Dominguez Wins World Blitz Title
The World Blitz Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has ended in victory for the 25 year-old Cuban player Leinier Dominguez (pictured), just half a point ahead of the defending champion Vassily Ivanchuk. Dominguez finished undefeated and pockets the first prize of 80,000 Swiss Francs. Not bad for a short days work!
A further point behind in third place was the new Russian Champion, Peter Svidler. The 2006 blitz champion Alexander Grischuk finished a creditable fourth and Gata Kamsky finished 9th. Top women's player Judit Polgar was a disappointing last place, with only one victory in the event.
All the games from each individual round are now available for replay or download from the official site at this link, but don't expect to see masterpieces - having 5 minutes for all moves and no time increment isn't conducive to quality play, but it is a good test of speed of thought and hand!
A flavour of the event can be found from the downloadable audio commentary on the games also available at the official site.
The full results:
| Place | Name | FIDE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Total | |
| 2 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2786 | X | = | = | 1 | = | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| 1 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2719 | = | X | = | = | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | = | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11.5 |
| 12 | Rublevsky, Sergei | RUS | 2702 | = | = | X | 0 | = | = | 1 | = | = | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | 6.5 |
| 6 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2752 | 0 | = | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 0 | 0 | = | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | = | 9.5 |
| 8 | Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2787 | = | 0 | = | 0 | X | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7.5 |
| 11 | Tkachiev, Vladislav | FRA | 2664 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | X | = | = | = | = | = | 1 | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | 6.5 |
| 9 | Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2729 | 1 | = | 0 | 0 | 1 | = | X | = | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 10 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2719 | 0 | 0 | = | = | 0 | = | = | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 4 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2719 | 0 | 0 | = | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | = | 1 | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 13 | Vaganian, Rafael A | ARM | 2590 | 0 | = | 1 | 1 | 0 | = | = | 0 | 0 | X | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.5 |
| 7 | Kazhgaleyev, Murtas | KAZ | 2640 | 0 | 0 | 1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | 0 | = | 1 | X | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| 15 | Sasikiran, Krishnan | IND | 2694 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | X | 0 | 1 | = | 1 | 3.5 |
| 3 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2727 | = | = | 1 | = | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | = | 0 | 10 |
| 14 | Amin, Bassem | EGY | 2560 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 0 | 4.5 |
| 16 | Polgar, Judit | HUN | 2711 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | = | = | 0 | X | 0 | 2.5 |
| 5 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2731 | 1 | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 9.5 |
Here is Ivanchuk's first round game against Mamedyarov.
