World Mind Games: Karjakin & Hou Win the Blitz

Sergey Karjakin of Russia won the blitz tournament of the World Mind Games in Beijing, China. He finished with the same score (19.5 out of 30 games) as Levon Aronian of Armenia, but won their individual match 1.5-0.5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France came third as he edged out Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan on the same tiebreak: individual encounter. World Champion Hou Yifan won the women's section ahead of Valentina Gunina and Anna Muzychuk.

After the rapid tournament, won by Wang Yue and Valentina Gunina, the same players took on a faster time control. From Saturday till Monday blitz was played in in the Chinese capital, with a time control of 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. The tournament was a double round robin consisting of 30 double rounds; the players were meeting each opponent twice, with both colors.

After the first day Levon Aronian and Valentina Gunina were leading. Aronian won eight games, drew one and lost one while Gunina won eight and lost two. Here are some nice games from Saturday:

Do you see the win for Black in the next one?

The following game would turn out the be very important for the overall outcome of the tournament.

On Saturday Aronian suffered an early loss to Nepomniachtchi:

Later on the world's #2 in classical play won an instructive ending against Wang Hao:

But at the end of the day Aronian collapsed, and lost two games in a row. In the first he was outplayed by Ivanchuk:

It was Mamedyarov who finished the second day as the leader. He won a nice game against Karjakin, who probably thought he had trapped the black rook. Do you see what Mamedyarov had in mind?

Le Quang Liem is also known as a strong blitz player, and he was in second place after day 2. Do you see how he decided his game with Mamedyarov?

Karjakin was 1.5 points behind Mamedyarov on Sunday night, but an excellent 7.0/10 on Sunday was enough to win the tournament. The Russian GM finished shared first with Aronian, but received the first prize as he had won the mini-match 1.5-0.5. The following game was one of Karjakin's best:

World Mind Games 2013 | Blitz | Final Standings

World Champion Hou Yifan won the women's section ahead of Valentina Gunina and Anna Muzychuk. In the last round, Gunina needed to win to finish on the same number of points, but lost instead:

Elisabeth Paehtz won a standard attacking game for the Nimzowitsch/Larsen Opening:

World Mind Games 2013 | Blitz (Women) | Final Standings

The sixth edition of the World Mind Games, the third organized by SportAccord, takes place 12-20 December, 2013 in Beijing, China. This multi-sport event includes five mind sports: bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi (Chinese chess). 

After the rapid and blitz tournaments, on Tuesday and Wednesday a new event will be held that replaces the blindfold event: the "Basque system". Just like at the tournament in San Sebastian of two years ago, the players will be facing each other with two boards at the same time - one with white and one with black. Each player will have 20 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

More info at the tournament website.