The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. The current world blitz champion is the Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. [1] Valentina Gunina from Russia is the current women's blitz world champion. Magnus Carlsen has won the event a record seven times.
Starting in the early 1900s, chess clubs began to organize tournaments played at accelerated time controls; these early games usually required a set number of moves from each player within a certain time interval. One of the earliest examples was the local chess club at Hastings, England, where 10 seconds were allowed per move during a blitz tournament held after the 1904 British Chess Championship. By 1950, the time controls had changed to the more familiar 5 minutes per player (now 3 minutes), hence the "5-minute game" moniker. The term "blitz chess" would not be coined until the 1960s. [2]
The first blitz chess tournament to be recognized by FIDE as a "world championship" took place on 6 September 2006 in Rishon Lezion, Israel. Structured as a 16-player round-robin, the tournament featured seven of the world's top 20 Grandmasters, as well as a young Magnus Carlsen. After 15 rounds, Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler finished atop the leaderboard with 10½/15; Grischuk subsequently defeated Svidler with Black in an armageddon game to win the championship. [3] The following year, the tournament (now branded as the FIDE World Blitz Cup) was held in Moscow, Russia following the Tal Memorial tournament and was re-structured as a 20-player double-round robin with a significantly stronger field. After Ukrainian grandmaster Vasyl Ivanchuk and Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand entered the final round tied on points, Ivanchuk defeated Anand from a disadvantaged position to win the tournament with 25½/38. [4]
In 2008, the championship reverted to a 16-player round-robin. Despite a late charge from the defending champion Ivanchuk, who won seven of the final eight rounds, the tournament was won by Leinier Domínguez, a 25-year-old GM from Cuba who scored 11½/15 to edge out Ivanchuk by a half-point. [5] In 2009, the championship returned to Moscow, where the format was once again switched to a 22-player double round-robin with revised time controls of 3 minutes per player plus a 2-second increment. The event was won by the young Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, who finished three points clear of the field with 31/42 and went 8/8 against the 2nd through 5th-place finishers. [6]
2010 would prove to be the final year of the event – hosted again in Moscow, the tournament was dubbed the VI World Blitz 2010 and held immediately after the Tal Memorial tournament. Despite losing both his final games, Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian was able to clinch the title with 24½/38, half a point ahead of Teimour Radjabov. [7] In November 2010, a nine-round Swiss tournament was scheduled for February 17, 2011, to serve as a qualifying event for the World Blitz Championship 2011; however, after no bids for the event were made the tournament was eventually cancelled. [8]
| Year | Host city | Champion | Runner-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 |  Rishon Lezion |  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) | Peter Svidler (RUS) |  Teimour Radjabov (AZE) |
| 2007 | Moscow |  Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) |  Viswanathan Anand (IND) | Alexander Grischuk (RUS) |
| 2008 |  Almaty |  Leinier Domínguez (CUB) | Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) | Peter Svidler (RUS) |
| 2009 | Moscow |  Magnus Carlsen (NOR) | Viswanathan Anand (IND) | Sergey Karjakin (RUS) |
| 2010 | Moscow |  Levon Aronian (ARM) | Teimour Radjabov (AZE) | Magnus Carlsen (NOR) |
On May 31, 2012, FIDE announced the inaugural World Rapid & Blitz Championships, set to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from July 1 to 11. The 2012 tournament consisted of a qualifying round, followed by the rapid and blitz events held consecutively over five days. The championship was originally structured as a 16-player round-robin tournament, set to coincide with the first release of FIDE's rapid and blitz ratings in July 2012; invited were the top 9 players in the FIDE ratings list, the defending champion Levon Aronian, the three medalists of the qualification competition, and three wild-card nominees by the organization committee and FIDE. [9] The event has since been changed to a Swiss tournament with a field of over 100 grandmasters. The top three finishers in the standings are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively; tiebreaks are determined by the average rating of opponents. [10]
The World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2020 was postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. [11] It was planned to be held in Kazakhstan in December 2021; however, due to new regulations imposed by the Kazakh government, which would have required many participants to quarantine, the event had to be cancelled again on December 8, 2021. FIDE was considering to either hold the event in Kazakhstan in 2022, or to move it to a different host country. [12] On December 10, 2021, Warsaw, Poland was announced as the new host city, with the tournament taking place from December 25–30, 2021. [13]
| Year | Host city | Champion | Runner-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 |  Batumi [17] | Valentina Gunina (RUS) | Natalia Zhukova (UKR) |  Anna Muzychuk (SLO) |
| 2013 | Not held | |||
| 2014 | Khanty-Mansiysk [18] | Anna Muzychuk (SLO) | Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) | Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS) |
| 2015 | Not held | |||
| 2016 |  Doha [19] [14] | Anna Muzychuk (UKR) | Valentina Gunina (RUS) | Kateryna Lagno (RUS) |
| 2017 |  Riyadh [20] [15] | Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) | Valentina Gunina (RUS) |  Ju Wenjun (CHN) |
| 2018 | Saint Petersburg [21] | Kateryna Lagno (RUS) |  Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (IRI) | Lei Tingjie (CHN) |
| 2019 | Moscow | Kateryna Lagno (RUS) | Anna Muzychuk (UKR) | Tan Zhongyi (CHN) |
| 2020 | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| 2021 |  Warsaw [13] | Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) |  Alexandra Kosteniuk [n 2] (CFR) | Valentina Gunina [n 2] (CFR) |
| 2022 | Almaty [22] | Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) | Koneru Humpy (IND) |  Polina Shuvalova [n 1] (FIDE) |
| 2023 |  Samarkand | Valentina Gunina [n 1] (FIDE) |  Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI) | Zhu Jiner (CHN) |
| 2024 |  New York [16] | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Times won | Player | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Magnus Carlsen (NOR) | 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 |
| 3 | Alexander Grischuk (RUS) | 2006, 2012, 2015 |
| 1 | Bobby Fischer (USA) | 1970 |
 Mikhail Tal (USSR) | 1988 | |
| Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) | 2007 | |
| Leinier Domínguez (CUB) | 2008 | |
| Levon Aronian (ARM) | 2010 | |
 Lê Quang Liêm (VIE) | 2013 | |
| Sergey Karjakin (RUS) | 2016 | |
 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) | 2021 |
| Titles won | Player | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Kateryna Lagno (UKR / RUS) | 2010, 2018, 2019 |
| 2 | Anna Muzychuk (SLO / UKR) | 2014, 2016 |
| Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) | 2021, 2022 | |
| Valentina Gunina [n 1] (RUS / FIDE) | 2012, 2023 | |
| 1 |  Zsuzsa Polgár (HUN) | 1992 |
| Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) | 2017 |
On 8 April 1970, following the USSR vs. Rest of the World 'Match of the Century' hosted in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, a blitz tournament was held in Herceg Novi, featuring many of the same participants from the match. The event was a 12-player double round-robin, with no tiebreaks and five minutes per player. Featuring four World Champions, the field was considered the strongest of any blitz tournament in modern history. Heading into the event, two-time World Champion Tigran Petrosian was considered the favorite to win the event, with Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi also enjoying favorable chances. [23]
It was American grandmaster Bobby Fischer, however, who put up a dominant performance, scoring 19/22 to win the tournament by 4½ points. Fischer scored a staggering 8½/10 against the five Soviet grandmasters in attendance, dropping only one game in the entire tournament and frequently gaining huge time advantages in each game. According to one report, Fischer spent no more than 2.5 minutes on any game. [24] At the end of the tournament, Tal – who had been whitewashed by Fischer – gave his thoughts on the American's performance.
"I don’t know what Petrosian, Korchnoi, Bronstein, and Smyslov counted on before the start of the tournament, but I expected them to be the most probable rivals for the top prizes. Fischer had until recently played fast chess none too strongly. Now much has changed: he is fine at fast chess. His playing is of the same kind as in tournament games: everything is simple, follows a single pattern, logical, and without any spectacular effects. He makes his moves quickly and practically without errors. Throughout the tournament I think he did not lose a whole set of pieces in this way. Fischer's result is very, very impressive... We had known, of course, that Fischer is one of the strongest chessplayers in the world. He can defeat Petrosyan, Korchnoi, Spassky, and Larsen. Just as they can defeat him." [25]
| Rk | Player | Rtg | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bobby Fischer (USA) | 2720 | 19 |
| 2 | Mikhail Tal (URS) | 2590 | 14½ |
| 3 | Viktor Korchnoi (URS) | 2670 | 14 |
| 4 | Tigran Petrosian (URS) | 2650 | 13½ |
| 5 | David Bronstein (URS) | 2570 | 13 |
| 6 |  Vlastimil Hort (CSR) | 2610 | 12 |
| 7 |  Milan Matulović (YUG) | 2560 | 10½ |
| 8 | Vasily Smyslov (URS) | 2620 | 9½ |
| 9 | Samuel Reshevsky (USA) | 2590 | 8½ |
| 10 |  Wolfgang Uhlmann (GDR) | 2570 | 8 |
| 11 | Borislav Ivkov (YUG) | 2570 | 7½ |
| 12 | Predrag Ostojić (YUG) | NR | 2 |
Following the Candidates' matches for the 1988 cycle, a World Blitz Championship was hosted in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, on 19 February 1988. The event was a 32-player single-elimination tournament, with pairings determined by best-of-four matches. The field was headlined by long-time rivals Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, with the former considered the favorite to win the tournament. Notable participants included:
Garry Kasparov (URS), 2750 Anatoly Karpov (URS), 2715 Mikhail Tal (URS), 2630 Rafael Vaganian (URS), 2625
Jon Speelman (ENG), 2625 Artur Yusupov (URS), 2620 Yasser Seirawan (USA), 2595
Kiril Georgiev (BUL), 2595 Valery Salov (URS), 2595 Jaan Ehlvest (URS), 2585
Kevin Spraggett (CAN), 2580 Alexander Chernin (URS), 2560 Jesús Nogueiras (CUB), 2560 Maxim Dlugy (USA), 2550
Margeir Pétursson (ISL), 2540 Michael Wilder (USA), 2535 Roman Dzindzichashvili (URS), 2530 Branko Damljanović (YUG), 2525 Helgi Ólafsson (ISL), 2510 Igor Ivanov (CAN), 2505 Aivars Gipslis (URS), 2505 Attila Grószpéter (HUN), 2495 Bogdan Lalić (YUG), 2495 Joseph Gallagher (ENG), 2480Former world champion Anatoly Karpov fell out of contention for the championship in just the second round, after dropping his first two games against fellow Soviet grandmaster Alexander Chernin. Reigning world champion Garry Kasparov steamed ahead into the quarterfinals but lost momentum after missing an elementary mate in two against Bulgarian grandmaster Kiril Georgiev, instead blundering stalemate; [26] a stunned Kasparov was subsequently knocked out of the tournament. In the final, Mikhail Tal clinched the championship with a 3½–½ victory over Armenian grandmaster Rafael Vaganian. [27] [28]
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||
| Garry Kasparov | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Kiril Georgiev | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Kiril Georgiev | 3½ | |||||||||||||
| Rafael Vaganian | 4½ | |||||||||||||
| Rafael Vaganian | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Michael Wilder | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Rafael Vaganian | ½ | |||||||||||||
| Mikhail Tal | 3½ | |||||||||||||
| Jaan Ehlvest | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Alexander Chernin | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Alexander Chernin | 1½ | |||||||||||||
| Mikhail Tal | 2½ | |||||||||||||
| Mikhail Tal | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Artur Jussupow | 0 | |||||||||||||
Mikhail Tal, the 51-year-old former World Champion, breezed through the final rounds with 5½/6. Joining him in the finals was Rafael Vaganian, who survived a controversial semifinal against Kiril Georgiev; the Armenian nearly punched his clock after making an illegal move in Game 2, an accusation that was eventually refuted after match officials resorted to a video review and found that Vaganian's hand had stopped just short of touching the clock. The final was a one-sided affair, with Tal repeatedly utilizing exchange sacrifices to find winning combinations; down 3–0 after three games, Vaganian offered his hand in the 4th game to concede the match to Tal. After the match, Tal claimed he took the event "none too seriously"; he chain-smoked throughout the tournament, and his "preparation" for the semifinal match against Chernin reportedly consisted of a double scotch. [29] [30]
| Name | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Tal (URS) | 2630 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3½ |
| Rafael Vaganian (URS) | 2625 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ |
