BOTW: 2016.12.27
World Rapid and Blitz Championship
Dec 25-30, 2016
Doha, Qatar
FIDE World Championships for Rapid and Blitz, in both Open and Women's classes.
Rapid: Dec.25-28, 2016.
15 round Swiss, with a time-control 15 minutes + 10 seconds.
$40,000 1st prize.
After 2 days and 10 rounds, the leaders in the Open are:
- Vassily Ivanchuk 8/10
- Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ian Nepomniachi 7.5/10
- Seven players are tied with 7/10, including:
- Magnus Carlsen (lost to Ivanchuk and Pantsulaia),
- Vishy Anand (undefeated, but 6 draws),
- Alex Grischuk (lost to Carlsen and Korobov), and
- Lev Aronian (lost to Mamedyarov).
The women play 4 rounds per day. After two days, GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) has 7/8, good for a 1.5 point lead over GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lagno (both RUS) and IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (IRI).
Blitz: Dec.29-30, 2016
21 round Swiss. TC: 3+2
Most of the players in the Rapid will compete in the blitz, including Carlsen, Nakamura, MVL, Aronian, Karjakin, Ivanchuk and Anand. One interesting player to note: little known Vladislav Artemiev (RUS) is rated 2847, and is seeded #2 behind Carlsen.
Blitz Pairings and Standings
http://chess-results.com/tnr255851.aspx?lan=1
homepage (includes live video and GM commentary)
http://qatarchess2016.com/DohaChess2016/index.php
Checkmate for the King of Chess?
27 min BBC report on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the US sanctions against him. Ranges from a decade old interview with Ilyumzhinov, to the 2014 FIDE General Assembly at Tromso, to recent interviews with Ilyumzhinov and Nigel Short, snippets with Carlsen and Karjakin, to the first eight games of the 2016 World Championship in NYC.
FWIW: the reporter doesn't find much evidence to support the US sanctions, although Kirsan's case for giving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad the Nobel Peace Prize for 'killing hundreds of thousands of ISIS terrorists' might get the self-declared Buddhist some puzzled looks from the Dalai Lama.