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Anand Beats Fedoseev In Playoff, Wins World Rapid
Anand was interviewed after winning the title. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Anand Beats Fedoseev In Playoff, Wins World Rapid

PeterDoggers
| 125 | Chess Event Coverage

Viswanathan Anand won the World Rapid Chess Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today. He defeated Vladimir Fedoseev 1.5-0.5 in a playoff. Ju Wenjun won the women's tournament.

"I am so unbelievably happy. It was so unexpected, I mean I won many world rapid titles but recently I had the feeling it was slipping away," said a shining Anand after the final day of the rapid tournament. "Honestly I came here hoping for a good performance. I was not even thinking I could win. It's such a pleasant surprise."

Anand interviewed in Riyadh

The Norwegian TV channel NRK got the very first reaction from Anand, right after his win. The prize-giving has been rescheduled for Saturday after the blitz, so we need to wait for Anand trophy pictures. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Anand took over the title from a player also born in 1969: Vassily Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian GM, who is sometimes absolutely brilliant but more often not, scored only 6.5/15 this time.

We're picking up the tournament in round 11 when Fedoseev was half a point ahead of Anand, Peter Svidler and Wang Hao. The leader drew his game, and saw the group trailing him by half a point growing bigger as Magnus Carlsen had joined them.

Anand drew his game with Svidler quickly and did the same against Ian Nepomniachtchi. In this phase of the tournament, it started to become more important not to lose than to win, to secure a minimum prize but also as a way to save energy.

Svidler-Wang, Safarli-Mamedyarov and Rakhmanov-Mamedyarov also ended in draws, which was good news for the winner of Carlsen-Fedoseev, one of the top clashes of the tournament. For a long time, the endgame looked utterly drawn, but Carlsen managed to win in the end and took over the lead.

Fedoseev vs Carlsen in Riyadh

Fedoseev thought for a bitter minute before stopping the clock. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Carlsen speaking to FIDE's Nastja Karlovich.

More draws followed in round 13, in the games Carlsen-Wang, Fedoseev-Yu, Onischuk-Anand and Ding-Svidler. Four players came half a point closer: Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi and Vladislav Artemiev.

Grischuk's win was wild:

Carlsen faced Artemiev, whose Scotch Four Knights was too solid for any winning chances. Again, there were lots of draws in this round (Svidler and Nepo after only eight moves), but not in Anand-Grischuk. The Indian legend played a fantastic game that reminded of his best days, and which was a big step to his title.

In the final round, Anand was playing Black against Bu, and drew in just 11 moves, thus securing a very decent prize. He also knew that, if more players would finish on 10.5 points, he could still win the tournament in a playoff.

But first Anand was helped tremendously by Grischuk once more, as the Russian beat Magnus Carlsen, thus taking some revenge for his loss in the 2017 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship semifinal.

Carlsen resigns vs Grischuk in Riyadh

Carlsen resigning the game and his quest for the title. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Grischuk speaking to FIDE's Goran Urosevic.

Two players joined Anand in first place: Fedoseev and Nepomniachtchi. Only two of the three would reach the playoff, and to determine the numbers one and two, these tiebreak rules were used:

  1. Direct Encounters (applies only if all tied players have played each other)
  2. ARCO (Average Rating of Opponents, including own rating, Cut 1)
  3. Buchholz Cut 1
  4. Greater number of games with Black (unplayed games counted as White)

As it turned out, Nepomniachtchi won bronze, and Anand and Fedoseev would play for the trophy. The prizes were shared, and all three got $150,000 (€109,755).

The highly experienced Anand easily switched to the new time control of three minutes and two seconds increment (incidentally the same as in the blitz tournament that starts tomorrow!) while Fedoseev was struggling on the clock. But also on the board, Anand was reigning supreme, again playing with a knight vs a bishop. In the final position, Fedoseev lost on time.

In the second game some crazy things happened, but whatever the engines thought of it, the important thing was that Anand kept everything under control. And so, at age 48, the Tiger of Madras added yet another world title to his CV.

Anand beats Fedoseev in game two in Riyadh

Fedoseev resigns game two and makes his opponent the world rapid champion. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Anand speaking to FIDE's Goran Urosevic.

