World Blitz: Carlsen clinches triple crown, Assaubayeva defends her title

by ChessBase
12/30/2022 – Magnus Carlsen and Bibisara Assaubayeva won the World Blitz Championships in Almaty. Carlsen thus grabbed the triple crown, as he is currently the classical, rapid and blitz world champion. The 18-year-old Assaubayeva, on her part, defended the title she had won in 2021. | Find here the standings and all available games. A full pictorial report will be published shortly. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

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No draws for the champ

Magnus Carlsen kicked off the second day of the World Blitz Championship in Almaty a full point behind sole leader Hikaru Nakamura. After scoring 7/9 points in Friday’s rounds, the Norwegian grabbed a second world title in three days at the Kazakh metropolis. Since he is still the classical world champion, Carlsen once again managed to get the ‘triple crown’, a feat he has achieved, incredibly, for a third time in his career.

Despite not having a great final day, Nakamura ended the tournament in second place. Much like Carlsen, the US grandmaster lost twice on Friday, but he also drew four times — unlike the eventual champion, who won all seven of his remaining games, ending the day with no draws to his name. Referring to Nakamura, a much respected colleague of his, Carlsen noted:

While he is used to winning tournaments, he’s never won this one. When he started a bit shaky, then I knew I had a chance.

Third place went to Haik Martirosyan from Armenia, who scored as many points as Nakamura but had an inferior tiebreak score. Remarkably, the 22-year-old defeated Alexey Sarana and Fabiano Caruana in the final two rounds of the event!

Replay all available games of the open section at Live.ChessBase.com

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Carlsen Magnus 16 264
2 Nakamura Hikaru 15 272,5
3 Martirosyan Haik M. 15 258
4 Giri Anish 14,5 268
5 Duda Jan-Krzysztof 14,5 262,5
6 Dubov Daniil 14,5 258
7 Sarana Alexey 14,5 234,5
8 Fedoseev Vladimir 14 256,5
9 Rapport Richard 14 247
10 Artemiev Vladislav 13,5 260,5
11 Andreikin Dmitry 13,5 251,5
12 Nepomniachtchi Ian 13,5 250,5
13 Keymer Vincent 13,5 248,5
14 Salem A.R. Saleh 13,5 222
15 Caruana Fabiano 13 250,5

...176 players

Assaubayeva wins on home soil

Bibisara Assaubayeva had shocked the world last year by winning the Women’s World Blitz Championship at 17. Now, with an astounding final sprint of five consecutive wins, the girl from Taraz successfully defended her title on home soil. The youngster confessed:

I am very delighted that I won in my home country. I felt I had a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. Unfortunately, I got sick after the first day of the rapid, so I wanted to show all my strength in the blitz.

Going into the final round, Assaubayeva was sharing first place with Tan Zhongyi. While the eventual winner of the event managed to beat Harika Dronavalli with black, Tan was defeated by Humpy Koneru, giving Assaubayeva outright victory without a need for tiebreaks. Koneru finished in sole second place, a mere half point behind the champion.

Polina Shuvalova took home the bronze. The Russian star had been leading the standings until round 15 (the women’s event lasted 17 rounds), but a loss to Humpy and a draw with Olga Badelka prevented her from getting a higher spot on the podium.

Replay all available games of the women’s section at Live.ChessBase.com

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Assaubayeva Bibisara 13 164,5
2 Koneru Humpy 12,5 148,5
3 Shuvalova Polina 12 171
4 Tan Zhongyi 12 169
5 Arabidze Meri 11,5 155,5
6 Lagno Kateryna 11 165,5
7 Dzagnidze Nana 11 163
8 Badelka Olga 11 161,5
9 Paehtz Elisabeth 11 158
10 Mammadzada Gunay 11 155,5
11 Stefanova Antoaneta 11 155
12 Abdumalik Zhansaya 11 138,5
13 Harika Dronavalli 10,5 173
14 Danielian Elina 10,5 171
15 Kosteniuk Alexandra 10,5 160,5

...99 players


The World Blitz Championship are Swiss opens (21 rounds in the open and 17 rounds in the women’s) with a time control of 3 minutes for the entire game, plus a 2-second increment starting from move one. A tie for first place will be decided by two 3+2 blitz games. If still tied, more 3+2 games will be played until finding a winner.

Schedule

  • December 29: Rounds 1-12 (open); Rounds 1-9 (women’s)
  • December 30: Rounds 13-21 (open): Rounds 10-17 (women’s)

Useful links


Games

Open - Round 21

 
 

Women’s - Round 17

 
 

Commentary by Peter Leko & Jan Gustafsson

Commentary by GM Alexander Shabalov & WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili


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