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2021 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship: All The Information

2021 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship: All The Information

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The 2021 World Rapid & Blitz Championship and Women's Rapid & Blitz Championship are elite events organized by FIDE to determine the best players in fast time controls in the world. The championship gathered national champions and grandmaster-level players from around the globe to compete in two Swiss tournaments for their piece of the $1 million prize fund. The event ran from December 26 through December 30.

The young GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov was crowned the champion of the 2021 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship tournament in the open section. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won her first Women's World Rapid Chess Championship title after coming in second in 2012, 2014, and 2016.

In the faster time control, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won his first world championship title during the 2021 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship. IM Bibisara Assaubayeva also won her first world blitz champion title after winning the Women's World Blitz Championship.


Broadcast

The games were broadcast live on Chess.com/TV and on our Twitch and YouTube channels, with legendary GMs Jon Ludvig Hammer and Irina Krush providing expert commentary. You can also check the most important details of the championships by going to our Events page: World Rapid | World Blitz | Women's World Rapid | Women's World Blitz.

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz hosts

Players

The best players in the world gathered to compete for the title of rapid, blitz, women's rapid, and women's blitz world champion. Top players like world champion GM Magnus Carlsen and the young prodigy GM Alireza Firouzja played in the event.

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz top open rapid participants

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz top blitz open participants

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz top rapid women participants

2021 World Rapid And Blitz Top Women Blitz Participants

Below you can find the requirements to enter the competition.

Open

  • Players rated at least 2550 in any FIDE rating lists (classical, rapid, or blitz) from January 1 to December 1, 2021
  • The reigning national champions representing their national federation
  • Invitation from the event organizer (up to 15 players)

Women's

  • Players rated at least 2250 in any FIDE rating lists (classical, rapid, or blitz) from January 1 to December 1, 2021
  • The reigning national champions representing their national federation
  • Invitation from the event organizer (up to 15 players)

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz qualification eligibility

Standings

Rapid Standings

2021 World Rapid Chess Championship Open Standings

2021 World Rapid Championship Women Standings

Blitz Standings

2021 World Blitz Chess Championship Open Standings

2021 Women's World Chess Championship Standings

Schedule

The opening ceremony of the event happened on December 25, while games started on December 26 and ended on December 30.

Date Event Los Angeles New York London Paris Warsaw Moscow New Delhi Beijing
Dec 26 Rapid: Day 1 6:00 9:00 14:00 15:00 15:00 17:00 19:30 22:00
Dec 27 Rapid: Day 2 6:00 9:00 14:00 15:00 15:00 17:00 19:30 22:00
Dec 28 Rapid: Day 3 6:00 9:00 14:00 15:00 15:00 17:00 19:30 22:00
Dec 29 Blitz: Day 1 6:00 9:00 14:00 15:00 15:00 17:00 19:30 22:00
Dec 30 Blitz: Day 2 5:00 8:00 13:00 14:00 14:00 16:00 18:30 21:00

2021 World Rapid and Blitz Schedule

Format

Pairings And Seeding

  • The FIDE Swiss pairing system determined the pairings
  • Colors for both tournaments were drawn during the opening ceremony

Rapid

  • A 13-round Swiss tournament determined the open section champion
  • An 11-round Swiss tournament determined the women's champion
  • The time control was 15+10
  • Players earned 1 point for each win, 0.5 points for each draw, and 0 points for each loss
  • The player with the most points by the end of the Swiss tournament became the World Rapid Champion

Blitz

  • A 21-round Swiss tournament determined the open section champion
  • A 17-round Swiss tournament determined the women's champion
  • The time control was 3+2
  • Players earned 1 point for each win, 0.5 points for each draw, and 0 points for each loss
  • The player with the most points by the end of the Swiss tournament became the World Blitz Champion

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Format Swiss System

Tiebreaks

  • If two or more players scored the same amount of points, the following criteria broke the tie (except for first-place ties), in order of priority:
    1. Buchholz Cut 1
    2. Buchholz
    3. Average Rating of Opponents Cut 1 (AROC 1)*
    4. Direct encounter between the tied players
    5. Drawing of lots

First-place Tiebreaks

  • If there was a tie for first place, the top two players according to the tiebreak criterion described above would proceed to a play-off mini-match consisting of two 3+2 blitz games to decide the champion, with a draw of lots deciding the colors
  • If the score was still tied after the mini-match, players would play 3+2 blitz games until a decisive result occurs. The top player according to the tiebreak criterion described above would start with White, and colors would alternate after each game.

Prizes

The 2021 World Rapid & Blitz and Women's World Rapid & Blitz had a $1,000,000.00 prize fund, distributed according to the tables below:

Open

Place World Rapid World Blitz
1st $60,000 $60,000
2nd $50,000 $50,000
3rd $40,000 $40,000
4th $30,000 $30,000
5th $25,000 $25,000
6th $22,000 $22,000
7th $18,000 $18,000
8th $14,000 $14,000
9th $11,000 $11,000
10th $8,000 $8,000
11th-16th $5,000 each $5,000 each
17th-25th $3,000 each $3,000 each
26th-35th $1,500 each $1,500 each
Total: $350,000 $350,000

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Prizes Open Section

Women's

Place Women's World Rapid Women's World Blitz
1st $40,000 $40,000
2nd $30,000 $30,000
3rd $20,000 $20,000
4th $15,000 $15,000
5th $10,000 $10,000
6th $7,000 $7,000
7th $6,000 $6,000
8th $5,000 $5,000
9th $4,000 $4,000
10th $3,000 $3,000
11th-15th $2,000 each $2,000 each
Total: $150,000 $150,000

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Prizes Women Section

Location

Initially planned to be held in Kazakhstan, the 2021 World Blitz & Rapid Championship's location had to be changed to Warsaw, Poland.

Previous Champions

Open Champions (Since 2012)

Year Rapid Champion Blitz Champion
2012 Sergey Karjakin Alexander Grischuk
2013 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Le Quang Liem
2014 Magnus Carlsen Magnus Carlsen
2015 Magnus Carlsen Alexander Grischuk
2016 Vassily Ivanchuk Sergey Karjakin
2017 Viswanathan Anand Magnus Carlsen
2018 Daniil Dubov Magnus Carlsen
2019 Magnus Carlsen Magnus Carlsen

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz previous rapid champions

2021 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz previous blitz champions open

Women's Champions (Since 2012)

Year Rapid Champion Blitz Champion
2012 Antoaneta Stefanova Valentina Gunina
2014 Kateryna Lagno Anna Muzychuk
2016 Anna Muzychuk Anna Muzychuk
2017 Ju Wenjun Nana Dzagnidze
2018 Ju Wenjun Kateryna Lagno
2019 Humpy Koneru Kateryna Lagno

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