Blitz chess is always crazy, thanks to the time control. There are always blunders or wins that would have technically gone the other way with such strong Grand Masters. The first day of the World Blitz Chess Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan witnessed several such frenetic games. After the 15 rounds that were played on Day one, it was Alexander Grischuk who pulled away for a one-point lead from the rest of the pack. Grischuk leads with 10.5/15 and has one point more than Dmitry Andreikin, Vassily Ivanchuk and Sergey Karjakin. Magnus Carlsen, who started with a loss, is in fifth place with 8.5/15.
The World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships are being held in Astana, Kazakhstan from July 1-11, 2012. Russia’s Sergey Karjakin won the World Rapid Chess Championship yesterday.
The blitz is a 16-player double round robin format with Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Viktor Bologan, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexey Dreev, Igor Kurnosov, Vladislav Tkachiev, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Anuar Ismagambetov, Dmitry Andreikin, Le Quang Liem, Nikolai Chadaev, Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Jumabayev.
Rate of play: 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.Special rule: The players are not allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter and accepted in case of a triple-repetition of the position or the 50-move rule.
The prize fund is US $200,000 for each tournament with the first prize being US $40,000. You can follow the live video broadcast at the official website.
