Alexander Grischuk wins First World Blitz Championship
Report by Arik Liss
The first world chess blitz championship took place in Rishon Le Zion, Israel,
between 5-7 september.
Alexander Grischuk is the new world champion after sharing first place with
Peter Svidler, with 10.5 points of 15 games in the final, and beating Svidler
in the sudden death game between them.
When FIDE announced several months ago that the tournament is going to take
place in Israel, nobody could foresee that there is going to be a war in the
north of the country. A few weeks ago, it looked impossible that a chess tournament
with many guests from abroad could take place in our region (although the host
city is several hundred kms far from the northern border of Israel).
Luckily for the many chess fans in Israel, the war in the north ended, and
the registered grandmasters showed up as planned. So not only was the tournament
saved, but the lineup was extremely impressive, with seven players from the
top 20 of the rating list.
The host city, Rishon Le Zion (Rishon LeZiyyon) is the fourth largest city
in Israel, located 15 kms south of Tel Aviv. The local club which organized
the tournament is one of the biggest chess clubs in Israel, and it organizes
tournaments, lectures and other chess activities for every level – from
amateurs to grandmasters.
The "City Garden" in Rishon Le Zion
Until the 90s the Rishon Le Zion chess club looked like others chess club
in the West, with many amateurs, a few masters, and no professionals. The best
players usually played actively when they are young, but not more than that.
A good example for that pattern is GM Eran Liss (the brother of the author
of this article), who played in the Rishon Le Zion club since he was a child.
Eran won the world chess championship U-14 and was Israel chess champion, but
never became a chess professional. Today he rarely plays.
The old winery, established more than 100 years ago and still working in the
city center
Things changed in the 90s, with the migration wave from the Republics of the
former USSR. Strong GMs and skilled trainers joined the Israeli chess community
and contributed enormously to its development.
The Israeli team, composed of immigrants from the former USSR, is ranked amongst
the top five in every team tournament, and a fair number of Israeli players
have entered the top 100 players in the world. The experienced trainers and
the devotion to chess of the new immigrants has also helped young players of
Russian origin, who grew up in Israel to become strong grandmasters (for example
Sutovsky and Avrukh).
Luckily for the Rishon Le Zion chess club, Boris Gelfand, the best chess player
who ever lived in Israel, and who would be top board in almost every country
he he would choose to live in, decided to settle in Rishon Le Zion and agreed
to play for the local team for the past few years. Some time ago Gelfand and
a friend visiting him, Alexander Grischuk, visited the local club while the
kids league was taking place. They talked with the kids and gave autographs
to the young players, who until then only read about these great players in
chess magazines and web sites.
The tournament
The World Blitz Championship was the main event in a chess festival which
took place in Rishon Le Zion. Amongst the other events was a competition between
the chess program Junior 10, (creates by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky) and a
weakened Israeli team. The program won convincingly 3:1 (Avrukh and V. Mikhalevsky
drew while Erenburg and Roiz lost).
The championship itself was a 16 players round robin tournament. Seven top
players were invited: Anand, Svidler, Gelfand, Radjabov, Polgar, Grischuk and
Bacrot. Magnus Carlsen, who will probably soon join the world chess elite (if
he is not there already), got a wild card. Two spots went for the winners of
a qualification tournament on the ICC: GM Zhao Jun from China, who could not
participate in the final due to prior obligations (the match between China
and France), so the invitations went to GMs D. Gurevich from the US, who came
second in the tournament, and Gagunashvili from Georgia who was third.
The playing venue in the cultural center of Rishon Le Zion
For the other six spots a qualification tournament took place the day before
the final. The results of that tournament should be considered as major surprise,
even if you predict weaker correlation between rating and score than in standard
time chess. The qualifiers were top Israeli players: Smirin, Roiz, Sutovsky
and Erenburg, who were joined by M.D. Dan Zoler (Elo 2455) and the young Gabi
Lifshitz (Elo 2407). Among those who were left outside the final were guest
GMs Bareev, Milov and Dlugy, local GMs Avrukh, Psakhis, Greenfeld, Kogan and
many others.
The final took place in the Meir Nitzan cultural center. The participant
played on the stage, and above them eight screens showed the games. An additional
screen showed the tournament scores. Several hundred chess fans followed the
live games in the games hall and applaud the players.
The local hero, Gelfand, took an early lead, but he was taken over as the
battle progressed, and before the last round 4 players headed the field with
9.5/14: Grischuk, Svidler, Radjabov and Anand. The later was accompanied by
his wife and the Indian ambassador who came to support the national Indian
hero.
In the final round Grischuk and Svidler won against Carlsen and Sutovsky, While
Radjabov could not break Bacrot fortress and shared the point with him, as
did Anand and Gelfand.
Michael Roiz vs Magnus Carlsen
So after 15 rounds Grischuk and Svidler shared first place and had to play
a single “sudden Death” game, in which White has five minutes,
while Black has four minutes and the privilege to become the winner in a case
of a draw.
Alexander Grischuk vs Vishy Anand
Grischuk was white and naturally he was pressing right out of the beginning
of the game. Black’s position looked suspicious, but he succeeded in
reaching a balanced endgame which looked drawish. Inaccurate play by Svidler
in time trouble made Grischuk’s task much easier, and he won the game
to become the first world blitz champion, taking home the US $14,400 first
prize.
The most prominent guest at the closing ceremony was Shimon Peres, Vice Prime
Minister of Israel, who congratulated the participants, and the mayor of Rishon
Le Zion, Meir Nitzan, who promised to try and making this wonderful event into
tradition in the city.
Photos by Elitzur Reuveni
Playoff winner Alexander Grischuk
The following are the results of the main event. A full illustrated report
will follow.
Final standings
Prizes after the playoffs
| |
Name |
Points |
TB (SB) |
Wins |
Prize ($) |
| 1 |
Grischuk |
10.5 |
72 |
9 |
$14.400 |
| 2 |
Svidler |
10.5 |
72.75 |
10 |
$10.800 |
| 3 |
Radjabov |
10 |
67.25 |
8 |
$6750 |
| 4 |
Anand |
10 |
64.7 |
8 |
$6750 |
| 5 |
Polgar |
9.5 |
67 |
7 |
$5625 |
| 6 |
Gelfand |
9.5 |
63 |
8 |
$5625 |
| 7 |
Bacrot |
8 |
62.5 |
6 |
$4950 |
| 8 |
Carlsen |
7.5 |
51.5 |
5 |
$4500 |
| 9 |
Erenburg |
7 |
46.5 |
6 |
$3450 |
| 10 |
Sutovsky |
7 |
45.5 |
4 |
$3450 |
| 11 |
Gaunashvili |
7 |
45 |
4 |
$3450 |
| 12 |
Roiz |
6.5 |
41.25 |
5 |
$2700 |
| 13 |
Smirin |
6 |
40.5 |
2 |
$2700 |
| 14 |
Gurevich |
4 |
29 |
3 |
$2700 |
| 15 |
Zoler |
3.5 |
24.75 |
2 |
$2700 |
| 16 |
Lifshitz |
3.5 |
18.75 |
2 |
$2700 |
Arik Liss is a lawyer in the office of the district attorney
of Tel Aviv, and a chess fan. He was Israel champion for kids, and is now an
Israeli senior candidate master, rated 2241. Arik was born in Rishon Le Zion
and was a member of the local club (which organised the Blitz tournament) for
many years. He also wrote a chess column in a local paper “Haair”,
and was a member of the management of the Israeli Chess Association for two
years.
