Carlsen Wins 5th Rapid World Championship; Bodnaruk Claims 1st
GM Magnus Carlsen secured the world rapid chess crown for a record fifth time along with the $60,000 first prize at the 2023 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship after scoring 3/4 on the final day. Wins over GMs Vladimir Fedoseev and Pouya Idani pushed Carlsen's score to 10/13, eclipsing Fedoseev (9.5/13) and GM Yu Yangyi (9/13), who finished second and third respectively.
IM Anastasia Bodnaruk snatched the Women's title in a nervy blitz playoff with GM Humpy Koneru, which ended in sudden death. Earlier in the day, Humpy won on demand to tie for first on 8.5/11 and force a playoff with Bodnaruk, pushing GM Lei Tingjie into the bronze medal position due to tiebreaks. All three players will receive $30,000 for their efforts.
2023 World Rapid Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Name | Rating | Points |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2818 | 10 | |
| 2 | 11 | GM | Fedoseev, Vladimir | 2716 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 15 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | 2699 | 9 | |
| 4 | 18 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2691 | 9 | |
| 5 | 79 | GM | Murzin, Volodar | 2547 | 9 | |
| 6 | 4 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2767 | 9 | |
| 7 | 13 | GM | Dubov, Daniil | 2712 | 9 | |
| 8 | 14 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2706 | 9 | |
| 9 | 37 | GM | Andreikin, Dmitry | 2629 | 9 | |
| 10 | 20 | GM | Grischuk, Alexander | 2678 | 9 | |
| 11 | 9 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2727 | 9 | |
| 12 | 7 | GM | Svidler, Peter | 2737 | 9 | |
| 13 | 6 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 2762 | 9 | |
| 14 | 31 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2644 | 9 | |
| 15 | 26 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2654 | 8.5 | |
| 16 | 43 | GM | Cheparinov, Ivan | 2618 | 8.5 | |
| 17 | 45 | GM | Matlakov, Maxim | 2616 | 8.5 | |
| 18 | 50 | GM | Korobov, Anton | 2601 | 8.5 | |
| 19 | 8 | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2735 | 8.5 | |
| 20 | 32 | GM | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 2642 | 8.5 |
(Full standings here.)
5 Rapid Titles, 6 Blitz Titles, 5 Classical Titles
With 16 world championship titles to his name, Carlsen's place among the greatest chess players of all time is undisputed, and the nature of his 2023 World Rapid Championship victory makes this one of the sweetest yet.
Unbeatable. Congratulations to @MagnusCarlsen for winning his fifth world rapid title!
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 28, 2023
The victory earns the Norwegian legend an incredible 16th world championship in chess! 🏆 #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/jFdIiQQxKu
Heading into the final day, the Norwegian maestro was delicately poised in a three-way tie with Fedoseev and Yu on 7/9, but a crushing 3/4 performance on day three allowed him to accelerate past his fellow competitors.
Carlsen kicked off the day with a comprehensive win over Fedoseev that had pundits prophesizing that the world's best player had the event under lock and key, despite dangerous opponents still standing in his way.
Our Game of the Day was a fine example of Carlsen's ability to control his destiny and has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.
Iran's Idani put up staunch resistance against Carlsen in round 11 and managed to procure an equal endgame although the tournament leader once again bucked the engine's evaluation and outplayed his opponent.
Commentator GM Peter Leko subsequently quipped: "One also gets the feeling that in rapid time controls you have no right to get into an endgame against Magnus."
The one opponent Carlsen did show respect to was the local hope and 2021 champion, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. With a sizeable crowd amassing to witness the spectacle, he equalized with Black and quickly offered a draw, maintaining his one-point lead over the field.
A 23-move draw in the Four Knights Game: Double Spanish, Nimzowitsch Variation with GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was merely an encore to Carlsen's most dominant world rapid performance yet.
Officially need more hands now #16 https://t.co/6hNBd54hTG
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) December 28, 2023
Despite being beaten by Carlsen in round six, Vidit was the main challenger threatening to steal first place. The Indian GM started the day with an opportunistic win over GM Anton Korobov before stamping out compatriot GM Arjun Erigaisi's chances of Candidates qualification in round 11. Can you see the killer blow?
Following Carlsen's round-12 draw with Abdusattorov, Vidit very nearly found himself back in equal first as he built a winning position against Fedoseev, but the heartbreaking blunder 47.Bxg4?? shattered Vidit's title hopes. A tragedy for one of the fan favorites.
Vidit noooo 😢💔 pic.twitter.com/bIwJmobtqq
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 28, 2023
This won’t be easy to forget… 💔 pic.twitter.com/QlhxeO6Cpk
— Vidit Gujrathi (@viditchess) December 28, 2023
Yu also would have been a likely challenger if not for an endgame capitulation that gifted GM Dmitry Andreikin a "crazy rook" stalemate in round 11. The result seemed to affect Yu's morale and he drew his remaining two games, still managing to secure bronze ahead of 12 players who finished on 9/13.
