World Blitz Championships, Day 1

Qualifiers include Carlsen and Niemann (who are paired!), Murzin, and Carissa Yip.

The new format for the World Blitz Championships got off to a promising start, particularly in the Open section, as most of the rating favorites came through and made it into the top 8 to qualify for tomorrow’s knockout stage.

The early star was Fabiano Caruana, who raced out to a 7-0 score and a full point lead over his closest competitor. Magnus Carlsen held him to a draw in round eight, and although Caruana didn’t win a game the rest of the way - and even lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi in round 11 - his qualification was never in much doubt. Nepo wound up as the top seed, and Carlsen - who had some anxious moments along the way - is the third seed. All three players finished with impressive 9.5/13 scores…as did seven other players. As the knockout stage only includes eight players, two of the ten failed to advance.

A player who just made it was the hero of the Rapid Championship, Volodar Murzin, who overcame a slow start before winning four consecutive games in rounds 8-11. He was the last qualifier, just ahead of Daniil Dubov, with Daniel Naroditsky finishing tenth. Dubov’s problem? Jet lag. He overslept his round 10 game with Hans Niemann and was forfeited. This hurt his tiebreak scores more than a played loss would have, and despite finishing the event with three straight wins he was (barely) unable to qualify. Speaking of Niemann, he qualified, and the Schadenfreude lovers among us will get to enjoy his quarterfinal pairing of one Magnus Carlsen. Here are the brackets:

(1) Nepomniachtchi - (8) Murzin

(5) Firouzja - (4) So

(3) Carlsen - (6) Niemann

(7) Duda - (2) Caruana

In the Women’s Section there was a clear winner rather than a 10-way tie for first, as Vaishali Rameshbabu (Pragg’s older sister, a GM as well and a Women’s Candidate earlier this year) crushed the field to finish with 9.5/11. Lei Tingjie finished in clear second with 8.5 points, and then there was a seven-way tie for 3rd, with only the top six on tiebreaks qualifying for the knockout stage. That known stars like Kateryna Lagno, defending Women’s Blitz Champion Valentina Gunina, and World Champion Ju Wenjun made it isn’t surprising at all. Two of the other three qualifiers were also more or less expected, as they were in the top seven seeds going into the event. But the success of the two-time defending U.S. Women’s Champion IM Carissa Yip was a definite surprise, as she was ranked 42nd coming into the tournament. The unlucky ninth place finisher was Humpy Koneru. She had a great event, winning the rapid and nearly qualifying here, rising to the occasion and winning her last game. Unfortunately for her tiebreak scores, she lost in round 1 and then again in round 5, which meant she was playing catchup most of the way and generally playing weaker opposition than her rivals, so the outcome wasn’t surprising. Here are the women’s brackets:

(1) Vaishali - (8) Zhu

(5) Ju - (4) Gunina

(3) Lagno - (6) Yip

(7) Assaubayeva - (2) Lei

Predictions?