World Rapid & Blitz, Day 4: Early separation.

Day 4 is the first day of the World Blitz Championship: 13 rounds of 3+2 in the Open, 11 rounds in the Women’s, and the top 8 players will qualify for the knockout bracket on December 31st.

After the 7th round, Fabiano Caruana has a full-point lead at a perfect 7/7 score, riding the high of his official Candidates qualification. He’s beaten Hans Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi, and Alireza Firouzja – and it looks like he’ll have a matchup with Magnus Carlsen next. Magnus is at 6/7, drawing Benjamin Bok and Sam Shankland but otherwise perfect. Ten players are tied for third at 5.5/7.

In the Women’s, Vaishali Rameshbabu has taken the sole lead at 6.5/7 after a win over Nana Dzagnidze. Valentina Gunina is second at 6/7, followed by a group of players at 5.5/7.

There are six more rounds to play in the Open, and four in the Women’s. You can follow all the day’s action on Lichess, or the chess24 livestream with GM Jan Gustafsson and FM James Canty.