Carlsen Leads On World Blitz Chess Championship Day 1

Magnus Carlsen (Norway) played himself towards pole position on the first day of the world blitz championship in Moscow. Only Maxim Matlakov (Russia) is trailing him by just half a point with nine rounds to go on Sunday.

Kateryna Lagno leads the women's section by a full point and has excellent chances to retain the title she won last year in St. Petersburg.

Carlsen once won "the double" to hold all three titles—for classical, rapid and blitz chess—in one year. That was in 2014 in Dubai, and Garry Kasparov compared the feat to "winning tennis slams on clay, grass and hard court."

The Norwegian star has put himself in an excellent position to do it again. Except for one bad game, he continued his good form that gave him the rapid title on the previous three days and scored 10/12 today. Nine more rounds will follow tomorrow.

In a few games he got help from his opponents; for example, in round three against Salem Saleh. An Exchange Queen's Gambit Declined exploded tactically. Initially the UAE player was alert when he found his strong 21st move, but he missed a winning follow-up, lost track and dropped material quickly instead of winning it:

Carlsen continued with two more wins but wasn't the only player on 5/5. His next opponent, also on a perfect score, was Uzbek talent Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The 15-year-old became a grandmaster in October 2017 at the age of 13 years, 1 month, 11 days, which is 3.5 months faster than Carlsen. (Find an overview of the youngest GMs in history here.)

In another shaky moment (while having a winning position), Carlsen blundered an important central pawn and was lucky to escape with a draw after missing another win:

Even Magnus Carlsen blunders sometimes! Here is the epic moment from his game against the 15-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov when the world champion blundered the central pawn in the superior position. It ended in a draw eventually. #rapidblitz #Carlsen #replay #chess pic.twitter.com/bm0Dp3sjKc

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 29, 2019

This was definitely not a great phase for the world champion, who played his worst game in round seven. The loss was his first in Moscow—a game well played by Dmitry Andreikin:

A strong phase of three straight wins followed when Carlsen regained control. His win against Baadur Jobava especially saw a pretty finish, but the position was roughly equal when the Georgian GM missed the trick of his opponent: 

In another clash with Hikaru Nakamura in the penultimate round of the day, the American again couldn't get much with the white pieces, so the players split the point just like the day before. 

Carlsen finished the day with a fine win over Vladislav Artemiev:

However, the day had an unpleasant ending for the champion. While signing autographs for fans, his mood completely changed when the chairman of FIDE's Medical Commission, Marape Marape of Botswana, approached Carlsen for a doping test.

Knowing that it can take more than an hour, Carlsen first asked if it was possible to do the next day. When the answer was negative, initially he angrily walked away (screams were heard) to the VIP room. Later he returned and underwent the test after all.

"Sometimes it may not be practical for them, but it is a requirement. It is out of our control," Marape told Norwegian TV channel NRK in an interview.

Henrik Carlsen commenting briefly about the situation to FIDE.

Matlakov is a surprise to find in sole second place. The 28-year-old grandmaster from St. Petersburg hasn't had major successes in blitz (that we know of, although he did win the blitz event during the 2014 Politiken Cup).

In his first 12 blitz games, Matlakov stayed undefeated. With several draws, he avoided the strongest opponents so far, but a superior finish of 3/3 brought him to the top. His game in round 11 is notable:

The second day will definitely be exciting with Nakamura just a point behind Carlsen, together with Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Other specialists such as Artemiev, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are one and a half points behind, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja are in the group trailing Carlsen by two points.

And what about Vladimir Kramnik, the surprise participant in this blitz championship? Well, it looks like his retirement from standard chess did make him more rusty than he would have liked, but being in the same group of players on 8/12 isn't that terrible. 

He started with 3/3, then drew with Alexey Dreev before his first loss that was to Sergey Karjakin. He would also lose to Gabriel Sargissian and Boris Savchenko but eventually scored seven wins as well. His last opponent made his life easy:

Blitz tournaments always have several blunders, but when queens drop off the board at the highest level is always surprising:

We already saw 1.b3 by Jovaba. Here's a nice game played by GM Timur Gareyev, who defeated former world blitz champion Leinier Dominguez with 1.b4:

2019 World Blitz Championship | Round 12 Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Like in the rapid tournament, the women play fewer rounds. Today their schedule had nine games.

Unlike in the rapid when Humpy Koneru was never leading until the last moment, this time the Indian grandmaster played forcefully from the very start. She scored 5/5, drew the next two games and won another game to reach 7/8.

Here's her win from round eight:

However, Koneru is not alone in the lead. Also with seven points after eight rounds is Kateryna Lagno of Russia, the reigning women's world blitz champion.

Because Lagno blundered material early in the game, Koneru was completely winning for about 30 moves, but after the time was less than 10 seconds for both players, the Indian lost her sense of reality and managed to lose instead.

This way it was Lagno who ended the day with a win, and she'll start the second day with a full-point lead and eight rounds to go.

2019 Women's World Blitz Championship | Round 9 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

FIDE's interview with Lagno.

The world blitz championship takes place in the Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow. Monday will be the last day. The time control is three minutes plus a two-second increment. Over two days 21 rounds will be played in the open section and 17 rounds in the women's section.

The world rapid and the world blitz championships each have a total prize fund of $350,000 and a first prize of $60,000. The women's world rapid and the women's world blitz championships each have a total prize fund of $150,000 and a first prize of $40,000.

Find more information on the world rapid and blitz here.

Chess.com's day four coverage with Yasser Seirawan and Robert Hess.

Previous reports:

• Carlsen, Koneru Win World Rapid Chess Championships
• Carlsen Leads On World Rapid Chess Championship Day 2
• Carlsen, MVL Chasing Leaders After World Rapid Chess Championship Day 1