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. Qualifiers are held prior
to the finals, with three winners taking part in the finals. In addition two
Kazakhstani grandmasters were nominated: Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Dzhumabayev
in blitz. 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.
First day blitz
Start of the Blitz World Championship in Astana
Sergey Karjakin vs Peter Svidler in round one: draw in 41 moves
Vassily Ivanchuk vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round four: 1-0 in 37 moves
Nikolai Chadaev, rated 2605, who qualified for the blitz, is in place seven
Favourite to win: Magnus Carlsen took four losses and is in fifth place
Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov with 5.5/15 on place thirteen
Alexander Grischuk vs Teimour Radjabov in round four: 1-0 in 53 moves
Alexander Morozevich, rated 2770, with 8.0/15 in place six
Moldovan GM Viktor Bologan with 5.0/15 in second last place
Vietnamese super-talent Le Quang Liem with 7.0/15 in place 12
The audience at the Blitz World Championship in Astana
Two interesting spectators at the Blitz World Championship
Video stream
You can watch the live stream as it was recorded during the first day of the
Blitz. Each of the videos is 50 minutes long. The first gives you visual impression
of the players in action (unfortunately sometimes with the table flags obscuring
the view of the board). In the second you can follow the moves, with commentary
by GM Robert Fountaine and Geoffrey Borg:
In general the two videos are synchronised, so you should start them and let
both run together.
Video
streaming by Ustream
Video
streaming by Ustream
Standings after fifteen rounds of play
Remaining program
| July 10, Tues. |
15:00 |
World Blitz rounds 16–30; closing ceremony |
| July 11, Wed. |
|
Departure of participants |
Links
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. |
|
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