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.
new: Mega Database 2023
The ChessBase Mega Database 2023 is the premiere chess database with over 9.75 million games from 1560 to 2022 in high quality.
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!
€39.90
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
11 or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs.
Looking to surprise your opponents and sidestep the well-known Sicilian defenses? The Delayed Alapin offers a unique way to cut off many standard variations, making it an ideal weapon even against top-level players, including Grandmasters.
Top trainers strongly recommend regular study of well-explained classical games to improve your understanding of chess in the long term. 33 modern classics are explained in details on this video course.
Videos by Felix Blohberger: Reti Opening and Nico Zwirs: Najdorf Variation. "Olympiad Special": 21 analyses by Howell, Meier, Nguyen, Pelletier, Pichot, Van Foreest, Vitiugov, Wojtaszek and many more. Update Service with almost 40,000 new games!
The Big Database 2025 contains more than 11 million games from 1475 to 2024.
€99.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
World
blitz and rapid chess championship
