Duda, Jobava, and Carlsen Take The Lead In Rapid Championship, 178 Players Closely Follow
The first day of the FIDE World Rapid Championship, part of the Rapid and Blitz Championships marathon that traditionally takes place on Dec 26 – 30 of each year, ended with Magnus Carlsen, Duda and Jabava leading the pack with 4.5 out of 5.
Rapid Championship is played with fast time controls: each player gets 15 minutes with a 10-second increment, making the games dynamic and appealing to spectators: even the world’s strongest players are prone to blunders and inaccuracies when they are in time trouble.
The prize fund of the event is substantial to attract the top players, including Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana and many other brilliant chess minds. The event is organized in Warsaw, Poland — the organizers and FIDE, the sport’s governing body, have secured a special permission from the local government to hold the tournament despite the COVID restrictions imposed by the European Union. Players have to wear protective masks in between rounds, but the Championship is so intense that many barely notice the restrictions.
Rapid Championship consists of 13 rounds and lasts three days. It’s a Swiss system event, where winners play with winners after each round. The system allows to determine the winner with a limited number of rounds from a large pool of players. Carlsen, who is the highest-seeded player in the tournament, said about his games that he played sloppily, but that’s expected on the first day, and he is very pleased with 4.5 out of 5 and he hopes to perform better in days 2 and 3. He just won the classic World Chess Championship in Dubai against the Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi and seems to have a busy end of the year.
Tomorrow, the event resumes. You can follow it live on worldchess.com. The players to watch tomorrow along with the leaders: Nepo, Dubov, Firouzja, and Nakamura.
The Blitz Championship will follow on December 29 — 30.
The Rapid and Blitz Championship is traditionally broadcast by NRK, the largest Norwegian TV channel which pioneered showing chess on live TV.
