2010 World Blitz Championship

The 2010 World Blitz Championship is now on-going in Moscow. Twenty of the best players in the world have been invited to this annual event. I think the only top players missing are Anand and Ivancuk.

The event will be held over three days from 16th-18th November 2010. This is a double round robin event meaning a mammoth 38 rounds. Yesterday fourteen rounds were played. Another fourteen today and the rest on Thursday 18th November.

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian are leading after 14 rounds. Standings after 14 rounds:

No.	Title	Name	Fed.	FIDE	Total
1	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2802	10
2	GM	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2801	10
3	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2763	9.5
4	GM	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2791	8.5
5	GM	Svidler, Peter	RUS	2722	8.5
6	GM	Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2741	8
7	GM	Eljanov, Pavel	UKR	2742	7.5
8	GM	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2760	7.5
9	GM	Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	2771	7.5
10	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2741	7.5
11	GM	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2744	7
12	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	RUS	2720	6.5
13	GM	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2709	6.5
14	GM	Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	2744	6.5
15	GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2703	6
16	GM	Grachev, Boris	RUS	2654	5.5
17	GM	Movsesian, Sergei	SVK	2721	5
18	GM	Andreikin, Dmitry	RUS	2683	5
19	GM	Savchenko, Boris	RUS	2632	4.5
20	GM	Mamedov, Rauf	AZE	2660	3

The time control is three minutes and two seconds increment for every move. You might think it is hard to blunder with such increments but it happens to even the best of them.

Vachier Lagrave - Magnus Carlsen, After 67.Rc8

 Carlsen has an extra pawn though he is about to lose his c3 pawn in exchange for white's h6 pawn. The game should be drawn as Black cannot queen his last pawn in this ending as White will simply sacrifice his knight for the pawn at the right moment leading to a drawn RvR+N ending.

But something possessed Carlsen and he proceeded to lose with 67...Ne4?? allowing white to push his h-pawn. 68. h7 c2 69.Rxc2 Rxc2 70. h8=Q Rc6 71. Qe5+ Kd8 72. Ne6+ Kd7 73. Nd4 Rc5 74. Qe6+ Kc7 75.
Nxf5 1-0

Against Boris Gelfand, Carlsen in a winning position surprisingly lost on time. Despite these two setbacks, he won nine and drew two games to finish at the top.

The surprise is Hikaru Nakamura who is generally acknowledged as one of the best blitz player alive today. He lost six games to position on tenth.


Here is a selection of games: