FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships

The World Blitz & Rapid Chess Championships will be held from 1-11 July 2012 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The championships start with qualification events.  The rapid qualification event is a 9 round Swiss over 2 days, and the blitz event is an 11 double rounds Swiss completed in a day.  All players must be rated over 2300 Elo.

The rapid final will be a 16-player round robin event (double round robin for the blitz) with players selected as follows:

• The top 10 players on the January 2012 rating list
• The 3 top finishers in the semi-final qualifiers
• 2 nominees of the organisers
• 1 nominee of the FIDE President

The top 10 in January 2012 looked like this:

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If any of the top 10 rated players decline their invitation, then they will be replaced by the next highest rated players on the January 2012 rating list.

The time control for the rapid championships is 15 minutes plus 10 second increment, and the time control for the blitz championship is 3 minutes plus 2 second increment.

The total prize funds are $200,000 for the rapid championships, and another $200,000 for the blitz championship (see distribution below).

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Interestingly, two players that just miss out on automatic qualification by rating are both noted rapid/blitz experts - #11 rated Alexander Grischuk and #12 Hikaru Nakamura.  They will have to earn their place in the qualifying event, or rely on being one of the three nominated players.

The full schedule:

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FIDE announcement here.