India’s Koneru Humpy finished sixth in the women’s at the World Rapid Chess Championship which took place in Warsaw, Poland. In the open section, 15-year-old Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh impressed with a top-10 finish.
In the open section, Nodirbek Abdusattorov is the new World Rapid Chess Champion. The three-day event ended with a spectacular victory by Abdusattorov who seized the crown previously held by none other than Magnus Carlsen.
In one of the most impressive results from an Indian perspective, Gukesh drew against eventual champion Abdusattorov in the 12th round.
With 9.5 points out of 13 rounds, Abdusattorov was the first among four players tied for the top spot. The other three were Ian Nepomniachtchi, defending champion Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Under the regulations, only the top two players went on to play the tie-breaks.
The champion in rapid chess was decided by two blitz games in which each player had three minutes with a two-second increment per move.
In the first blitz game of the tie break Nepomniachtchi, as White, had the better position but failed to get more than a draw. In the second game, Abdusattorov - leading white pieces - managed to find better moves at the ending and clinch a victory.
The 17-year-old Uzbek star had a spectacular tournament in which he defeated some of the world’s strongest seasoned players, including Magnus Carlsen. With this remarkable victory, Abdusattorov stripped Magnus Carlsen of the title of world champion in rapid chess and of the prestige of holding all three chess crowns (in classical, rapid and speed chess) at the same time.
India’s Mitrabha Guha finished 15th in the open section.
In the women’s section, Alexandra Kosteniuk is the winner of the World Rapid Chess Championship. In eleven rounds of the women’s tournament, Kosteniuk did not lose a single game – scoring seven victories (6 in a row in the first six rounds) and making four draws.
The winner of the previous women’s world rapid tournament (in Moscow in 2019) Humpy finished day one with 2.5/4, with just one victory and three draws. But she bounced back through the remaining rounds to finish in the top 10. She earned a draw against the eventual champion in the ninth round. Another Indian youngster to impress was R Vaishali who finished 14th, not losing a single match and earlier defeating one of the pre-event favourites Mariya Muzychuk and also drew with Stefanova and Goryachkina among the top players.
The event in Warsaw continues with the World Blitz Championship taking place on the 29th and the 30th December.
(With FIDE and ChessBase inputs)
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