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Karjakin wins FIDE World Blitz Championship, double gold for Anna Muzychuk
In a dramatic race of two players who recently contended the World Championship Match in New York, Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin, the Russian came out on the top to win the gold medal by the virtue of better tiebreak score.
The two players finished on 16,5/21 points each. Just like in the World Rapid Championship Carlsen lost the trophy on additional criteria.
Carlsen entered the final round half a point ahead of the rival, but he couldn't achieve more than a draw against Peter Leko, while Karjakin defeated Baadur Jobava.
The extent of their domination in the event is shown by the fact that the nearest followers, Daniil Dubov, Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Grischuk (World Blitz Champion in 2015), were full two points behind. Dubov claimed the bronze medal on tiebreak.
Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk is leaving Doha with two gold medals in the bag.
After winning the FIDE World Rapid Championship two days ago, Anna Muzychuk retained the World Blitz title that she had won two years ago in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Despite the slow start with three draws and a loss to Lagno, the strong finish of five consecutive wins helped Anna Muzychuk to take a clear first place with 13/17 points.
On the shared second place with 12,5 points each are Russian speed-chess specialists Valentina Gunina and Kateryna Lagno. Gunina earned the silver medal on better tie-break and Lagno took the bronze.
The closing ceremony took place right after the end of the World Blitz Championship. The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the President of the Qatari Chess Association Khalifa Al-Hitmi awarded the winners of FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.
The 2016 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships were held in Doha, Qatar, from 26-30th December.
Blitz Winners
Blitz Winners
Rapid Winners
Rapid Winners
Carlsen and Karjakin share the first place at the World Blitz Championship after the first day
Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are united again, this time on the top of the standings after the first day of the FIDE World Blitz Championship.
12 rounds have been played during the first day of the FIDE World Blitz Championship. Sergey Karjakin found his form after the Rapid and started the new tournament with 6 victories, including a victory over the World Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Sergey became the sole leader after 4th round but slowed down later on, allowing Magnus Carlsen to join him on the lead with 10/12.
Daniil Dubov, Alexander Morozevich (who missed the Rapid and arrived for the Blitz Championship only), Marin Bosiocic, Maxim Vachier-Lagrave share the third place with 8,5/12.
FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship will continue with 9 more rounds on 30th of December.
9 rounds have been played in the Women’s section. Harika Dronavalli started perfectly 6/6 but made only half a point in the next three rounds.
Alexandra Kosteniuk outplayed 2 Indian best female players Harika and Humpy and climbed on the top with 7,5/9.
Ju Wenjun is on the sole second place half a point behind. Harika Dronavali, Katerina Lagno and Anna Muzychuk share the third place with 6,5/9. The winner of tournament will be decided after 8 more rounds.
Double gold for Ukraine in FIDE World Rapid Championship
Vassily Ivanchuk and Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine have won the gold medals after three days of play at the FIDE World Rapid Championship in Doha, Qatar.
Ivanchuk was tournament leader after the second day but today he was shaken by a loss to Nepomniachtchi and two draws. Vassily, however, won the last two rounds to conclude the event with 11/15 points and claim the trophy on best additional criteria - average rating of the opponents.
After taking a short break from chess to try himself in different mind sport, Ivanchuk made a brilliant return with great results in the European Club Cup and here in Doha.
In a dramatic finish where five players entered the last round with 10 points each, the two speed-play champions from Berlin 2015 - Alexander Grischuk (blitz) and Magnus Carlsen (rapid) also emerged with 11 points. Grischuk earned the silver medal, while Carlsen took the bronze.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was leading after the 13th round but two consecutive losses in the end took him away from the podium.
Anna Muzychuk dominated in the Women's Championship having secured the title with one round to spare, finally completing the event with 9,5/12 points.
A full point behind the winner is Alexandra Kosteniuk (silver), while Nana Dzagnidze took the bronze medal with 8 points.
For at least two more days Anna Muzychuk is the defending World Blitz champion, having obtained the title in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2014.
FIDE World Blitz Chess Championships will take place on 29-30th December at the same playing venue in Doha, Qatar.
Day 2 Rapid: Vassily Ivanchuk and Anna Muzychuk are leading
The FIDE World Rapid Championships continued today with rounds 6-10 being played in open section and rounds 5-8 in the women’s section.
Vassily Ivanchuk finished the second day of the rapid tournament on the first place. Ukrainian player made 4,5 out of 5 by defeating among the others the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the nearest rival Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan and Ian Nepomniatchtchi from Russia share the second place half a point behind.
The leader of the first day Anton Korobov from Ukraine lost against Levon Aronian and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and shares the 4th place in the group of seven players including Levon Aronian, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk, Anand Viswanathan, Leinier Dominguez.
Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine, who was convincing leader after five rounds, slowed down a bit by making 2 draws in rounds 5 and 6, but after 2 victories in rounds 7 and 8 against Nana Dzagnidze and Alina Kashlinskaya, she finished the day on the first place with 7/8 points.
