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World Rapid Chess Championship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from World Rapid Chess Champion)
Magnus Carlsen, the current World Rapid Champion.
Aleksandra Goryachkina, the current Women's World Rapid Champion.

The World Rapid Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in rapid chess. Prior to 2012, FIDE sporadically sanctioned a world rapid chess championship. Meanwhile, the non-FIDE-recognized Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship annually named a world rapid champion of its own each year from 1996 to 2010. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz tournament, billed as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. FIDE also holds the Women's World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship.

The current rapid world champion is GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia is the current women's rapid world champion. GM Vishwanathan Anand of India holds the record for most championship wins, having won 13 World Rapid titles.

History

[edit]
Advertisement for 1988 World Active Chess Championship

The concept of rapid chess (then called "active chess") made its debut at a 1987 FIDE Congress meeting in Seville, Spain. The first official high-profile rapid match took place later that year, when then-world champion Garry Kasparov defeated Nigel Short in the "London Docklands Speed Chess Challenge" at the London Hippodrome. Kasparov won the match with 4 wins, two losses, and no draws in six games.[1]

During the World Active Chess Championship the following year, time controls were set at 30 minutes per player per game.[2] In 1993, following his split from FIDE, world champion Garry Kasparov organized a slightly quicker version of active chess, dubbing it "rapid chess". The Professional Chess Association, Kasparov's competitor to FIDE, subsequently organized two Grand Prix cycles of rapid chess before folding in 1996. Under rapid chess time controls, each player was allowed 25 minutes with an additional 10 seconds after each move.[3] FIDE would adopt these time controls and the "rapid chess" moniker for the rapid tiebreak stages of the 1999 FIDE World Chess Championship.

In 2012, FIDE inaugurated the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships, holding the World Rapid Championship alongside the World Blitz Championship. The current time controls for the rapid event is 15 minutes per player with a 10 second increment.[4]

Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship

[edit]
Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov face off in the 2000 edition of the championship

Starting in 1994, the Mainz Chess Classic was an annual series of tournaments hosted by the Chess Tigers in Mainz, Germany. The brainchild of Hans-Walter Schmitt, the Chess Classic featured top-ranked players playing rapid and Fischer Random chess games against computers as well as each other. The main event of the classic was the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship (formerly Fujitsu-Siemens), a tournament generally considered as the traditional rapid chess championship in the absence of an annual FIDE-recognized championship.[5][6][7] Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand holds the record for most championship wins, having won the event 11 times in 15 years — including 9 consecutive victories from 2000 to 2008.

From 1996 to 1998, the Rapid Chess Championship at Frankfurt was organized as a double-round robin, followed by a match between the 1st and 2nd-place finishers for the championship. With the addition of Karpov to the field in 1999, the format was temporarily changed to a pure round-robin, with the 1st-place finisher winning the championship. The following year the field was expanded further to include all ten of the top 10-rated Grandmasters in the world, and was dubbed a Category 21 tournament with an average Elo rating of 2767.[8]

In 2001 the event moved to Mainz, and shifted from a round-robin to a matchplay format - the defending champion Viswanathan Anand defended his title in an eight-game match against the winner of the previous year's Ordix Open, the open rapid tournament. In 2007, with Anand still the rapid champion after six successful title defenses, the event reverted to a double-round robin tournament, with the top two finishers in the semi-finals advancing to the finals.[9] In a homage to the Masters Tournament, the winner of the championship is traditionally awarded a winner's black jacket.[10]

In 2010, the event's final year, the Open GRENKE Rapid Championship featured a field of over 700 players. Shortly afterwards, the Chess Tigers withdrew financial backing for the event, due in part to the effects of the 2008 financial crisis.[11]

Year Format Champion Runner-up Score
1996Double round-robin/final Alexei Shirov (ESP) Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)1½–½
1997Double round-robin/final Viswanathan Anand (IND) Anatoly Karpov (RUS)3–1
1998Double round-robin/final Viswanathan Anand (IND) Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)4–31
1999Quadruple round-robin Garry Kasparov (RUS) Viswanathan Anand (IND)N/A
2000Double round-robin Viswanathan Anand (IND) Garry Kasparov (RUS)N/A
2001Matchplay (10 games) Viswanathan Anand (IND) Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)6½–5½1
2002Matchplay (8 games) Viswanathan Anand (IND) Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR)4½–3½
2003Matchplay (8 games) Viswanathan Anand (IND) Judit Polgar (HUN)5–3
2004Matchplay (8 games) Viswanathan Anand (IND) Alexei Shirov (ESP)5–3
2005Matchplay (8 games) Viswanathan Anand (IND) Alexander Grischuk (RUS)5–3
2006Matchplay (8 games) Viswanathan Anand (IND) Teimour Radjabov (AZE)5–3
2007Double round-robin/final Viswanathan Anand (IND) Levon Aronian (ARM)2½–1½
2008Double round-robin/final Viswanathan Anand (IND) Magnus Carlsen (NOR)3–1
2009Double round-robin/final Levon Aronian (ARM) Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)3–1
2010Swiss-system tournament Gata Kamsky (USA) Vugar Gashimov (AZE)N/A

