2021 World Rapid and Blitz: Carlsen, Duda, and Jobava the stars of Day 1
The 2021 World Rapid and Blitz Championships started on the 25th of December in Warsaw, Poland, attracting more than 250 professional players from around the world.
The World Champion Magnus Carlsen, in his pursuit of retaining his three titles, has to fight against the “titans”, including the 2021 Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, World No.2 Alireza Firouzja, speed chess champion Hikaru Nakamura, the 2021 World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and the three-time World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk.
The first day started with 5 rapid rounds with Duda, Jobava, and Carlsen having the lead with 4,5/5. One more time, Carlsen unleashed the endgame monster and forced the Georgian GM Merab Gagunashvili to blunder after 100 moves!
Another highlight of the first day was Duda escaping a hopeless position against Jobava using a “cheap trick” according to the commentators.
Nepo showed great resilience and motivation even though he was crushed emotionally at the World Championship, not a long ago. With 3 wins and 2 draws against talented young players, Ian is definitely one to watch!
Even though all eyes are on Firouzja, the 18-year-od GM showed stability and a fighting spirit from round 1. Is he going to rise up to all the expectations of the chess community?
Watch Day 2 of the 2021 World Rapid and Blitz Championship with us here.
