Carlsen can meet Nieman in the world fast chess tournament
On the first day of competition at the world fast chess tournament today, December 26, the players will play five games, starting at 3pm, Almaty time (16h, Hanoi time). The remaining four games take place in turn every 75 minutes.
The tournament had 180 players participating, with the first seed Carlsen having Elo 2,834, along with players like Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana or Ian Nepomniachtchi. However, the tournament was absent from many strong players such as Alireza Firouzja, Dinh Lap Nhan, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Le Quang Liem or young talents Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Vietnam has a representative present, Le Tuan Minh.
The tournament consists of two groups, Open and Women's, playing 13 games of the Swiss system, in three days. Competition time is 15 minutes for each side, adding 10 seconds after each move (15 + 10). If more than one player has the same score after 13 games, they will tie-break to choose the champion. The prize money will only go to the Top 35 players, with the number one spot expanding to $60,000. If the players have equal points, their winnings will be pooled and divided equally.
Immediately after this tournament, Almaty continued to host the world blitz chess tournament, taking place on December 29 and December 30, with the same venue, number of players and prize money. Another point is that the blitz tournament took place in 21 games, with a time of 3+2.
Fans await the clash between the fast chess number one Carlsen and the fast chess number one Nakamura. On December 19, these two players met in the final of the online Speed Chess Championship, with the attractiveness considered to be no less than the 2022 World Cup final.
Carlsen may also have to meet Niemann at the tournament, depending on the draw. The Norwegian player once dropped out of the tournament after losing to Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup on September 4. Carlsen later claimed that he suspected Niemann of cheating, and the number one young American player filed a lawsuit against both Carlsen and Nakamura for damaging his reputation. When he reunited with Niemann at the Generation Cup online tournament on September 19, Carlsen only made one move and then asked to lose. Since then, the two players have not met.
The first World Fast Chess Championship was held in 2012 in Astana, Kazakhstan. Carlsen is the most successful with three championships, although in 2021 he lost the title to young player Nodirbek Abdusattorov. This year's tournament took place in Almaty - the most populous city in Kazakhstan. At the opening ceremony on December 25, Carlsen said: "If I am in good form, no player has a better chance of winning than me."
