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Friday, June 20, 2014

Unstoppable Magnus Wins World Blitz Title, Makes a Triple! Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura Joint Second

Hello chess friends, one of the coolest chess events has concluded in the deserts of Dubai. Right now what's hot? Not the temperature, but chess and, in particular, a Norwegian youngster called Magnus Carlsen!

Reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has won the World Blitz Chess Tournament 2014 to complete his portfolio of a triple - the World Rapid Chess Champion title that he won two days back in Dubai and the World Classical Chess Champion title he won last year in Chennai.

Magnus Carlsen concluded Day 1 of the World Blitz Chess Championship with 9/11 just half point ahead of Nakamura and Meier. 

Photo and text as tweeted by World Classical, Rapid and Blitz Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen -- @magnuscarlsen Thanks for all the support! So honoured to hold the classic, rapid and blitz World Champion titles. #chess #WRB2014

Carlsen started Day 2 well enough with a win over Georg Meier and draw with Viswanathan Anand in rounds 12 and 13. He topped it with an easy win over Judit Polgar in round 14. However, by now, Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi was getting close enough. Round 15 saw Carlsen draw with Alexander Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi beat Viswanathan Anand to take a lead!


Nepo held on to his 0.5 point lead right up to round 18. However, in the 19th round, Magnus beat Mamedov and Nepo could only draw with Korobov. Carlsen had now drawn level with his friend, the Russian GM!

The penultimate round - 20th - turned fortunes in the World Chess Champion's favour. Carlsen beat Sergei Yudin, but Nepo lost to Levon Aronian. Carlsen went into the last round with 16 points as compared to Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura's 15. Could there be a tiebreak? Could statistics jumble up everything?

Magnus Carlsen decided to leave nothing to chance and beat Anton Korobov to amass 17 points and win the title, completing a hat-trick of World Chess Championships this chess year. 

Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura also won their games to take the silver and bronze. 

You can find lots of videos and photographs on the official website of the tournament including the winner's press conference recordings. 



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