A group stage and a knockout

In contrast to the World Rapid Team Championship, which was played as a Swiss open, FIDE chose a format with preliminary groups and a knockout for the World Blitz Team Championship held on Monday - a format similar to the Football World Cup.

The 40 participating teams were divided into five roughly equal groups of 8 teams each. The winners then competed against each other in the knockout rounds. The top 3 teams in each group and the best fourth-placed team advanced to the knockout phase.

In Group A, WR Chess won all seven matches and was the clear group winner ahead of Hans Niemann's team GMHans.com. Third place went to the Rookies, with 15-year-old Turkish grandmaster Ediz Gürel on board 1.

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The winner of Group B, also with seven wins, was the Indian team MGD1, ahead of the World Rapid Team Chess Champions from Al-Ain ACMG and Teniz Kazakhstan.

Decade China qualified from Group C. The Chinese squad also won all seven matches. The unrated Pang Bo, who had already won all 11 of his games in rapid chess, played 5 more times and won all 5 games.

The Uzbek team Royal Chess took second place, ahead of team Greco, made up mostly of Kazakhstani players.

The international team Chessy won Group D. Ashdod Chess Club came second. Third place went to the host team Astana-2.

Kazchess with Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the first three boards won Group E. Astana-1 and Q4Rail Kingsofchess Krakow took the next places. The best fourth-placed team, Hunnu Air, also reached the knockout stage.

All games - Pools

The knockout

Round of 16

In the knockout phase, each encounter consisted of 2 matches (each played on 6 boards). WR Chess faced the Mongolian team Hunnu Air in the round of 16 and had no trouble qualifying for the next round with two 4½-1½ wins.

Al-Ain ACMG beat Astana-1 6-0 and 3½-2½, while Decade China defeated Greco 4½:1½ and 3½-2½ and Chessy beat Q4Rail Kingsofchess Krakow by a 4-2 score twice. Kazchess defeated the Rookies 3½-2½ and 4-2. Team MGD1 from India won their first match against Astana-2 by a 5½-½ score and the second 4-2. Ashdod Chess Club and Tenis Kazakhstan drew 3-3 in the first match, and the second match ended 5-1 in favour of the Israelis. Finally, GMHans.com won 3½-2½ and 5-1 against Royal Chess.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals saw WR Chess take on GMHans.com. Board one could have been a sizzling duel between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, but the Norwegian did not participate in this round. Niemann faced Ian Nepomniachtchi instead, and despite beating him, saw his team losing the first match by a 2½-3½ score. Nepomniachtchi won the rematch, as WR Chess got a clear 5½-½ victory in the second match.

There was a really strong fight in the encounter between Al-Ain and Decade China. The first match ended in a draw, as did the second. In this case, the regulations stipulated a playoff, which Al-Ain won 3½-2½. Daniil Dubov and Vladislav Artemiev secured the decisive wins against Ding Liren and Wei Yi. Even though Ding Liren lost this game, the world champion again made a very good impression with his strong performance.

The Chinese super-amateur Pang Bo suffered his first loss of the whole event in the second match, against Ibragim Galymzhanuly. Otherwise, Decade China would have won the match. In the playoff, Pang Bo conceded half a point against the same opponent.

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Pang Bo

Semifinals

The semifinal matches were WR Chess against Chessy and Al-Ain against Team MGD1. WR Chess clearly won the first match 4½:1½ and held a 3-3 draw in the second to reach the final of the Championshipn.

When he had the white pieces, Carlsen managed to beat Rapport (who had defeated the former world champion in style in the rapid event). The Hungarian star, however, missed a chance to grab a "free" rook on move 35.

Instead of 35...Rxa3, which of course Carlsen had missed in the previous move, Rapport played 35...Re2+ and went on to lose the game. A case of mutual blindness amid an intense, high-stakes blitz struggle!

In the other semifinal, both matches ended 3-3, with the Indians from MGD1 narrowly winning the playoff 3½-2½ to remain in contention for the title.

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Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi

Finals

The final match for the title of World Blitz Team Champion was therefore played between WR Chess and Team MGD1. The name MGD1 stands for a recently founded chess school based in Pune, a city located in the Maharashtra state of Western India.

WR Chess managed a 3½-2½ win in the first match, despite Carlsen losing to Arjun Erigaisi on the top board. Nepomniachtchi, Duda and Abdusattorov scored the decisive winning points. Alexandra Kosteniuk contributed a draw against Harika Dronavalli.

In the second match, Carlsen defeated his young Indian opponent on board one and thus played his part in the 3-3 draw, which was enough to win the final and the World Blitz Team Championship title.

Wadim Rosenstein and Ian Nepomniachtchi

All games - Knockout

Links

• Official website
• WR Chess becomes first World Rapid Team champion!
• Interview with Wadim Rosenstein, Organiser of the WR Chess Masters
• All ChessBase reports on the 2023 WR Chess Masters