Astana: Igor Kurnosov, Aleksey Dreev and Vladislav Tkachiev Got Through to the Rapid World Championship Final

The official opening ceremony of the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship was held today in Hotel Radisson located in Astana. The event was attended by Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov , FIDE President and Almazbek Atambayev, the President of Kygystan.

GM added a Russian trophy to his European title

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.

World Rapid Championship: Magnus Carlsen leads confidently 

In Round 11 of the World Rapid Championship held in Astana, Kazakhstan World #1 player Magnus Carlsen Crushed Ismagambetov to continue his victorious way - he took a command lead 9.5 out of 11.

In one of the most interesting games of the round Kazhgaleyev outplayed Dreev - the game is so complicated that it hardly can be analyzed.  

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. 

Sergey Karjakin's brilliant 3rd playing day brought him the World Rapid Champion title 

In Round 10, the last one played today out of 15, of the World Rapid Championship held in Astana, Magnus Carlsen beat Karjakin maybe in the most important game of the entire competition. Now, before the last rounds which will be played on Sunday, Norwegian is 1.5 points ahead of his nearest rivals. 

CARLSEN - KARJAKIN