Astana: Igor Kurnosov Is Leading in the Semi-Final of the Rapid World Championship. Five Players Are Closely Behind

The official website of the World Blitz Championship announced the results of today's qualification competition. Russian Dmitry Andreikin gained a confident win finishing 2 points ahead of his rival. He gathered 16.5 points out of 22. Another two players - Le Quang Qiem (Vietnam, 14.5 points) and Nikolai Chadaev (Russia, 14 points) - qualified for the final. 

The World Rapid and Blitz Championships will be held in Astana from 2 until 10 July. The qualifying rapid tournament will be held between 2 and 3 July. Anyone with the rating of 2300 or over can play in this 9-round Swiss tournament (the regulations in Russian).

The qualifying blitz tournament is planned in today's programme of the Rapid and Blitz World Championship, which is being held in the capital of Kazakhstan. In contrast to the rapid chess, the lightning tournament will be held in one day and consist of eleven double rounds. It starts at 15.00 Moscow time. It's hard to find more detailed information on the official site of the championship.

The first five rounds of the Russian rapid championship have been played in St. Petersburg. Ernesto Inarkiev is leading with 4.5/5. Igor Lysyj, Ildar Khairullin and Sanan Sjugirov follow him with 4 points each, other six participants have 3.5 points. The nine-round tournament will continue tomorrow. 
Pairings for Round 6

The second playing day of the World Blitz Chess Championship starts at 13:00 MSK Time in Astana. Alexander Grischuk leads with 10.5 points after 15 rounds. Sergey Karjakin, Dmitry Andreikin and Vassily Ivanchuk have 9.5 points. Magnus Carlsen has 8.5/15. In the second circle 16 participants will play against the same rivals as yesterday but with different color. Follow the games LIVE.

A few minutes ago started the first round of the World Championship in rapid chess in Khanty-Mansiysk. In total, 15 rounds Swiss system - 5 each day - will be played. Favorites by rating in the competition are Alexander Grischuk 2825, Jan Nepomniachtchi 2762, Gata Kamsky 2751, Aleksey Dreev 2746. The "seeded" number five Ruslan Ponomariov does not have a Rapid-rating yet.

The World Blitz Championship has started in Astana at 13:00 MSK Time. 16 participants will play in a double round-robin - 15 rounds today and tomorrow. The draw gave the players the following numbers:

The FIDE website has published Regulations for the World Rapid and Blitz Championships today. The main difference presented this year suggests "The events will be Swiss pairings tournaments and will be held over two days for Blitz and three days for Rapid. The Blitz will have fifteen rounds with each player playing with white and black against his paired opponent.