Chess Elite Converges in Kazakhstan: WRBTC 2024 Welcomes Carlsen and Ding

Astana is ready for a spectacular five-day chess event promising excitement and dramatic moments. The world's best players, including world champion Ding Liren and top-rated player Magnus Carlsen, will meet to compete for prestigious titles in rapid and blitz chess.

Tournament director Pavel Tregubov stated, "We have been preparing this event for a while and are very grateful for the support we have had from Freedom Holding Corp., KazChess, and local organizers here in Kazakhstan. With elite international players and non-professionals in each team, this promises to be a very exciting and dramatic event for the chess world."

Event Overview

A total of 350 players representing 39 teams will participate. Leading the lineup are world champion Ding Liren and top-rated player Magnus Carlsen. The competition also includes current and former Open and Women’s world champions in different categories and many of the world’s strongest players, all vying for a prize fund of €350,000.

The event will be broadcast live on FIDE’s YouTube channel, and the competition schedule can be found on the official website.

Top Teams

Last year’s winners, WR Chess, return with an even stronger lineup. Featuring three former world champions - Magnus Carlsen, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Hou Yifan - as well as two-time world champion candidate Ian Nepomniachtchi and Polish superstar Jan-Krzysztof Duda, they are the favorites. The team is captained by German GM Jan Gustafsson and includes former World Rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Indian prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, and German talent Vincent Keymer, with non-professional player Wadim Rosenstein.

Challenging WR Chess is the team Chessy, captained by GM Emil Sutovsky. Their roster includes top players Richard Rapport, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Alexey Sarana, Jorden Van Foreest, and top women players Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru.

The third top-rated team is ALAIN ACMG from the UAE, featuring Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev, Parham Maghsoodloo, Dmitry Andreikin, Kateryna Lagno, and Zhu Jiner.

Notable participants include super GMs Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Nihal Sarin, Andrei Volokitin, Nigel Short, Zhu Chen, and Victor Bologan. Hans Niemann will play for "GMHans.com", while "ROYAL CHESS" features all the stars from the young Uzbek Olympic gold-winning team, excluding Abdusattorov. Interestingly, Royal Chess is also the name of a popular YouTube channel, though there is no connection between the team and the channel.

Championship Format and Regulations

The World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship will consist of two tournaments played over five days.

Teams can be composed of club members, members of different federations, or other chess players. Each team must have six to nine players, including at least one female player and one recreational player who has never achieved a FIDE rating of 2000 Elo points or higher.

Rapid (August 2-4)

• 12-round Swiss tournament
• Time control: 15 minutes with a 10-second increment per move from move one

Blitz (August 5-6)

• Pool stage: Round-robin tournament, no more than seven rounds
• Knockout stage: Knockout tournament for the top 16 teams
• Time control: Three minutes with a two-second increment per move from move one

Matches are scored by match points: two points for a win, one point for a draw, and zero for a loss. The team with the highest match points will be declared the winner.

Venue

The event will take place at the QAZEXPO Congress Center – the main congress center in Astana. Opened in 2017, it is used for international forums, conferences, official events, as well as sports and cultural events.

Detailed regulations for the event can be found here.

Event website: World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship 2024

Official site: freedomholdingcorp.com