8.0/15 in place six
Moldovan GM Viktor Bologan with 5.0/15 in second last place
Vietnamese super-talent Le Quang Liem with 7.0/15 in place 12
The audience at the Blitz World Championship in Astana
Two interesting spectators at the Blitz World Championship
You can watch the live stream as it was recorded during the first day of the Blitz. Each of the videos is 50 minutes long. The first gives you visual impression of the players in action (unfortunately sometimes with the table flags obscuring the view of the board). In the second you can follow the moves, with commentary by GM Robert Fountaine and Geoffrey Borg:
In general the two videos are synchronised, so you should start them and let both run together.
| July 10, Tues. | 15:00 | World Blitz rounds 16–30; closing ceremony |
| July 11, Wed. | Departure of participants |
Links
The games of the Finals will be 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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