FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Champs 2012
The finals of the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships start Friday 6 July in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The time control for the rapid championships is 15 minutes plus 10 second increment, and the time control for the blitz championship is 3 minutes plus 2 second increment.
Qualifying events took place from 2 - 4 July to earn a place with the big guns and local players in the final. Alexey Dreev, Igor Kurnosov and Vladislav Tkachiev qualified for the rapid finals, while Dmitry Andreikin, Le Quang Liem and Nikolai Chadaev qualified for the blitz finals. Unfortunately no game scores from the qualifiers are available.
The finals will be 16-player round robin events (double round robin for the blitz) and the line-ups look like this:
| Rapid Championship | Elo | Blitz Championship | Elo | |
| Magnus Carlsen | 2837 | Magnus Carlsen | 2837 | |
| Teimour Radjabov | 2788 | Teimour Radjabov | 2788 | |
| Sergey Karjakin | 2779 | Sergey Karjakin | 2779 | |
| Alexander Morozevich | 2770 | Alexander Morozevich | 2770 | |
| Vassily Ivanchuk | 2769 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 2769 | |
| Alexander Grischuk | 2763 | Alexander Grischuk | 2763 | |
| Veselin Topalov | 2752 | Veselin Topalov | 2752 | |
| Peter Svidler | 2749 | Peter Svidler | 2749 | |
| Boris Gelfand | 2738 | Boris Gelfand | 2738 | |
| Viktor Bologan | 2732 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2732 | |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2726 | Dmitry Andreikin | 2700 | |
| Alexey Dreev | 2677 | Le Quang Liem | 2693 | |
| Igor Kurnosov | 2663 | Darmen Sadvakasov | 2629 | |
| Vladislav Tkachiev | 2644 | Nikolai Chadaev | 2580 | |
| Murtas Kazhgaleyev | 2589 | Pavel Kotsur | 2548 | |
| Anuar Ismagambetov | 2471 | Rinat Jumabayev | 2525 |
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The schedule:
| Date | Event | Round |
| 5 July | Opening Ceremony | |
| 6 July | Rapid Finals | 1-5 |
| 7 July | Rapid Finals | 6-10 |
| 8 July | Rapid Finals | 11-15 |
| 9 July | Blitz Finals | 1-15 |
| 10 July | Blitz Finals | 16-30 |
| 11 July | Departure |
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The total prize funds are $200,000 for the rapid championships, and another $200,000 for the blitz championship (see distribution below).
| Place | Prize |
| Winner | $40,000 |
| 2nd place | $33,000 |
| 3rd place | $27,500 |
| 4th place | $22,500 |
| 5th place | $18,000 |
| 6th place | $14,000 |
| 7th place | $12,000 |
| 8th place | $10,000 |
| 9th place | $7,000 |
| 10th place | $4,000 |
| 11th-16th place | $2,000 each |
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Games start at 15:00 local time (09:00 UTC) and the live coverage at the official website is available here.
