Magnus Carlsen grabbed his 17th World Championship title the 7th in blitz by scoring 16/21 points at the World Blitz event in Samarkand. After losing his first game of the day, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Carlsen grabbed six wins in a row to retake the sole lead. Two draws in the final rounds allowed him to outscore Daniil Dubov by a half point. In the women’s championship, Valentina Gunina got outright victory thanks to a final-round win over Anna Muzychuk. Alexandra Kosteniuk came close to catching the eventual champion, but fell just short and took the silver medal. | Photo: FIDE / Anastasia Korolkova
There was no shortage of controversy on day 1 of the World Blitz Championships in Samarkand. A dispute regarding an alleged clock malfunction delayed the start of round 7 by close to an hour, while a 13-move draw featuring only knight moves between Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi resulted in both players losing a half point as their encounter, according to the Chief Arbiter, would “bring the game of chess into disrepute”. Meanwhile, Valentina Gunina got a 1½-point lead in the women’s tournament after finishing day 1 with an astonishing 8½/9 score. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
World Blitz Chess Championship Day 1: Dubov, Nepo Punished As Carlsen Shares Lead; Gunina Dazzles With 8.5/9 independantexpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independantexpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Samarkand Hosts World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships This Week astanatimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from astanatimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For its December list FIDE has not yet rated the tournaments in St. Louis and Zagreb, so Alireza Firouzja's rating loss is still quite moderate. The 30 Elo-points Hans Niemann gained in the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb do not appear in the list either. But Carlsen remains the clear number one.