7/7/2012 – After a slow start – two draws – top seed Magnus Carlsen went to work winning the remaining games on day two of the World Rapid Chess Championships. He remains undefeated in ten games, and has conceded just three draws. It is not just the result, but the way he "keeps sculpturing masterpieces," as the tournament bulletin put it. We have a few examples for you to study and enjoy.
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World
blitz and rapid chess championship
The 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.
The qualifiers held prior to the finals saw chess players from all over the
world getting a chance to advance to the main event. Alexey Dreev, Igor Kurnosov
and Vladislav Tkachiev won places, Murtas Kazhgaleyev and Anuar Ismagambetov
were nominations by the host nation.
Second day
Of the 40 games played on day two, thirteen were drawn (=32.5%). White won
19 games, Black eight. It is interesting to note that White had an overall performance
of 2812, while Black played at a 2619 level. This was quite unlike the first
day, when there were 17 draws, 13 white and 10 black wins, with performances
of 2750 for White and 2680 for Black.
The dominating player was world number one Magnus Carlsen, who started the
day with two draws (against Dreev and Gelfand), but then won the remaining three
games. Magnus has not lost a single game and drawn a total of just three of
the ten games he has played so far. "The Norwgian keeps sculpturing masterpieces,"
says the official
Google translation of the tournament bulletin. His secret seems to be (and
we have seen this so often in the past) to keep piling on the pressure in and
endgame position where other GMs would concede a draw. He simply waits for the
opponent to crack, and crack they do. Hypnotism?! Here are some examples:
After ten rounds of play we have the following scores:
Remaining program
July 8, Sun.
15:00
Rapid Chess Championship 11 – 15 rounds
July 9, Mon.
15:00
World Blitz Chess Championship rounds 1 – 15
July 10, Tues.
15:00
World Blitz rounds 16–30; closing ceremony
July 11, Wed.
Departure of participants
World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship
The World Rapid Chess Championship will be played in three days as a round-robin
event with five rounds per day. Time controls are 15 minutes for all moves plus
10 seconds increment per move. The World Blitz is a sixteen-player double round
robin with 15 rounds per day. The time control is three minutes + two seconds
increment per move. These are the participants
Rapid Chess Championship
Blitz Chess Championship
Magnus Carlsen
2837
Magnus Carlsen
2835
Teimour Radjabov
2788
Teimour Radjabov
2784
Sergey Karjakin
2779
Sergey Karjakin
2779
Alexander Morozevich
2770
Alexander Morozevich
2769
Vassily Ivanchuk
2769
Vassily Ivanchuk
2764
Alexander Grischuk
2763
Alexander Grischuk
2761
Veselin Topalov
2752
Veselin Topalov
2752
Peter Svidler
2749
Peter Svidler
2741
Boris Gelfand
2738
Boris Gelfand
2727
Viktor Bologan
2732
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
2726
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
2726
Dmitry Andreikin
2700
Alexey Dreev
2677
Le Quang Liem
2693
Igor Kurnosov
2663
Nikolai Chadaev
2605
Vladislav Tkachiev
2644
Darmen Sadvakasov
2629
Murtas Kazhgaleyev
2589
Rinat Jumabayev
2556
Anuar Ismagambetov
2471
Pavel Kotsur
2548
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.
Videos of the first day in Astana (Russian, with English subtitles)
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
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World
blitz and rapid chess championship
