The World Blitz Championship ends with Co-Champions

Crazy, or why not?

I’ll write a fuller post in the new year - coming to the U.S. in several minutes - but the brief headline is this: Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi decided to share the title of World Blitz Champion. Carlsen defeated Hans Niemann in the quarterfinals with some difficulty before wiping out Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the semis, while for Nepo things went the other way around. He defeated Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin with ease in the quarters before needing a bit of luck and a playoff to get past Wesley So.

It looked like the final was going to be a runaway for Carlsen, as he won the first two games of the best-of-four match. That made seven straight wins for him overall, matching something Caruana had done on day one. But then everything turned around. Nepo won a wild third game and then won again in game four with a brilliant counterattack to level the scores.

Regulations called for players to keep playing single blitz games until there’s a winner, switching colors after every inconclusive game. Three games were drawn, and then Carlsen proposed to Nepo and then to the arbiters that they share the title. And they did!

Congrats to both players, and happy new year!