Fabi & Erigaisi showdown lights up World Rapid & Blitz, New York

While all the top Grandmasters are lining up in the 2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships at New York, the spotlight is likely to settle down largely on GMs Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Arjun Erigaisi (India). The stakes for this duo are entirely different from the rest.

The eye of the needle is pointing to the FIDE Candidates spot wherein a mere 6.02 circuit points separate both. Fabiano leads with 130.42 points followed by Erigaisi at 124.40 with Abdusattorov way behind third at 108.49 points. The only way for Erigaisi Arjun to seal the Candidates spot through the FIDE circuit points this year is by winning the world rapid title. A stiff task, by any measure, but not beyond the Indian pro.

NASDAQ-listed Freedom Holding will be sponsoring this edition scheduled at CIPRANI, 55 Wall Street in New York’s financial district from December 26–31, 2024. Top seed Magnus Carlsen has been showing ominous form grabbing all that came his way in the last few months, viz., three titles in Asia and one in Europe. Retaining his world rapid and blitz titles from 2023 in the American continent would be a nice feather in the Norwegian’s cap. But do not forget, the hungry speed lion Hikaru Nakamura who would like to take home a title or two having been dominant in rapid and blitz chess for long. 

Few other who would be standing in the way of G.O.A.T Magnus taking home yet another world title are Firouzja, Alireza & Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (both France), Abdusattorov, Nodirbek (Uzbekistan), Duda, Jan-Krzysztof (Poland), Praggnanandhaa, R & Erigaisi, Arjun (both India) and Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (Azerbaijan) to name a few.

In the Women’s section, current World Champion Ju Wenjun leads the pack and is joined by former world champions Tan Zhongyi, Mariya Muzychuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Zhu Chen. The combined list of Grandmasters in both the sections makes it the strongest event ever to be held on US soil. The Open section runs for three days viz., 26, 27, 28 December while the Blitz runs on 30 & 31st December. 

The Open section in the rapids will have 13 rounds with Women having a total of 11 rounds. Time control shall be 15 minutes with 10-second increment per move.The Blitz has a new – two-stage – format in both the Open and Women’s section. On the first day of the Blitz, the Open tournament will have 13 rounds, while it will be 11 rounds for the Women’s section. The time control shall be three minutes plus a 2-second increment per move. On the second day, 31st December, the top 8 players from each section will play a knockout for the world blitz title.

The rest day in the middle of the event on 29th December, 2024 is set to host Wall Street Gambit, a Chess and Finance Conference. The one day seminar offers an opportunity to play blitz against chess legends Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana at a lock in price of USD 5000. It further includes finance and tech world speakers viz., Boaz Weinstein, D. Sculley and Kenneth Rogoff delivering keynote addresses on chess & finance.

“The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz are one of FIDE’s most prestigious events, showcasing the world’s top Grandmasters playing under unprecedented time pressure. The fast-paced nature of the Rapid and the Blitz, coupled with big audiences, live-stream and a global viewership measured in millions, make this a thrilling and engaging event for chess fans and newcomers to the game. We are grateful to Freedom Holding and other long standing partners for their support for our sport”, said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. 

“We are thrilled to sponsor one of the world’s most prestigious chess events and honored to play a part in bringing top-level chess to a global hub of business and culture like New York,” said Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp.

The week between Christmas & New Year has been offering mouth-watering bonanza for chess enthusiasts world over for the last several years. This year, 2024, has so far been the year of India with the Olympiad and individual titles going its way in Budapest and Singapore respectively. A strong Indian contingent led by Arjun Erigaisi would wish to extend the stronghold of India completing the year in a grand manner.

The rapid event starts on Thursday, December 26 with the opening ceremony at 1 PM E.T. The games start at 2 PM E.T. in the Open section and at 2.15 PM E.T. in the Women’s section.

Official Site: https://worldrapidandblitz2024.fide.com/

LIVE broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/@FIDE_chess