by Magnus Carlsen, the highest ranked player in history, led a field of 202 players almost all the way to retain his World Rapid crown at Samarkand on Thursday with an unbeaten total of 10/13, seven wins and six draws.
It was the fifth Rapid title for the 33-year-old Norwegian, who relinquished his classic crown last year in favor of faster time limits. In rapid chess, each player has 15 minutes for all moves plus an additional 10 seconds for each move starting from move one.
The final leading scores were Carlsen (Norway) 10/13, Vladimir Fedoseev (Slovenia) 9.5, Yu Yangyi (China) and 11 other players on 9 including the world No. 2, Fabiano Caruana, and teenagers Volodar Murzin, 17, Rameshbabu Praggnananadha, 18, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 19.
The direct encounter between Fedoseev and Carlsen was the Quick decision, as Number 1 lured the white king up the board in a mating attack.
Carlsen said “It feels great. I thought that was the key moment against Fedoseev. He is the only person who could catch me. Sometimes I played my games a little too safe, but I don’t think I was ever really in trouble.”
Anastasia Bodnaruk, a 31-year-old Russian playing under the neutral Fide banner, was the surprise Women’s Rapid champion after winning a blitz final 2.5-1.5 against India’s Humpy Koneru. Le Tingjie (China) was in third place. All three scored 8.5/11. Koneru lost in time decisive playoff game.
On Friday and Saturday Carlsen will aim for his seventh world blitz title over 21 rounds, where each player has just three minutes for the entire game plus two seconds per transfer increment. The games will be broadcast live online (start 10am).
Earlier, Carlsen separated Tigran L Petrosian (no relation to the former world champion) by taking advantage of the weak defenses of the Armenian king. Creative Daniil Dubov and rising talent Murzin both won miniatures. Under-8 world champion Roman Shogdzhiev won two grand masters, and the final stages of one of his victories were captured on video. There were blunders, too. This game is the closest you will ever get to a grandmaster falling for your Scholar’s Mate.
On board, the main controversy was Fide’s detailed new dress code for the World Rapid/Blitz, and its first victim, Dutch WIM and striper Anna-Maja Kazarian, who was fined €100 for wearing sports sneakers which she denied.
Meanwhile, the race for the final two spots in 2023 Candidates, which will be decided by the challenger for China’s Ding Liren, continued. India’s Dommaraju Gukesh is sure of the Fide Circuit spot, but the question of who will take the ranking spot will go down to the wire on Friday morning, and maybe even beyond that.
Alireza Firouzja, who needed to score rating points on the US’s Wesley So, had help from the French federation, which organized a series of mini-matches against hand-picked old masters in Firouzja’s hometown of Chartres. The former Iranian needed to win all six matches to pass So, but he failed in the final fence when he offered a draw in a losing position against Sergey Fedorchuk. After protests from the US federation and others, Fide is likely to refuse to rate the Chartres event as an artificial event for the benefit of Firouzja.
Firouzja then made a very slow entry to the Rouen Open, starting on December 26 and ending on Friday, the last date that could be included in the Fide rating list on January 1.
At the same time, Chartres teammate Firouzja Gata Kamsky, who challenged for the Fide world title in 1996, also entered Rouen. This time, Firouzja was successful. He won his first five matches in good style, then, on Thursday evening, he won in his main match against Kamsky. Excluding the Chartres games, Firouzja’s live rating is up to 2758 against 2757 for So.
Firouzja still has a final hurdle to overcome, round seven at Rouen on Friday morning. By a strange twist of fate, his opponent will be Kamran Shirazi, 71 years old, the former champion of Iran and also the player, who lost while competing in the United States, the shortest match ever in the history of the US Championship (USA). Shirazi v John Peters, Berkeley, California 1984: 1 e4 c5 2 b4 cxb4 3 a3 d5 4 exd5 Qxd5 5 axb4?? C5+ 0-1)
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This week’s action in Lausanne at the Court of Arbitration for Sport still has some potential, but less than it did before Rouen. Whatever the final result, Firouzja is still only 20 years old and will have at least four more attempts at the world title, which has a two-year cycle, in his prime.
The 97th edition of the Caplin Hastings Masters, the longest annual conference in the world, began on Thursday with a keen eye on Shreyas Royal, The 14-year-old from Greenwich, South London, is hunting for his third and the grandmaster norm final, although he will also need to achieve a 2500 Fide rating (currently 2438) to be awarded the title.
The late Tony Miles was 20 when he became Britain’s first master in 1976. Nigel Short became GM at 19 in 1984, followed by Adams at 17 in 1989, McShane at 16 years seven months in 2000, and David Howell at 16 years and one month. in 2007. Royal, who achieved his first GM norm at a record 13 years and nine months, and recently secured his second at the London Classic, is well placed to set a new landmark at Hastings or later.
Royal got off to a good start in Thursday’s opening round, outclassing his 1907-rated amateur opponent Luke Honey.
3600 1 Qh6 Qxe5 2 Qxh7+ ! Kxh7 3 Kg2 mate.