Silver medalist Fedoseev was truly a cat with nine lives on the final day of the tournament and the prolific blitzer was able to procure "two incredible turnarounds" (according to Carlsen) against GMs Nihal Sarin and Vidit, making up for his earlier loss to Carlsen.
A stunning finish, as Nihal Sarin blunders on move 156 (!) and Vladimir Fedoseev's medal chances are alive! https://t.co/kuykeCgPDN #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/WhnQnJoQfZ
— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 28, 2023
A quick draw in round 13 was all that the Slovenian representative needed to confirm a second-placed finish and earn a $50,000 cheque. He will be a force to be reckoned with in the blitz championship, a time control he is arguably even better at than rapid.
Days before arriving in Samarkand, Carlsen shared that he felt that "the world blitz is much harder to win" than the rapid. Though he is the favorite to win his second blitz title in as many years, maintaining stability and an unbeaten run, as he did in the rapid, will be far more challenging.
2023 Women's World Rapid Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Name | Rating | Points |
| 1 | 51 | IM | Bodnaruk, Anastasia | 2265 | 8.5 | |
| 2 | 8 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2444 | 8.5 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Lei, Tingjie | 2517 | 8.5 | |
| 4 | 21 | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | 2371 | 8 | |
| 5 | 29 | WGM | Zhai, Mo | 2351 | 8 | |
| 6 | 1 | GM | Ju, Wenjun | 2575 | 8 | |
| 7 | 14 | GM | Gunina, Valentina | 2412 | 8 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | 2463 | 7.5 | |
| 9 | 5 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2486 | 7.5 | |
| 10 | 42 | IM | Garifullina, Leya | 2287 | 7.5 | |
| 11 | 65 | WGM | Yu, Jennifer | 2217 | 7.5 | |
| 12 | 28 | IM | Narva, Mai | 2351 | 7.5 | |
| 13 | 80 | FM | Sahithi, Varshini M | 2138 | 7.5 | |
| 14 | 11 | GM | Zhu, Jiner | 2431 | 7 | |
| 15 | 59 | WIM | Lu, Miaoyi | 2239 | 7 | |
| 16 | 12 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | 2424 | 7 | |
| 17 | 48 | WGM | Munkhzul, Turmunkh | 2279 | 7 | |
| 18 | 102 | WFM | Nurgaliyeva, Zarina | 1963 | 7 | |
| 19 | 10 | IM | Assaubayeva, Bibisara | 2436 | 7 | |
| 20 | 61 | IM | Fataliyeva, Ulviyya | 2227 | 7 |
(Full standings here.)
Congratulations to Anastasia Bodnaruk for winning the Women's World Rapid Championship! 🏆
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 28, 2023
She defeated former champ Humpy Koneru in a dramatic playoff comeback to claim her first world title! #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/dDFyEj0X4o
A playoff was required to decide the women's title and, following a three-way tie for first between Bodnaruk, Humpy, and Lei, it was Bondaruk and Humpy who earned the right to contest the title based on superior tiebreaks.
Lei was somewhat unlucky to be ousted from the playoff as Humpy had won on demand against GM Kateryna Lagno in round 11.
On the other hand, it was Lei's choice to take a three-move draw with the white pieces in the final game—it's not clear if she realized that the Women's regulations, unlike the Open regulations, only allowed for a two-player playoff.
While many focused on the shoe scandal, this is one of the more shocking situation in the 2023 Women’s World Rapid Championship!
— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) December 28, 2023
The tournament 3rd seed, was tied for the lead going to the final round, with the white pieces, could have gone for the Gold! She won 7 and drew 1 in… pic.twitter.com/uOosvecFat
Though Humpy was the rating favorite in the playoff, Bodnaruk had proven to be a fierce competitor and no one was shocked to see the match enter sudden death following two chaotic, decisive blitz games.
Throughout the four games played, Humpy generally had better positions out of the opening but was susceptible to serious time trouble, a factor that would be her undoing in the second sudden-death game, where she ended up flagging during a wild middlegame.
A surprise winner in the women's section, Bodnaruk became the first IM to win the women's world rapid championship and was the only player in the field to finish undefeated (pre-playoff) other than the classical world champion GM Ju Wenjun.
In an emotional interview post-match, Bodnaruk said the following: "Humpy played better than me, but I played faster. This was my way to success." With the blitz event forthcoming, the newly crowned rapid champion has inadvertently announced herself as a contender for the quicker time control.
How to watch?
You can watch the 2023 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship on Chess.com/TV. You can also enjoy the show on Twitch and catch all our live broadcasts on YouTube. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page: World Rapid | Women's World Rapid.
The live broadcast was hosted by GMs Robert Hess and Peter Leko.
The FIDE World Rapid Championship is an over-the-board event that determines the FIDE World Rapid open and women's champions. The event starts on December 26 at 5 a.m. ET/11:00 CET/3:30 p.m. IST and features a $500,000 prize fund.
The current rapid and blitz chess champion Carlsen will attempt to defend his titles in a stacked field including Nepomniachtchi, Duda, Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, and many more 2700+ players.
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