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TheWorld Blitz Chess Championship is achess tournament held to determine the world champion inchess played underblitztime controls. Since 2012,FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. The current world blitz champion title is shared by the NorwegianGrandmasterMagnus Carlsen and Russian GrandmasterIan Nepomniachtchi.Ju Wenjun fromChina is the current women's blitz world champion.Magnus Carlsen has held the title a record eight times.
Starting in the early 1900s, chess clubs began to play tournaments played at accelerated time controls; these early games usually required a set number of moves from each player within a certain time interval. One of the earliest examples was the local chess club atHastings, England, where 10 seconds were allowed per move during a blitz tournament held after the 1904 British Chess Championship. By 1950, the time controls had changed to the more familiar 5 minutes per player (now 3 minutes), hence the "5-minute game" moniker. The term "blitz chess" would not be coined until the 1960s.[1]
The first blitz chess tournament to be recognized by FIDE as a "world championship" took place on 6 September 2006 inRishon Lezion, Israel. Structured as a 16-player round-robin, the tournament featured seven of the world's top 20 Grandmasters, as well as a youngMagnus Carlsen. After 15 rounds,Alexander Grischuk andPeter Svidler finished atop the leaderboard with 10½/15; Grischuk subsequently defeated Svidler with Black in anarmageddon game to win the championship.[2] The following year, the tournament (now branded as the FIDE World Blitz Cup) was held in Moscow, Russia following theTal Memorial tournament and was re-structured as a 20-player double-round robin with a significantly stronger field. After Ukrainian grandmasterVasyl Ivanchuk and Indian grandmasterViswanathan Anand entered the final round tied on points, Ivanchuk defeated Anand from a disadvantaged position to win the tournament with 25½/38.[3]
In 2008, the championship reverted to a 16-player round-robin. Despite a late charge from the defending champion Ivanchuk, who won seven of the final eight rounds, the tournament was won byLeinier Domínguez, a 25-year-old GM from Cuba who scored 11½/15 to edge out Ivanchuk by a half-point.[4] In 2009, the championship returned to Moscow, where the format was once again switched to a 22-player double round-robin with revised time controls of 3 minutes per player plus a 2-second increment. The event was won by the young Norwegianchess prodigyMagnus Carlsen, who finished three points clear of the field with 31/42 and went 8/8 against the 2nd through 5th-place finishers.[5]
2010 would prove to be the final year of the event – hosted again in Moscow, the tournament was dubbed the VI World Blitz 2010 and held immediately after theTal Memorial tournament. Despite losing both his final games,Armenian GrandmasterLevon Aronian was able to clinch the title with 24½/38, half a point ahead ofTeimour Radjabov.[6] In November 2010, a nine-round Swiss tournament was scheduled for February 17, 2011, to serve as a qualifying event for the World Blitz Championship 2011; however, after no bids for the event were made the tournament was eventually cancelled.[7]
| Year | Host city | Champion | Runner-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 |  Rishon Lezion |  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) | Peter Svidler (RUS) |  Teimour Radjabov (AZE) |
| 2007 | Moscow |  Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) |  Viswanathan Anand (IND) | Alexander Grischuk (RUS) |
| 2008 |  Almaty |  Leinier Domínguez (CUB) | Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) | Peter Svidler (RUS) |
| 2009 | Moscow |  Magnus Carlsen (NOR) | Viswanathan Anand (IND) | Sergey Karjakin (RUS) |
| 2010 | Moscow |  Levon Aronian (ARM) | Teimour Radjabov (AZE) | Magnus Carlsen (NOR) |
On May 31, 2012, FIDE announced the inaugural World Rapid & Blitz Championships, set to take place inAstana,Kazakhstan, from July 1 to 11. The 2012 tournament consisted of a qualifying round, followed by the rapid and blitz events held consecutively over five days. The championship was originally structured as a 16-playerround-robin tournament, set to coincide with the first release of FIDE's rapid and blitz ratings in July 2012; invited were the top 9 players in the FIDE ratings list, the defending championLevon Aronian, the three medalists of the qualification competition, and three wild-card nominees by the organization committee and FIDE.[8] The event has since been changed to aSwiss tournament with a field of over 100 grandmasters. The top three finishers in the standings are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively; tiebreaks are determined by the average rating of opponents.[9]
The World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2020 was postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] It was planned to be held inKazakhstan in December 2021; however, due to new regulations imposed by the Kazakh government, which would have required many participants to quarantine, the event had to be cancelled again on December 8, 2021. FIDE was considering to either hold the event in Kazakhstan in 2022, or to move it to a different host country.[11] On December 10, 2021,Warsaw, Poland was announced as the new host city, with the tournament taking place from December 25–30, 2021.[12]
On 8 April 1970, following theUSSR vs. Rest of the World 'Match of the Century' hosted inBelgrade, Yugoslavia, a blitz tournament was held inHerceg Novi, featuring many of the same participants from the match. The event was a 12-player double round-robin, with no tiebreaks and five minutes per player. Featuring four World Champions, the field was considered the strongest of any blitz tournament in modern history. Heading into the event, two-time World Champion Tigran Petrosian was considered the favorite to win the event, with Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi also enjoying favorable chances.[23]
It wasAmerican grandmaster Bobby Fischer, however, who put up a dominant performance, scoring 19/22 to win the tournament by 4½ points. Fischer scored 8½/10 against the five Soviet grandmasters in attendance, losing only one game in the entire tournament[citation needed] and frequently gaining huge time advantages.[citation needed] According to one report, Fischer spent no more than 2.5 minutes on any game.[24] At the end of the tournament, runner-up Tal gave his thoughts on the American's performance.
