Even while D Gukesh's historic triumph at the World Chess Championship is still fresh in Indian minds, the next big global chess event is set to get underway. The year-ending FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2024 will be played in New York from December 26 to January 1, 2025 (India time). (More Chess News)
Indians In Fray
While Gukesh has given the event a miss, several other Indian competitors will be seen in action, including Arjun Erigaisi, who got his United States visa in the nick of time to be able to travel for the tournament. R Praggananandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani, Pranav V, Sandipan Chanda, Aravindh Chithambaram, Harsha Bharathakoti, Bharath Subramaniyam, Diptayan Ghosh and Karthik Venkataraman are the other players from the country who will take part in the Open Blitz and Open Rapid.
In the Women’s Blitz and Women’s Rapid disciplines, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Sahithi Varshini M, Padmini Rout, and Priyanka Nutakki will represent India.
Line-Up, Top Global Stars
Defending champion Magnus Carlsen will headline the marquee event, which features a line-up of over 300 players in both the Open and Women’s categories. Five-time world champion Carlsen altogether has six Blitz and five Rapid Championship titles, and will be looking to add to the tally.
The Norwegian legend will be facing a large field of challengers, led by world number two and three, Americans Fabiano Caruana (current USA champion and former World Championship contender) and Hikaru Nakamura, a five-time USA champion and one of the most dominant blitz players in chess history.
Adding the pressure on Carlsen will be the 21-year-old Iranian-born Frenchman, Alireza Firouza and other strong contenders like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Boris Gelfand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alexander Grischuk. You can check the full list of participants HERE.
Format, Time Controls
The World Rapid Championship will kick off proceedings, and will be played from December 26 to 29. It will have 13 rounds in the open and 11 in the women’s sections. The player with the most points at the end will be declared the World Rapid Champion.
Each player will have a time control of 15 minutes in a game, with 10-second increments per move. There will be no penalties for players arriving late to the game, but their time will keep ticking from the start of the round.
As for the World Blitz Championship, it will be a two-day affair from December 31 to January 1. The open tournament will feature 13 rounds, while the women’s tournament will have 11 rounds. The time control will be three minutes plus a two-second increment per move. On the second day, January 1 (India time), the top eight players from each competition will face off in a knockout finale.
Prize Money
The total prize money for the open tournaments is 1 million US dollars (around INR 8.5 crore), with 90,000 US dollars awarded to the first-place player in both. In the World Rapid Championship, prize money is divided evenly among players with equal number of points. In the World Blitz Championship, prize money is divided equally among players who finish with the same number of points but do not qualify for the knockout finale.
For the women’s tournaments, the total prize money is 428,500 US dollars (around INR 3.6 crore), with 60,000 US dollars awarded to the first-place player in both.
Venues
Both the open and the women’s tournaments will take place at famous New York venues, just a few steps away from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The Open Rapid and Blitz tournaments will be held at Cipriani Wall Street, a landmark built in 1841 and once the home of the NYSE. The women’s tournaments will be held at 48 Wall Street, a historic building that once housed the Bank of New York & Trust Company Building and the Museum of American Finance.
Schedule
World Rapid Championship: Open Section
December 26 and 27
11:30pm: Opening
12:30am: Round 1
1:50am: Round 2
3:10am: Round 3
4:30am: Round 4
5:50am: Round 5
December 28
12:30am: Round 6
1:50am: Round 7
3:10am: Round 8
4:30am: Round 9
December 29
12:30am: Round 10
1:50am: Round 11
3:10am: Round 12
4:30am: Round 13
World Rapid Championship: Women's Section
December 26 and 27
11:30pm: Opening
12:45am: Round 1
2:05am: Round 2
3:25am: Round 3
4:45am: Round 4
December 28
12:45am: Round 5
2:05am: Round 6
3:25am: Round 7
4:45am: Round 8
December 29
12:45am: Round 9
2:05am: Round 10
3:25am: Round 11
World Blitz Championship: Open Section
December 31
12:30am: Round 1
1am: Round 2
1:30am: Round 3
2am: Round 4
2:30am: Round 5
3am: Round 6
3:30am: Round 7
4am: Round 8
4:30am: Round 9
5am: Round 10
5:30am: Round 11
6am: Round 12
6:30am: Round 13
January 1
12:30am: Quarter-finals
2am: Semi-finals
3:30am: Final
5:30am: Closing
World Blitz Championship: Women's Section
December 31
12:45am: Round 1
1:15am: Round 2
1:45am: Round 3
2:15am: Round 4
2:45am: Round 5
3:15am: Round 6
3:45am: Round 7
4:15am: Round 8
4:45am: Round 9
5:15am: Round 10
5:45am: Round 11
January 1
12:30am: Quarter-finals
2am: Semi-finals
3:30am: Final
5:30am: Closing
Live Streaming Details
The event will be live streamed on FIDE’s official YouTube Channel. There will also be live commentary by Grandmasters and special guests.