1 Blitz tiebreaks used to settle the outcome.

FIDE-recognized events

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Pre-2012

[edit]

Prior to 2012, FIDE sporadically sanctioned a world rapid chess championship, organizing just three such events. These occurred in 1988, 2001, and 2003. Each of the events was a multi-stage tournament with a preliminary stage followed by an eight-player single-elimination to determine the winner.

World Rapid Chess Championships (pre-2012)
Year Host city Champion Runner-up Finals score
1988Mexico Mazatlán Anatoly Karpov (USSR) Viktor Gavrikov (USSR)5–51
2001France Cannes Garry Kasparov (RUS) Evgeny Bareev (CAN)1½–½
2003France Cap d'Agde Viswanathan Anand (IND) Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)1½–½

1 Computer tiebreaks used to settle the outcome.

World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships (since 2012)

[edit]

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 5 days. In order to promote viewership, time controls were set at 15 minutes per player, rather than the pre-2012 standard of 25 minutes. 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 10 players in the FIDE ratings list, the three medalists of the qualification competition, and three wild-card nominees by the organization committee and FIDE.[12]

In 2013, the format was 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.[13] Various methods of resolving ties have been used and the 2016 edition resulted in all three medallists tied on 11/15 points with the champion being determined by comparing the average rating of each player's opponents. From 2017 onwards, a tie-breaker match has been played in the event of two or more players being tied on points for first place.[14] Only two players may participate in this match, even where three or more players are tied for first place on points. This caused some controversy in the 2021 edition where four players tied for 1st with a score of 9.5/13. A tie-break match for the gold and silver medals was held between Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Ian Nepomniachtchi due to having the highest Buchholz (Cut 1) scores of the four players. Magnus Carlsen, the defending champion, and Fabiano Caruana were therefore unable to participate in the tie-break match despite having the same score as the champion. Carlsen criticised this result as 'idiotic' and called for changes.[15]

Editions and medallists

[edit]

Open

[edit]
World Rapid Chess Championships (since 2012)
Year Host city Champion Runner-up Third place
2012Kazakhstan Astana Sergey Karjakin (RUS) Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Veselin Topalov (BUL)
2013Russia Khanty-Mansiysk Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
2014United Arab Emirates Dubai Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Fabiano Caruana (ITA) Viswanathan Anand (IND)
2015Germany Berlin Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) Teimour Radjabov (AZE)
2016Qatar Doha[16] Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR)1 Alexander Grischuk (RUS) Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
2017Saudi Arabia Riyadh[17][18] Viswanathan Anand (IND)2 Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS) Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)
2018Russia Saint Petersburg[19] Daniil Dubov (RUS) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
2019 Russia Moscow  Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Alireza Firouzja[n 1] (FIDE) Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
2020Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic[21]
2021 Poland Warsaw  Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB)1 2 Ian Nepomniachtchi[n 2] (CFR) Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
2022Kazakhstan Almaty Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Vincent Keymer (GER) Fabiano Caruana (USA)
2023Uzbekistan Samarkand Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO)  Yu Yangyi (CHN)
2024United States New York[22] Volodar Murzin[n 3] (FIDE) Alexander Grischuk[n 3] (FIDE) Ian Nepomniachtchi[n 3] (FIDE)
2025Qatar Doha[23] Magnus Carlsen (NOR) Vladislav Artemiev[n 3] (FIDE) Arjun Erigaisi (IND)