"I don’t know what Petrosian, Korchnoi, Bronstein, and Smyslov counted on before the start of the tournament, but I expected them to be the most probable rivals for the top prizes. Fischer had until recently played fast chess none too strongly. Now much has changed: he is fine at fast chess. His playing is of the same kind as in tournament games: everything is simple, follows a single pattern, logical, and without any spectacular effects. He makes his moves quickly and practically without errors. Throughout the tournament I think he did not lose a whole set of pieces in this way. Fischer's result is very, very impressive."[25]
| Rk | Player | Rtg | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Bobby Fischer (USA) | 2720 | 19 |
| 2 |  Mikhail Tal (URS) | 2590 | 14½ |
| 3 | Viktor Korchnoi (URS) | 2670 | 14 |
| 4 | Tigran Petrosian (URS) | 2650 | 13½ |
| 5 | David Bronstein (URS) | 2570 | 13 |
| 6 |  Vlastimil Hort (CSR) | 2610 | 12 |
| 7 |  Milan Matulović (YUG) | 2560 | 10½ |
| 8 | Vasily Smyslov (URS) | 2620 | 9½ |
| 9 | Samuel Reshevsky (USA) | 2590 | 8½ |
| 10 |  Wolfgang Uhlmann (GDR) | 2570 | 8 |
| 11 | Borislav Ivkov (YUG) | 2570 | 7½ |
| 12 | Predrag Ostojić (YUG) | 2430 | 2 |
Following the Candidates' matches for the 1988 cycle, a World Blitz Championship was hosted inSaint John, New Brunswick, Canada, on 19 February 1988. The event was a 32-player single-elimination tournament, with pairings determined by best-of-four matches. The field was headlined by long-time rivals Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, with the former considered the favorite to win the tournament. Notable participants included:
Garry Kasparov (URS), 2750 Anatoly Karpov (URS), 2715 Mikhail Tal (URS), 2630 Rafael Vaganian (URS), 2625
Jon Speelman (ENG), 2625 Artur Yusupov (URS), 2620 Yasser Seirawan (USA), 2595
Kiril Georgiev (BUL), 2595 Valery Salov (URS), 2595 Jaan Ehlvest (URS), 2585
Kevin Spraggett (CAN), 2580 Alexander Chernin (URS), 2560 Jesús Nogueiras (CUB), 2560 Maxim Dlugy (USA), 2550
Margeir Pétursson (ISL), 2540 Michael Wilder (USA), 2535 Roman Dzindzichashvili (URS), 2530 Branko Damljanović (YUG), 2525 Helgi Ólafsson (ISL), 2510 Igor Ivanov (CAN), 2505 Aivars Gipslis (URS), 2505
Attila Grószpéter (HUN), 2495 Bogdan Lalić (YUG), 2495 Joseph Gallagher (ENG), 2480Former world champion Anatoly Karpov fell out of contention for the championship in just the second round, after dropping his first two games against fellow Soviet grandmaster Alexander Chernin. Reigning world champion Garry Kasparov steamed ahead into the quarterfinals but lost momentum after missing an elementary mate in two againstBulgarian grandmaster Kiril Georgiev, instead blundering stalemate;[26] a stunned Kasparov was subsequently knocked out of the tournament. In the final, Mikhail Tal clinched the championship with a 3½–½ victory overArmenian grandmaster Rafael Vaganian.[27][28]
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||
| Garry Kasparov | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Kiril Georgiev | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Kiril Georgiev | 3½ | |||||||||||||
| Rafael Vaganian | 4½ | |||||||||||||
| Rafael Vaganian | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Michael Wilder | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Rafael Vaganian | ½ | |||||||||||||
| Mikhail Tal | 3½ | |||||||||||||
| Jaan Ehlvest | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Alexander Chernin | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Alexander Chernin | 1½ | |||||||||||||
| Mikhail Tal | 2½ | |||||||||||||
| Mikhail Tal | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Artur Jussupow | 0 | |||||||||||||
Mikhail Tal, the 51-year-old former World Champion, breezed through the final rounds with 5½/6. Joining him in the finals was Rafael Vaganian, who survived a controversial semifinal against Kiril Georgiev; the Armenian nearly punched his clock after making an illegal move in Game 2, an accusation that was eventually refuted after match officials resorted to a video review and found that Vaganian's hand had stopped just short of touching the clock. The final was a one-sided affair, with Tal repeatedly utilizing exchange sacrifices to find winning combinations; down 3–0 after three games, Vaganian offered his hand in the 4th game to concede the match to Tal. After the match, Tal claimed he took the event "none too seriously"; he chain-smoked throughout the tournament, and his "preparation" for the semifinal match against Chernin reportedly consisted of a double scotch.[29][30]
