MVL wins the 2021 World Blitz Championship, Alireza gets kicked out of the playoff
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the 2021 World Blitz Championship on the playoff against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda with a score of 2-1. Alireza Firouzja tied on the first place, but as in the World Rapid Championship, the Iranian-French GM was left out of the finals, due to FIDE’s rules.
The 2021 World Blitz Championship is over with MVL dethroning Carlsen, and with Duda and Firouzja winning second and third place accordingly. MVL had a great tournament, scoring 15/21, and winning Levon Aronian, Erigaisi Arjun, and the defending Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Alireza Firouzja was among the first people to congratulate his French teammate Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on winning the World Blitz Championship, despite the feeling of injustice.
The defending World Blitz Champion didn’t get even close to defending his title. With six defeats against Bartosz Socko, Vladimir Fedoseev, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Anish Giri, Alexander Grischuk, and the current Blitz Champion MVL, Carlsen “was nowhere close to the level he needed to be today”
The Norwegian GM didn’t only lose the title but also his #1 spot on the blitz ranking. On this matter, he stated: “It’s very deserved after this performance here, but obviously I am not happy about it.”
On the other hand, one great surprise of the Blitz Championship was the Indian Erigaisi Arjun, who showed extraordinary skills, and gave a memorable blitz show. Arjun is an 18-year-old GM, who is considered the new rising stars of India, and along with the 17-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov show the way for the young generation.
