With the World Chess Championship wrapped up in Singapore, the FIDE is now set to organise the World Rapid and Blitz Championship. The tournament will be held from December 26 (early December 27 in India) to December 31 (early January 1 in India) in New York. D Gukesh, fresh from becoming the youngest-ever world chess champion, has decided to skip the Rapid and Blitz C’ship, and he will be back in action next year.

Ding Liren, who lost to Gukesh in Singapore, will participate in the tournament, and fans will also get to see defending rapid and blitz champion Magnus Carlsen in action.

For India in the Open section, we will see the likes of Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggananandhaa in action. Meanwhile, the Women’s section will have the likes of Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali in action.

Format

The Rapid Championship will employ a Swiss system. Players are not eliminated in this format after losses, and are re-paired in each round to play against opponents with a similar score. Each player gets 13 rounds in the open section, and 11 in the women’s section. The player with the highest score wins.

Meanwhile, the Blitz Championship will have 13 for Open and 11 rounds for Women. The top-eight after stage 1 go to stage 2, will have a traditional knockout format, leading to a winner.

Full list of Indians in action at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2024

Open Section-

Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggananandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani, Sandipan Chanda, Aravaindh Chithambaram, Harsha Bharathakoti, Pranav V, Bharath Subramaniyam, Diptayan Ghosh, Karthik Venkataraman

Women’s Section-

Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, R Vaishali, Vantika Agrawal, Sahithi Varshini, Padmini Rout, Priyanka Nutakki

Schedule (in IST)

Schedule for Rapid Championship-

December 27

Round 1 – 12:30 AM

Round 2 – 1:50 AM

Round 3 – 3:10 AM

Round 4 – 4:30 AM

Round 5 – 5:50 AM

December 28

Round 6, 7, 8, 9 in same time slots as previous day, except for the final slot.

December 29

Round 10, 11, 12, 13 in same time slots.

Schedule for Blitz Championship-

December 31

Round 1 – 12.30 AM

Round 2 – 1.00 AM

Round 3 – 1.30 AM

Round 4 – 2.00 AM

Round 5 – 2.30 AM

Round 6 – 3.00 AM

Round 7 – 3.30 AM

Round 8 – 4.00 AM

Round 9 – 4.30 AM

Round 10 – 5.00 AM

Round 11 – 5.30 AM

Round 12 – 6.00 AM

Round 13 – 6.30 AM

January 1

Quarterfinals – 12.30 AM

Semifinals – 2.00 AM

Final – 3.30 AM

Where to watch FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2024?

The tournament will be live streamed via FIDE’s official Youtube channel.