Fifteen days after retaining his world classical chess title in Dubai with a resounding victory over Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen starts this Sunday in Warsaw defending its other two crowns, rapid games and blitz.
For six days, until New Year’s Eve, the National Football Stadium in the Polish capital will be the scene ofhe double tournament that will face Carlsen with a bunch of Grandmasters in which the American Hikaru Nakamura stands out, great specialist in the fast game, in own Nepo, who has finally decided to participate, and the number two in the world ranking, the 18-year-old Iranian Alireza Firouzja, the only player who would motivate the Norwegian to expose his classical chess title for the fifth time in 2023, according to the Norwegian’s public confession.
Carlsen already held all three world titles simultaneously in 2014 and 2019. Now he is preparing to wear a new triple crown, although to do so he will have to bend, among others, the impetuous Firouzja, current world runner-up for fast and sharp blitz player, who has climbed this year to second place in the ranking and has become the youngest player in history to break the 2,800 Elo point barrier.
In the last World Cup of this vertiginous modality, Firouzja had practically defeated Carlsen in the game that faced them, but the Norwegian managed to play at full speed and end up inflicting on his young rival, then 17 years old, an unexpected defeat on time.
Of the top ten in the FIDE world rankings, only two are missing: the Chinese Ding Liren (number 3) and the American Wesley So (4). In the women’s section, the Indian Humpy Koneru and the Ukrainian Katerina Lagno will defend their titles.
Among the favorites is also the American Fabiano Caruana, who arrives in great shape, and local idol Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who just won the European blitz chess title and at the 2018 World Cup put Magnus Carlsen’s crown in serious jeopardy by winning 11 of his last 13 games .
Two titles and a million dollars in prizes (60,000 for the victory in the open tournament, 40,000 in the women’s) are aired in these two consecutive championships (three days in rapid, two in blitz), They will be played in person in Warsaw after the initial plans to carry them out in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, were canceled due to restrictions derived from the pandemic.
The Rapid Tournament is played at a rate of 15 minutes per side, with a 10-second increment on each move, and the lightning at 3 minutes with a 2-second add-on per move.