| Name | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Tal (URS) | 2630 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3½ |
| Rafael Vaganian (URS) | 2625 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ |
ThePlus GSM World Blitz Cup was a 367-playerSwiss-system tournament held inWarsaw, Poland, on 9 January 2000. Hosted at the Warsaw Polonia Chess Club, the event consisted of 11 rounds, with each match comprising two 5-minute games for a total of 22 games per player. Indian grandmasterVishwanathan Anand, the tournament's No. 1 seed, triumphed over a strong field that included 70 Grandmasters[31] and nine of the world's top-20 ranked players with a 17½/22 score. Anand's run saw him pick up 14 wins, 7 draws, and only 1 loss, highlighted by a 43-move win with the black pieces againstAnatoly Karpov.[32] The tournament's sponsor,Plus GSM, set aside a $30,500 prize fund for the event as well asNokia mobile communicators to be given to the top four finishers and the two top Polish players.[33][34]
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 |          | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
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| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| Rk | Player | Rtg | Pts | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viswanathan Anand (IND) | 2769 | 17½ | 137½ | 166 | 114½ |
| 2 | Boris Gelfand (ISR) | 2692 | 17 | 136½ | 166 | 110 |
| 3 | Anatoly Karpov (RUS) | 2696 | 17 | 136 | 164 | 114½ |
| 4 | Vladimir Akopian (ARM) | 2660 | 17 | 132½ | 160½ | 108 |
| 5 | Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) | 2709 | 17 | 132 | 160 | 105½ |
| 6 | Michael Adams (ENG) | 2715 | 17 | 129 | 154 | 102½ |
| 7 | Vladimir Epishin (RUS) | 2667 | 17 | 125½ | 152½ | 104 |
| 8 |  Vladislav Tkachiev (FRA) | 2670 | 16½ | 134½ | 164 | 107½ |
| 9 |  Zdenko Kožul (CRO) | 2597 | 16½ | 133 | 160 | 105½ |
| 10 | Peter Svidler (RUS) | 2672 | 16½ | 132½ | 162 | 107½ |
| 11 |  Alexei Shirov (ESP) | 2751 | 16½ | 132½ | 160 | 109½ |
| 12 | Andrei Shchekachev (RUS) | 2509 | 16½ | 128½ | 157½ | 101 |
| 13 |  Mikulas Manik (SVK) | 2469 | 16½ | 128 | 156 | 104 |
| 14 | Rafael Vaganian (ARM) | 2618 | 16½ | 125½ | 153 | 99 |
| 15 |  Robert Kempiński (POL) | 2528 | 16½ | 125½ | 149½ | 102 |
| 16 | Alexey Korotylev (RUS) | 2477 | 16½ | 122 | 150½ | 103 |
| 17 | Kiril Georgiev (BUL) | 2677 | 16 | 134½ | 161 | 105 |
| 18 |  Aleksej Aleksandrov (BLR) | 2606 | 16 | 124 | 152½ | 104 |
| 19 | Sergey Kasparov (BLR) | 2465 | 16 | 123 | 150½ | 96½ |
| 20 | Paweł Blehm (POL) | 2494 | 16 | 123 | 149 | 101½ |
| Times won | Player | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Magnus Carlsen (NOR) | 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 (shared) |
| 3 | Alexander Grischuk (RUS) | 2006, 2012, 2015 |
| 1 | Bobby Fischer (USA) | 1970 |
| Mikhail Tal (USSR) | 1988 | |
| Viswanathan Anand (IND) | 2000 | |
| Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR) | 2007 | |
| Leinier Domínguez (CUB) | 2008 | |
| Levon Aronian (ARM) | 2010 | |
 Lê Quang Liêm (VIE) | 2013 | |
| Sergey Karjakin (RUS) | 2016 | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) | 2021 | |
 Ian Nepomniachtchi[n 1] (FIDE) | 2024 (shared) |
| Titles won | Player | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Kateryna Lagno(UKR / RUS) | 2010, 2018, 2019 |
| 2 |  Anna Muzychuk(SLO / UKR) | 2014, 2016 |
| Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) | 2021, 2022 | |
| Valentina Gunina[n 1](RUS / FIDE) | 2012, 2023 | |
| 1 | Zsuzsa Polgár (HUN) | 1992 |
 Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) | 2017 | |
 Ju Wenjun (CHN) | 2024 |
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