Star-studded WR Chess repeat World Blitz title amid controversy in London
WR Chess, the star-studded world top 10 team, retained their World Team Blitz crown in London last week, but only after an almighty scare and with significant help from the appeals committee. WR had already been beaten for the World Rapid title by MGD1, a Pune-based group led by India's Arjun Erigaisi.
WR lost 2-4 to Germany in their Blitz quarter-final, but got the match annulled on the grounds that they had been advised of the wrong start time so had arrived two minutes late for a three-minute game. All the other teams arrived on time.
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WR stands for Wadim Rosenstein, a tech billionaire who plays on the amateur board of his team and who persuaded Fide to launch this new competition two years ago. His squad even included Magnus Carlsen until the No 1 fell out with Fide.
WR Chess defeated Kazakhstan in the gold medal blitz match, with Hexamind third. Earlier, Erigaisi's MGD1 won Rapid gold, with Levon Aronian's Hexamind taking silver and Vishy Anand's Freedom winning bronze.
Leading English teams disappointed, although all gained valuable experience against top opposition. The national squad, named Malcolm's Mates after England's international director, Malcolm Pein, suffered on the top boards in the Rapid as Luke McShane scored 2/9 and Gawain Jones 3/8, and never looked like matching their seeding of third. The Blitz went better, but in the last 16 Malcolm's Mates were paired against the WR Chess heavyweights and were overwhelmed 9.5-2.5.
WR Chess had an epic group match against the all-junor Turkish Airlines squad, who rose to the occasion with an impressive performance.
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Argentina's 11-year-old prodigy Faustino Oro drew easily with Russia's No 1, Ian Nepomniachtchi, then forecast himself to become world champion in 2032. The English teenagers Sohum Lohia and Indy Southcott-Moyers fought well against the world stars Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, China's Lu Miaoyi drew with the all-time No 2 woman, Hou Yifan, and, most remarkable of all, a little-known 13-year-old from Azerbaijan, Khagan Ahmad, beat the US world No 2 and popular streamer, Hikaru Nakamura, in a marathon 112-move queen ending. All six games of this match are here.
Unknowns of all ages very occasionally catch top stars out, but it normally occurs due to a sudden tactic that the great one overlooks, not after a prolonged marathon with the loser fighting tooth and nail. For a historic comparison to Ahmad v Nakamura, whose final stages were filmed here, I think of David Bronstein Hugh Alexander, Hastings 1953-54.
Several of the best-known world talents made significant advances in London. Besides Oro, the Turkish pair of Ediz Gurel and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus both totalled 8.5/12 in Rapid, while Russia's 10-year-old youngest ever IM, Roman Shogdzhiev, who Carlsen recently named, along with Erdogmus, as a potential world champion of the future, achieved a 2500 rating performance in Rapid.
Many England juniors gained experience in the World Rapid and Blitz, but few could boast successes on the score table. The dedicated squads from Chess Trust Accelerators and the UK Chess Challenge could not match their more experienced opponents.
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There was one exception, though. Bodhana Sivanandan, England's youngest ever Olympiad player, had her best result for many months. The 10-year-old, competing for her sponsor GM Ali Mortazavi's firm e-therapeutics, unleashed a blitz sequence that included the best individual score for her team, an unbeaten 10-game run and five wins in a row, plus a 2307 rating performance.
3977: It's mate on six by 1…g4+! 2 hxg4 (if 2 Kxh5 Qxh3 mate) Qh1+ 3 Kg5 f6+ 4 Kg6 Qe4+ 5 Kxh5 Qh7+ 6 Qh6 Qxh6 mate.
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