Russian players Alexandra Kosteniuk and Katerina Lagno made a draw in the 8th round and share the second place together with Iranian player Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, who defeated Inna Gaponenko from Ukraine in the last round (5,5/8).
Official tournament website
Rapid day 1: Anton Korobov and Anna Muzychuk are leading with perfect score
The 2016 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championships started today in Doha, Qatar, with 106 players in the Open tournament, including 87 GMs, and 34 players in the Women tournament (including 13 GMs) competing for the prestigious titles and 200,000 USD (for open) and 40,000 USD (for women) prize fund.
After the first day and five rounds of play Anton Korobov from Ukraine emerged sole leader with 5/5 points. Levon Aronian from Armenia is half a point behind on the sole second place. Seven players share the third place with 4 points. The defending champion Magnus Carlsen unexpectedly started with 0,5 out of 2 but than found his form and won 3 games in a row to finish the first day of rapid with 3,5 out of 5.
Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine is on the top in women's section with 4/4. In the fourth round she outplayed former Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. Another Ukrainian player Inna Gaponenko is on the second place with 3,5/4, followed by 3 Russian players Katerina Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Alexandra Goryachkina with 3/3.
The Rapid event will be held over three days (26-28th December) at a time control of 15min+10s and the Blitz Championships will continue during next two days (29-30th December) at a time control of 3min+2s. The events will be both Swiss pairings tournaments and will be held over two days for Blitz and three days for Rapid. The Blitz will have twenty one (21) rounds in open championship and seventeen (17) rounds in women`s championship, with a single game for each round, Swiss event. The Rapid will be fifteen (15) rounds for Open and twelve (12) rounds for Women`s championship, with a single game for each round, Swiss event.
The World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships organized by the FIDE, Qatar Olympic Committee and Qatar Chess Association.
FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships: Opening Ceremony
The President of Qatar Chess Association Mr. Khalifa Al Hitmi welcomed all the participants to the FIDE Rapid and Blitz World Championships being held in Doha, Qatar. Amongst the participants were a large number of current and former world Champions including Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand, Antoaneta Stefanova, Alexandra Kosteniuk and many more. The whole field was full of very strong chess layers and Qatar extended its goodwill and hospitality to all the players and officials in the event.
The FIDE Representative and Continental President of Europe, Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili thanked the Qatar Olympic Committee and the Qatar Chess Association for their organization of the four world championships. He also thanked all those chess players, organisers and officials who had participated in so many excellent events in 2016 and augured a great chess year in 2017 to everybody.
The Technical Meeting was then held in the presence of the Chief Arbiter Mr. Ashot Vardapetyan and some new rules were explained to the players as well as the colour selections for the first round were held.
Official tournament website
FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships start in a few days
The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships (Open and Women) will take place in Doha (Qatar) from 25th of December (arrival) to 31st of December (departure).
The Rapid event will be held over three days (26-28th December) at a time control of 15min+10s and the Blitz Championships will continue during next two days (29-30th December) at a time control of 3min+2s. The events will be both Swiss pairings tournaments and will be held over two days for Blitz and three days for Rapid. The Blitz will have twenty one (21) rounds in open championship and seventeen (17) rounds in women`s championship, with a single game for each round, Swiss event. The Rapid will be fifteen (15) rounds for Open and twelve (12) rounds for Women`s championship, with a single game for each round, Swiss event.
The total prize fund for the Open tournament is $400,000 with $40,000 for the winner of each championship and $80,000 in Women Championships with $10,000 for the winner of each championship.
Both participants the FIDE World Championship Match World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Sergey Karjakin, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand, World Blitz Champions of different years Alexander Grischuk (2006, 2012, 2015), Vassily Ivanchuk (2007), Leinier Dominguez (2008), Levon Aronian (2010), World Rapid Champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2013) and other top players have confirmed their participation. Former Women’s World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk, Antoaneta Stefanova, Anna Ushenina, Zhu Chen, Women`s World Rapid Champion of 2014 and Women`s World Blitz Champion (2010) Katerina Lagno, Women’s World Blitz Champion of 2014 Anna Muzychuk, Women’s World Blitz Champion of 2012 Valentina Gunina, who recently has shown a remarkable result in the Super Rapidplay tournament of the 2016 London Chess Classic, the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix Series Ju Wenjun and other top players are among the participants. The whole list of participants.
The World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships organized by the FIDE, QATAR OLYMPIC COMMITTEE and QATAR CHESS ASSOCIATION.
In recent years, Qatar proved an exceptional ability and outstanding facilities to host hundreds of international and regional sports events. In the coming few years, Qatar will be hosting many world class events along with the UCI RWC 2016; such as World Bowling Championships 2016, World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2018, Athletics World Championships 2019, and FIFA World Cup 2022.
Official tournament website
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