New Format, New Year: FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships Come To Wall Street
For the first time, the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships are taking place in the United States. The premier speed chess tournaments will be held on Wall Street in New York City with a brand new format including a knockout in the Blitz. Between Christmas and New Year's, from December 26-31, the world's best chess players, including world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen, descend on the Big Apple for their share of the nearly $1.5 million prize fund and FIDE's most prestigious titles for speed chess.
The event kicks off with the FIDE World Rapid Championship and FIDE Women's World Rapid Championship on December 26, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET / 20:00 CET / 12:30 a.m. IST (on December 27). If you'll be in New York this holiday season, purchase your tickets here.
- Novel Tournament Format On Historic Wall Street
- World Champions Carlsen, Gunina, Bodnaruk Headline Top-Tier Lineup Of Players
- Wall Street Gambit: Chess and Finance Conference
Novel Tournament Format On Historic Wall Street
Four tournaments are taking place across six days, with a rest day on day four, December 29. There are two Open championships and two Women's championships, with separate titles awarded for rapid and blitz.
The Open tournaments take place in Cipriani Wall Street, a luxurious venue built in 1841 in the Greek Revival style that once housed the New York Merchants’ Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. Customs House, and served as headquarters for the National City Bank. The Women's tournaments are across the street, at 48 Wall Street, which previously housed the Bank of New York & Trust Company Building and the Museum of American Finance.
There's no change in the traditional rapid format, but the blitz format is brand new this year. The World Rapid Championship is a 13-round Swiss and the Women's Rapid Championship is 11 rounds, as usual. The Blitz, on the other hand, will no longer just be Swiss tournaments; there is now a knockout component in the Open and Women's sections. After 13 Swiss rounds—again, 11 in the Women's—the top-eight finishers will compete in a single-elimination Knockout, with matches of four games at each stage.
World Champions Carlsen, Gunina, Bodnaruk Headline Top-Tier Lineup
The championships are open to any player rated at least 2550 (2250 for the Women's events) in the preceding 12 months in any time control, to reigning national champions, and to players nominated by the FIDE president, as well as up to 15 players invited by the organizer. Just over 300 players are currently registered across both sections.
Carlsen is the defending champion of both the rapid and blitz Open titles, just as he was last year. He will be looking to add another two trophies to his already prolific collection; he has won the Rapid Championship five times and the Blitz seven times. We will also see former World Championship Challengers: U.S. Champion Fabiano Caruana, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, and GM Boris Gelfand. American GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Jeffery Xiong, Leinier Dominguez, Hans Niemann, Sam Shankland, Daniel Naroditsky, and others will be playing on home soil.
Former Rapid World Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won in 2021 at the age of 17, will be attending, and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will be looking to repeat his 2021 victory in the Blitz Championship. GM Alireza Firouzja, the youngest player to cross 2800 rating and current world number-seven in classical, has shown his prowess at speed chess in Chess.com events but has yet to win a FIDE world title.
Indian GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, World Championship Challenger Gukesh Dommaraju, and Vidit Gujrathi are all registered, and GMs Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, and Bu Xiangzhi will fly in from China, another powerhouse chess country. The list goes on endlessly, but these are just the highlights.
Moving on to the Women's tournaments, reigning Women's World Champion (in classical chess) Ju Wenjun leads the field. Former World Women's Champions Tan Zhongyi, Mariya Muzychuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Zhu Chen will participate as well, alongside former Challengers Lei Tingjie and Koneru Humpy.
IM Anastasia Bodnaruk will defend her maiden rapid title, while GM Valentina Gunina will defend her second blitz title. Former world champions GM Kateryna Lagno (three-time blitz, one-time rapid), IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (two-time blitz), GM Anna Muzychuk (one time rapid, two-time blitz), and GM Nana Dzagnidze (2017 blitz) are expected to attend as well.
From the U.S. are the current national champion IM Carissa Yip, as well as former U.S. Women’s Champions GM Irina Krush and FM Jennifer Yu. In short, just about all the heavy hitters will be there.
Wall Street Gambit: Chess and Finance Conference
Just because December 29 is a rest day doesn't mean it's an off day. Cipriani 55 Wall Street will host the Wall Street Gambit, a meeting of minds bridging chess and finance. On their website, FIDE describes the event:
Featuring an exceptional lineup of keynote speakers, the unique opportunity to play blitz against legends Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, and Fabiano Caruana, a tournament for attendees, and a networking cocktail hour, Wall Street Gambit promises to be an unmissable event—whether you’re from the world of chess or high finance.
In addition to the chess legends, leading figures from the financial and tech words will attend, including Boaz Weinstein, D. Sculley, and Kenneth Rogoff.
The day includes a chess tournament for conference participants, keynote speeches on the topics of chess, finance, and AI, and VIP attendees have the opportunity to play blitz games against Carlsen, Anand, or Caruana. There will be a photo opportunity, awards ceremony, and finally a networking cocktail hour.
Tickets start at $1,000, while the VIP experience goes for $5,000. Find them here.
Previous coverage:
NM Anthony Levin caught the chess bug at the "late" age of 18 and never turned back. He earned his national master title in 2021, actually the night before his first day of work at Chess.com.
Anthony, who also earned his Master's in teaching English in 2018, taught English and chess in New York schools for five years and strives to make chess content accessible and enjoyable for people of all ages. At Chess.com, he writes news articles and manages social media for chess24.
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