The Plus GSM World Blitz Cup was a 367-player Swiss-system tournament held in Warsaw, Poland, on 9 January 2000. Hosted at the Warsaw Polonia Chess Club, the event consisted of 11 rounds, with each match comprising two 5-minute games for a total of 22 games per player. Indian grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand, the tournament's No. 1 seed, triumphed over a strong field that included 70 Grandmasters [31] and nine of the world's top-20 ranked players with a 17½/22 score. Anand's run saw him pick up 14 wins, 7 draws, and only 1 loss, highlighted by a 43-move win with the black pieces against Anatoly Karpov. [32] The tournament's sponsor, Plus GSM, set aside a $30,500 prize fund for the event as well as Nokia mobile communicators to be given to the top four finishers and the two top Polish players. [33] [34]
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 |          | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
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| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| Rk | Player | Rtg | Pts | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viswanathan Anand (IND) | 2769 | 17½ | 137½ | 166 | 114½ |
| 2 | Boris Gelfand (ISR) | 2692 | 17 | 136½ | 166 | 110 |
| 3 | Anatoly Karpov (RUS) | 2696 | 17 | 136 | 164 | 114½ |
| 4 | Vladimir Akopian (ARM) | 2660 | 17 | 132½ | 160½ | 108 |
| 5 | Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) | 2709 | 17 | 132 | 160 | 105½ |
| 6 | Michael Adams (ENG) | 2715 | 17 | 129 | 154 | 102½ |
| 7 | Vladimir Epishin (RUS) | 2667 | 17 | 125½ | 152½ | 104 |
| 8 | Vladislav Tkachiev (FRA) | 2670 | 16½ | 134½ | 164 | 107½ |
| 9 |  Zdenko Kožul (CRO) | 2597 | 16½ | 133 | 160 | 105½ |
| 10 | Peter Svidler (RUS) | 2672 | 16½ | 132½ | 162 | 107½ |
| 11 |  Alexei Shirov (ESP) | 2751 | 16½ | 132½ | 160 | 109½ |
| 12 | Andrei Shchekachev (RUS) | 2509 | 16½ | 128½ | 157½ | 101 |
| 13 |  Mikulas Manik (SVK) | 2469 | 16½ | 128 | 156 | 104 |
| 14 | Rafael Vaganian (ARM) | 2618 | 16½ | 125½ | 153 | 99 |
| 15 | Robert Kempiński (POL) | 2528 | 16½ | 125½ | 149½ | 102 |
| 16 | Alexey Korotylev (RUS) | 2477 | 16½ | 122 | 150½ | 103 |
| 17 | Kiril Georgiev (BUL) | 2677 | 16 | 134½ | 161 | 105 |
| 18 |  Aleksej Aleksandrov (BLR) | 2606 | 16 | 124 | 152½ | 104 |
| 19 | Sergey Kasparov (BLR) | 2465 | 16 | 123 | 150½ | 96½ |
| 20 | Paweł Blehm (POL) | 2494 | 16 | 123 | 149 | 101½ |
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 to 1985, a three-time FIDE World Champion, twice World Chess champion as a member of the USSR team, and a six-time winner of Chess Olympiads as a member of the USSR team. The International Association of Chess Press awarded him nine Chess Oscars.
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster, a former five-time World Chess Champion and a two-time Chess World Cup Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time. In 2022, he was the elected Deputy President of FIDE.
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion and the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games.
Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster.
This is a timeline of chess.
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a particular variation of fast chess in which different rules apply for each of the two players.
Vasyl Mykhailovych Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading chess player since 1988, Ivanchuk has been ranked at No. 2 on the FIDE world rankings three times.
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates earns the right to a match for the World Championship against the incumbent world champion.
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Events of 1999 in chess include the list of top chess players and news.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1998, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players in July of that year.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1997, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players at the start of that year.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1996, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1995, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1993, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1992, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.
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The FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 was contested in a match between the FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov and the challenger Viswanathan Anand. The match took place between 2 January and 9 January 1998 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The challenger was determined in a tournament held in Groningen, Netherlands, between 9 December and 30 December 1997. After the championship match ended in a draw, Karpov won the rapid playoff, becoming the 1998 FIDE World Chess Champion.
The World Rapid Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under rapid time controls. Prior to 2012, FIDE gave such recognition to a limited number of tournaments, with non-FIDE recognized tournaments annually naming a world rapid champion of their own. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. FIDE also holds the Women's World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship. The current rapid world champion is grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. Anastasia Bodnaruk from Russia is the current women's rapid world champion. Carlsen has won the event a record five times.
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