2024 World Blitz – A Format Shake-Up

World Blitz Championship is a chess tournament organized by FIDE at the end of every year and is truly the ultimate test of speed chess!

Chess is a growing sport and the organizers are consciously trying to implement methods to make the game more exciting for the audience while keeping the so-called “sanity” intact. Hence, the importance of speed chess formats is higher than ever.

FIDE has introduced a major change in format for the World Blitz Championship, which is set to take place with backdrop of the iconic Wall Street, New York this year along with the Rapid Championship.

The tournament goes back to 2006 when it was officially conducted under FIDE for the first time, as a 16-player round-robin. The tournament then transitioned to a Swiss format, providing more players with the opportunity to play for absolute speed chess glory. Till 2023, World Blitz was being played as a 21-round swiss event – FIDE has decided to introduce a knockout phase following a 13-round swiss (11 for the women’s event). Based on the final standings of the swiss section, 8 players will qualify to the knockout phase, featuring 4-game matches.

“This is not only much more exciting but also will allow for the direct match-ups of the strongest players to decide the winners”, says the FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky.
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen has won the last 5/6 World Blitz titles!

We are likely to witness some of the best speed chess players in the world competing for the titles in New York and it remains to be seen if we will witness a new speed chess star rising with the change in format this year!