1 Computer tiebreaks used to settle the outcome.

2 Tiebreak games used to settle the outcome.

Women

[edit]
Women's World Rapid Chess Championships (since 2012)
Year Host city Champion Runner-up Third place
2012Georgia (country) Batumi[24][25][26] Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) Koneru Humpy (IND)
2013Not held[27]
2014Russia Khanty-Mansiysk[28] Kateryna Lagno (UKR) Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) Olga Girya (RUS)
2015Not held
2016Qatar Doha[29][30] Anna Muzychuk (UKR) Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) Nana Dzagnidze (GEO)
2017Saudi Arabia Riyadh[31] Ju Wenjun (CHN) Lei Tingjie (CHN) Elisabeth Pähtz (GER)
2018Russia Saint Petersburg[32] Ju Wenjun (CHN) Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (IRI) Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS)
2019 Russia Moscow  Koneru Humpy (IND)  Lei Tingjie (CHN)  Ekaterina Atalik (TUR)
2020Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic[21]
2021 Poland Warsaw[33] Alexandra Kosteniuk[n 2] (CFR) Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) Valentina Gunina[n 2] (CFR)
2022Kazakhstan Almaty  Tan Zhongyi (CHN)  Dinara Saduakassova (KAZ)  Savitha Shri B (IND)
2023Uzbekistan Samarkand Anastasia Bodnaruk[n 3] (FIDE) Koneru Humpy (IND) Lei Tingjie (CHN)
2024United States New York[22] Koneru Humpy (IND) Ju Wenjun (CHN) Kateryna Lagno[n 3] (FIDE)
2025Qatar Doha[23] Aleksandra Goryachkina[n 3] (FIDE) Zhu Jiner (China) Koneru Humpy (IND)

Records

[edit]

Titles (open)

[edit]

The table below organizes the World Rapid champions in order of championship wins, including all FIDE and Classic events.

Total Player Classic FIDE
Titles Year(s) Titles Year(s)
13  Viswanathan Anand (IND) 11 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 2 2003, 2017
6  Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 0 6 2014, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025
2  Garry Kasparov (RUS) 1 1999 1 2001
1  Anatoly Karpov (USSR) 0 1 1988
1  Alexei Shirov (ESP) 1 1996 0
1  Levon Aronian (ARM) 1 2009 0
1  Gata Kamsky (USA) 1 2010 0
1  Sergey Karjakin (RUS) 0 1 2012
1  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) 0 1 2013
1  Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) 0 1 2016
1  Daniil Dubov (RUS) 0 1 2018
1  Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) 0 1 2021
1 Volodar Murzin[n 3] (FIDE) 0 1 2024

Titles (women)

[edit]
Most Times Champion (including 1992 event)
Titles won Player Year(s)
2  Ju Wenjun (CHN) 2017, 2018
 Koneru Humpy (IND) 2019, 2024
1  Susan Polgar (HUN) 1992
 Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) 2012
 Kateryna Lagno (UKR) 2014
 Anna Muzychuk (UKR) 2016
Alexandra Kosteniuk[n 2] (CFR) 2021
 Tan Zhongyi (CHN) 2022
Anastasia Bodnaruk[n 3] (FIDE) 2023
Aleksandra Goryachkina[n 3] (FIDE) 2025

Other events

[edit]

ACP World Rapid Cup

[edit]

Starting in 2007, the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) sponsored an annual event billed as the ACP World Rapid Cup. The 1st edition of the event was a 16-player knockout tournament, jointly organized by the Pivdenny Bank of Ukraine and the ACP and held in Odesa, Ukraine at the Hotel Londonskaya from 4 January to 8 January 2007.[34] The brainchild of Pivdenny Bank chairman and ACP president Vadim Morokhovsky,[35] the tournament included the top finishers in each year's ACP Tour, a system in which participating players were ranked based on their performances in several chess tournaments held around the world. The remaining participants were chosen on a wildcard basis at the organizers' discretion. From 2007 to 2010, the tournament was held on an annual basis, with the 5th edition of the cup held in 2013.

Despite the ACP Cup's status as a non-FIDE event, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was present at the inaugural edition of the tournament and took part in the opening ceremony.[36] A subsequent agreement between FIDE and the ACP ensured that ACP would be able to use the title "World" when promoting and referring to the tournament.

Time controls were set at 20 minutes per player, with an increment of five seconds. Each match consisted of two rapid games, with the winner progressing to the next round. Ties were resolved by two blitz games, followed by a sudden-death armageddon game. The final match initially consisted of four rapid games, with the same tiebreaks; in 2013, the final was shortened to two rapid games.[37]

Year Host city Champion Runner-up Score
2007Ukraine Odesa Peter Leko (HUN) Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR)2½–1½
2008Ukraine Odesa Teimour Radjabov (AZE) Alexander Grischuk (RUS)2½–1½
2009Ukraine Odesa Boris Gelfand (ISR) Peter Svidler (RUS)3–1
2010Ukraine Odesa Sergey Karjakin (RUS) Dmitry Andreikin (RUS)3–31
2013Latvia Riga Alexander Grischuk (RUS) Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)2–21

