Congrats to Sergey Karjakin for Becoming World Rapid Chess Champion 2012 in Astana

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

World Rapid Chess Champion 2012 
Sergey Karjakin of Russia

Congratulations to Russia's Sergey Karjakin for winning the World Rapid Chess Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan a few minutes back. In the end, it was the steady performance, the cool head, and the pure chess that counted. Karjakin put his overnight loss to Magnus Carlsen behind him and went on to win the World Championship a full point ahead of World No. 1 Carlsen!

It appeared that Magnus Carlsen would run away with the title particularly after he finished Day 2 1.5 points ahead of the field. But, as the stats pointed out, he had not yet played the stalwarts. The third day was a self-destruct for him. He began the third day with a win over Ismagambetov, but went in for two straight losses against Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Grischuk.

The next draw against Radjabov put him out of contention for the title. In the final round, he might have even lost the silver medal had Veselin Topalov not missed the endgame win. Eventually, the silver went to Carlsen and the bronze went to Topalov.

The World Blitz Chess Championship 2012 would be held on Monday and Tuesday in Astana with 15 chess games played each day.

Final standings
1 GM Karjakin, Sergey RUS 11.5
2 GM Carlsen, Magnus NOR 10.5
3 GM Topalov, Veselin BUL 9.5
4 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 9.5
5 GM Grischuk, Alexander RUS 9
6 GM Gelfand, Boris ISR 8
7 GM Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 7.5
8 GM Svidler, Peter RUS 7.5
9 GM Radjabov, Teimour AZE 7.5
10 GM Dreev, Aleksey RUS 7
11 GM Morozevich, Alexander RUS 6.5
12 GM Bologan, Viktor MDA 6
13 GM Kurnosov, Igor RUS 6
14 GM Kazhgaleyev, Murtas KAZ 6
15 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA 4.5
16 GM Ismagambetov, Anuar KAZ 3.5

World Rapid Results day 3
11
Bologan, Viktor - Svidler, Peter ½-½
Dreev, Aleksey - Kazhgaleyev, Murtas 0-1
Grischuk, Alexander - Tkachiev, Vladislav 1-0
Ismagambetov, Anuar - Carlsen, Magnus 0-1
Karjakin, Sergey - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1-0
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Radjabov, Teimour ½-½
Morozevich, Alexander - Kurnosov, Igor 1-0
Topalov, Veselin - Gelfand, Boris ½-½
12
Carlsen, Magnus - Ivanchuk, Vassily 0-1
Gelfand, Boris - Morozevich, Alexander 1-0
Ismagambetov, Anuar - Grischuk, Alexander 0-1
Kazhgaleyev, Murtas - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 0-1
Kurnosov, Igor - Bologan, Viktor 0-1
Radjabov, Teimour - Karjakin, Sergey 0-1
Svidler, Peter - Dreev, Aleksey 1-0
Tkachiev, Vladislav - Topalov, Veselin 1-0
13
Bologan, Viktor - Gelfand, Boris 0-1
Dreev, Aleksey - Kurnosov, Igor ½-½
Grischuk, Alexander - Carlsen, Magnus 1-0
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Radjabov, Teimour 1-0
Karjakin, Sergey - Kazhgaleyev, Murtas 1-0
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Svidler, Peter 0-1
Morozevich, Alexander - Tkachiev, Vladislav ½-½
Topalov, Veselin - Ismagambetov, Anuar ½-½
14
Carlsen, Magnus - Radjabov, Teimour ½-½
Gelfand, Boris - Dreev, Aleksey 1-0
Grischuk, Alexander - Topalov, Veselin 0-1
Ismagambetov, Anuar - Morozevich, Alexander ½-½
Kazhgaleyev, Murtas - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1-0
Kurnosov, Igor - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 0-1
Svidler, Peter - Karjakin, Sergey 0-1
Tkachiev, Vladislav - Bologan, Viktor 0-1
15
Bologan, Viktor - Ismagambetov, Anuar ½-½
Dreev, Aleksey - Tkachiev, Vladislav 1-0
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Svidler, Peter 1-0
Karjakin, Sergey - Kurnosov, Igor ½-½
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Gelfand, Boris 1-0
Morozevich, Alexander - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½
Radjabov, Teimour - Kazhgaleyev, Murtas 1-0
Topalov, Veselin - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½




Chess King game links to check out
World Chess Rapid: Grischuk Hands Carlsen 2nd Loss of Event
World Chess Rapid: Grischuk Hands Carlsen 2nd Loss of Event
Sunday Chess Smash: Carlsen Loses to Ivanchuk at Astana World Rapid Chess
World Chess Rapid Day 2: Topalov Double Sac versus Radjabov
World Chess Rapid 2012 Round 10: Carlsen Grinds Down Karjakin in Close Endgame
World Rapid Chess Championship 2012: Karjakin Powerplay Against Gelfand
Chess Blog Day reports

World Chess (Rapid) Day 2: Magnus Carlsen Bulldozes Ahead for 1.5 Point Lead
World Chess Championship 2012 in Rapid Day 1: Karjakin, Carlsen Lead after 5 Rounds

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

Rapid, Blitz World Chess Regulations Approved: GM Sutovsky

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The latest chess news update about the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship to be held in Kazakhstan is that the regulations are in place and the prize fund is now $400,000.

This was announced by Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) president GM Emil Sutovsky during an interview with Chess-News. GM Sutovsky also spoke about several important decisions made during the FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Elista. "At last, the regulations were approved about the Rapid and Blitz World Championships to be held in Kazakhstan between 24 June and 1 July. I think it's great that it was possible to attract a serious prize fund of $400,000. As a person who is involved in writing the regulations for these championships (there were discussions about how many people should be invited according to their rating and how many selected), I always have the view that in these kind of tournaments there should be as many places as possible available for a selection, since it's not quite right to invite everyone according to their rating and provide 1-2 places for the selection. That's because, first of all, the official rating is for classical chess, while it's not quite clear why there must be invitations for the rapid and blitz tournaments according to the rating. At the end, a compromise decision was reached: there will be selection to the rapid and blitz tournaments. There will be six places selected for the rapid and five for the blitz. That's because one place in blitz is reserved for the previous World Championship winner, while there hasn't been a championship like that in the rapid before. Therefore, there will be sixteen participants [in each type of tournament] who will include five in the blitz and six in the rapid selected."

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com