Carlsen & Lagno win World Blitz title
Magnus Carlsen and Kateryna Lagno of Russia are the winners of the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships.
Both players repeated their victories in the blitz from last year in St- Petersburg.
The winner of the Open Blitz was decided on tiebreak between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, as both players scored 16½ points after 21 rounds. The first game in the playoff ended in a draw. Carlsen won the second one and, with it, his second crown at this event.
Vladimir Kramnik, the former World Champion, was third. He took the plunge into the World Blitz Championship despite leaving competitive chess a year ago.
Carlsen has defended the World Champion title in classical chess three times. He also has three World Rapid and World Blitz Championship titles under his belt.
This is Carlsen’s third consecutive win in the World Blitz and third title in the World Rapid. The Norwegian is also the world champion in classical chess (since 2013). Magnus Carlsen pocketed USD 120,000 (USD 60,000 for each event).
Top 6 players in the Open section
1. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 2865 – 16½ .
2. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 2885 – 16½.
3. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 2748 – 15.
4. Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 2741 – 14.
5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 2768 – 14.
6. Alireza Firouzja (FID) 2649 – 13½.
Women’s section
Kateryna Lagno, the winner of the Women’s Blitz, scored 13 points out of 17 games. Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine finished second (with 12½/17). The 3rd and 4th places went to Tan Zhongyi of China and Valentina Gunina of Russia, who both obtained 12 points.
Anna Muzychuk was the recipient of a special prize awarded by Total (the French energy major). She had the best-combined performance in the Rapid and the Blitz in the Women’s category.
In the Blitz games, each player had 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.
Three hundred thirty players from 44 countries took part in both the Open and the Women’s events. The line-up in both sections included some of the strongest players in the world.
Top 6 players in the Women’s section
1. Kateryna Lagno (RUS) 2606 – 13
2. Anna Muzychuk (UKR) 2504 – 12½
3. Tan Zhongyi (CHN) 2480 – 12
4. Valentina Gunina (RUS) 2366 – 12
5. Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) 2521 – 11½
6. Lei Tingjie (CHN) 2543 – 11½
Unsung heroes
Behind every major event are photographers and reporters who keep us up to date.
Photo credits
All photos by Lennart Ootes, Maria Emelianova, David Llada and Eteri Kublashvili (Chess Federation of Russia).
Article
Article adapted from Milan Dinic.
Links
Official website: https://wrbc2019.com