Before finishing the open section, it should be mentioned that another Indian player had a very pretty checkmate in one of his games:

2017 World Rapid Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk. SNo Fed Player Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 Rp rtg+/-
1 12 Anand Viswanathan 2758 10,5 0 2733 129 2874 46,8
2 8 Fedoseev Vladimir 2771 10,5 0 2728 129,5 2871 39,4
3 7 Nepomniachtchi Ian 2780 10,5 0 2700 121,5 2843 24,8
4 68 Bu Xiangzhi 2654 10 0 2746 130,5 2867 85,4
5 1 Carlsen Magnus 2908 10 0 2712 129 2823 -27,8
6 5 Grischuk Alexander 2813 10 0 2709 124 2827 5,4
7 45 Savchenko Boris 2685 10 0 2686 123 2786 42
8 37 Mamedov Rauf 2695 10 0 2652 120 2753 25,6
9 26 Guseinov Gadir 2714 10 0 2648 111 2754 16,6
10 18 Svidler Peter 2743 9,5 0 2729 129,5 2805 27,4
11 9 Wang Hao 2770 9,5 0 2726 126,5 2814 18,8
12 14 Yu Yangyi 2752 9,5 0 2694 120 2778 11,8
13 42 Artemiev Vladislav 2687 9,5 0 2680 119 2754 30,2
14 16 Onischuk Vladimir 2748 9,5 0 2678 119 2757 6,2
15 20 Ding Liren 2734 9,5 0 2674 117,5 2748 4,6
16 43 Harikrishna P. 2687 9,5 0 2666 120 2737 26
17 95 Grigoriants Sergey 2572 9,5 0 2635 107,5 2659 67,6
18 90 Zhao Jun 2600 9,5 0 2591 107 2618 53
19 69 Pantsulaia Levan 2654 9 0 2738 125,5 2806 62,2
20 92 Saric Ivan 2597 9 0 2699 119,5 2716 60,4

(Full standings here.)

Viswanathan Anand wins World Rapid in Riyadh

The Tiger from Madras still has it. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Ju Wenjun led the women's tournament from start to finish and won the gold medal as the only player to finish on 11.5/15, good for a 2658 performance rating. She remained undefeated throughout the tournament. On the last day, two wins and three draws were just enough to stay ahead of the pack.

Here's how she beat Nana Dzagnidze, with a cute final move:

Ju Wenjun vs Nana Dzagnidze in Riyadh

Ju vs Dzagnidze. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

2017 Women's World Rapid Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk. SNo Fed Title Player Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 4 GM Ju Wenjun 2537 11,5 0 2459 133,5 7
2 17 GM Lei Tingjie 2450 11 0 2429 127 7
3 11 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2467 10,5 0 2433 127 8
4 24 GM Khotenashvili Bela 2425 10 0 2449 128 7
5 36 IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2390 10 0 2441 131,5 7
6 5 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2508 10 0 2423 124 7
7 92 WGM Fataliyeva Ulviyya 2085 10 0 2421 110,5 8
8 38 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2389 10 0 2354 119,5 7
9 10 GM Danielian Elina 2473 9,5 0 2422 128 7
10 93 FM Assaubayeva Bibisara 1949 9,5 0 2416 109 7
11 13 WGM Goryachkina Aleksandra 2460 9,5 0 2415 125,5 8
12 83 WIM Shuvalova Polina 2241 9,5 0 2415 119,5 7
13 15 WGM Huang Qian 2453 9,5 0 2370 118 8
14 18 IM Shen Yang 2450 9,5 0 2319 110 7
15 2 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2586 9 0 2435 131,5 7
16 75 WGM Mamedjarova Turkan 2286 9 0 2435 122 8
17 16 IM Guo Qi 2451 9 0 2416 125,5 7
18 6 GM Tan Zhongyi 2502 9 0 2397 118 7
19 12 GM Harika Dronavalli 2466 9 0 2394 127 7
20 20 GM Sebag Marie 2445 9 0 2390 118 7

(Full standings here.)

Games via TWIC.

The World Rapid Championship took place December 26-28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was a 15-round Swiss with a prize fund of $750,000 for the open section and $250,000 for the women's section.

The World Blitz Championship will take place December 29-30. It is a 21-round Swiss with a prize fund of $750,000 for the open section and $250,000 for the women's section. You can follow the games in Live Chess.


Correction: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Anand won both playoff games. The second ended in a draw.


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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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