Alexander Grischuk Wins World Blitz
Alexander Grischuk won the World Blitz Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, with a score of 20/30 points, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen in second place.
Grischuk had led after the first day with 10½/15 and maintained his lead until the end despite a late charge from Magnus Carlsen who couldn't quite recover from a relatively mediocre first day score of 8½/15. World Rapid Champion Sergey Karjakin chased Grischuk for a long time but ended up in third place.
The time control was 3 minutes plus a 2 second increment. The final standings:
| # | Name | Nat | Elo | Pts |
| 1 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2763 | 20.0 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2837 | 19.5 |
| 3 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2779 | 18.5 |
| 4 | Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2770 | 17.5 |
| 5 | Andreikin, Dmitry | RUS | 2700 | 17.0 |
| 6 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2788 | 17.0 |
| 7 | Le, Quang Liem | VIE | 2693 | 16.5 |
| 8 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2749 | 15.0 |
| 9 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2769 | 15.0 |
| 10 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2738 | 13.5 |
| 11 | Chadaev, Nikolai | RUS | 2580 | 13.5 |
| 12 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2752 | 13.0 |
| 13 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2726 | 13.0 |
| 14 | Jumabayev, Rinat | KAZ | 2525 | 12.0 |
| 15 | Bologan, Viktor | MDA | 2732 | 11.0 |
| 16 | Kotsur, Pavel | KAZ | 2548 | 8.0 |
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The 2012 World Blitz Champion: Alexander Grischuk
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The full crosstable of results can be found here. More information and games are available at the official website.
Photo by worldchess.kz
