Magnus Carlsen successfully defended his world title in blitz chess. The Norwegian won the world championship in this discipline for the fifth time, and has held the Blitz title consistently since 2017. Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, world leaders in blitz chess before the tournament, both scored 16.5 points from 21 games. In the tie-break, the first game ended in a draw, Carlsen won the second and won the title. Wladimir Kramnik came third with 15 points.
On Saturday Carlsen had won the World Championship in rapid chess for the first time in four years, now he won the World Championship double by winning the Blitz tournament. So far, he had only succeeded in 2014. Now Carlsen holds the three most important world championship titles from the world association Fide: he is world champion in blitz, rapid and classic chess. He had lost the World Cup final in the new official variant Fischer Random Chess to Wesley So in November.
Playoff between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura is on. #rapidblitz pic.twitter.com/vJXQJ9thSf
- International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 30, 2019After the first day of the Blitz World Championship, Carlsen was in the lead after twelve of 21 laps. The 29-year-old only lost the game against the Russian Dmitry Andreikin. On the second day, Carlsen continued his streak of success, beating Daniil Dubow and Wladimir Kramnik among others.
The video evidence must help
In the game against 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja, Carlsen was lucky. He won in an inferior position because his opponent accidentally knocked his king over and therefore ran out of time. Firouzja officially protested, but the referees did not change the result, according to the television pictures. In a game of blitz chess, each player has three minutes and a train bonus of two seconds. Firouzja, who competes under a neutral flag, finished sixth in the end, which was very good for him.
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At the top a duel developed between Carlsen and Nakamura, both were tied after 21 games. In the second game of the tie break, Carlsen put his opponent under pressure with a powerful attack over the kingside, the American finally gave up.
With the World Cup double, Carlsen crowns one of the most successful years of his career. The Norwegian won ten tournaments in 2019 and is unbeaten in classic chess. In 2020 he wants to defend the world title in classic chess, his opponent will be determined at the candidate tournament in Yekaterinburg between March and April 2020.
