FIDE announce €1 million prize fund, ‘format enhancements' for World Rapid and Blitz Championship

The global governing body for chess, FIDE, have announced a €1 million prize fund for the year-ending FIDE World Rapid and Blitz tournament besides 'format enhancements'. Set to take place in Doha, Qatar this year, the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships are played over a six-day window and is one of the most prestigious events on the international chess calendar since their official launch in 2012. Of the prize fund, €700,000 has been allocated to the Open section — evenly divided between the Rapid and Blitz tournaments — while less than half of that amount, €300,000, has been reserved for the women's section, also split equally.
The format for the Rapid World Championships remains unchanged: there will be 13 rounds in the Open section and 11 in the women's competition that will culminate in a playoff in case of a tie for first place.
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Meanwhile, there is a new knockout format for the two-day Blitz World Championship. In 2024, FIDE had introduced a new knockout format for the blitz event. That has now been refined. Only the top four players from the Swiss stage of the tournament will advance directly to the knockout semifinals (previously, eight players in both competitions qualified for the knockout stage).
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'The new format is an exciting mix of the Swiss system and knockout. The increased number of rounds in the qualifying part ensures that the strongest players will progress to the knockout. Also, the final match-up is ideally scheduled to suit audiences across all major chess hubs,' FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky said.
'We are very excited about the event, and have already started preparations to produce the best quality broadcast for millions of spectators,' Sutovsky added.
The blitz schedule includes 19 Swiss rounds for the Open and 15 Swiss rounds for the Women, both played over two days, followed by semifinals and finals on December 30.

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