1 Armageddon game used to settle the outcome.

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ Alireza Firouzja competed under the flag of FIDE in the 2019 tournament after the Iranian federation withdrew all Iranian players so that they would not have to face players from Israel.[20]
  2. 1 2 3 4 Nepomniachtchi, Kosteniuk and Gunina are Russians, but they competed under the Chess Federation of Russia flag, due to WADA sanctions against Russia.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Murzin, Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi, Bodnaruk, Lagno, Artemiev and Goryachkina are Russians but competed under FIDE flag due to the organization's ban of the Russian and Belarusian flags as part of its response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "The Spectator: 3 APRIL 1987, Page 52". Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  2. ↑ "A Brief History of Fast Chess". Archived from the original on 2017-01-03. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  3. ↑ Wolff, Patrick (September 2001). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. ISBN 9781101221952. Archived from the original on 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  4. ↑ "Regulations for the FIDE World Rapid Championship 2015" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  5. ↑ "NYTimes.com - Anand Wins Rapid Championship at Mainz; Navara Wins Open".
  6. ↑ "Chess.com - Aronian Wins Rapid World Championship". Archived from the original on 2017-01-03. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  7. ↑ "Preview: Frankfurt Chess Classic 2000". Archived from the original on 2017-01-18.
  8. ↑ "CB News: Mainz 2009 – Schmitt: 'I suffer vicariously with Anand'". Archived from the original on 2017-01-08. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
  9. ↑ "Viswanathan Anand's Tournament, Match, and Exhibition Record (1983-)". Archived from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  10. ↑ "Frankfurt puts everything which has gone before in the shade". Archived from the original on 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  11. ↑ "CB News: Chess Classic Mainz – End of an Era". Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  12. ↑ "Regulations for the World Rapid Chess Championship 2012" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-03-08. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  13. ↑ Chess.com (News) (2013-06-08). "Mamedyarov wins FIDE World Rapid Championship". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-09-11.
  14. ↑ "Regulations for the FIDE World Rapid Championship 2017" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-12-29. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
  15. ↑ "Carlsen thinks World Cup rule is 'idiotic': Lost gold in last game". Archived from the original on 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
  16. ↑ "The winners of FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships". Archived from the original on 2020-01-01. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  17. ↑ "Saudi ban on Israeli chess players underscores limits of Gulf relations". 27 December 2017. Archived from the original on 1 January 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  18. ↑ "'I am ready to stand for my principles': Double world chess champion says she won't defend titles in Saudi Arabia because of kingdom's inequality". 27 December 2017. Archived from the original on 20 March 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  19. ↑ ChessBase staff (28 December 2018). "FIDE World Rapid Champions: Dubov and Ju". ChessBase. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  20. ↑ "Firouzja Seeks Nationality Change After World Rapid & Blitz Ban By Iranian Federation", chess.com, 25 December 2019, archived from the original on 12 February 2020, retrieved 29 December 2019
  21. 1 2 "World Rapid and Blitz Championship postponed to 2021". Archived from the original on 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  22. 1 2 "2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships To Be Held In New York". June 17, 2024.
  23. 1 2 "FIDE World R & B Championships 2025 to be Held in Doha, Qatar". 23 January 2025.
  24. ↑ "Women's World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2012". World Chess Federation. FIDE. Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  25. ↑ "Antoaneta Stefanova is Women World Rapid Champion". Chessdom. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  26. ↑ "Stefanova and Gunina winners at World Rapid and Blitz Championships". Chessvibes. Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  27. ↑ "FIDE Archive: 2013". World Chess Federation. Archived from the original on 2018-12-31. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  28. ↑ "FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2014" (PDF). FIDE. FIDE. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 May 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  29. ↑ "FIDE "Women" World Rapid Ch. 2016 Final Ranking after 12 Rounds". Archived from the original on 2020-01-11. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  30. ↑ "Double gold for Ukraine in FIDE World Rapid Championship". Archived from the original on 2020-01-01. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  31. ↑ "King Salman World Rapid Championship 2017 Women". Chess-Results. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  32. ↑ "King Salman World Rapid Championship 2018 Open". Chess-Results Server. Archived from the original on 29 December 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  33. ↑ "World Rapid & Blitz 2021 to be held in Warsaw, Poland". World Chess Federation. FIDE. 10 December 2021. Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  34. ↑ "First ACP World Rapid in Odessa". Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  35. ↑ "ChessBase News - 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup in Odessa". Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  36. ↑ "FIDE Report - Peter Leko of Hungary wins the 1st ACP World Rapid Cup". Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  37. ↑ "ChessBase News - ACP 2003: Grischuk prevails". Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
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