Carlsen wins 'hat-trick' world championship
After five days of playing in the city of Almaty, Carlsen completed a double world title in fast and lightning. This is the third time he holds the world championship in all three chess categories, after 2014 and 2019. The 32-year-old is also 15 times world champion, including five standard chess titles, four fast chess titles and six chess titles. flash flag.
After winning the game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov on the evening of December 30, Carlsen leaned back in his chair, spread his arms to his sides and smiled at the camera. That victory ensured Carlsen won the final round, with 16 points in 21 games. Rival Hikaru Nakamura finished second with 15 points, while Armenian player Haik Martirosyan surprised when he won a bronze medal with 15 points, but sub-status behind Nakamura.
Carlsen started the blitz event with traffic problems, causing him to be late for the exam. When he sat at the table in the first game, his watch had only 30 seconds left, and the opponent still had three minutes. However, Carlsen still won this game, against Vladislav Kovalev.
After the first day of chess competition on December 29, Nakamura took the first place with 10 points, one point more than Carlsen. But in the first three games on December 30, the Japanese-American player only earned one point and gradually let Carlsen pass.
The only representative of Vietnam was not in the prize pool, when Le Tuan Minh finished 55th. But the 26-year-old also earned 28 more blitz multipliers, bringing his Elo to 2,558.
The championship earned Carlsen $60,000, bringing his prize money from Kazakhstan to $120,000 after two blitz chess titles. Nakamura and Martirosyan both received $45,000 for the same second prize.
After the tournament, Carlsen posted on Twitter a video of himself counting his fingers 15 times, corresponding to 15 world championships in three chess categories. However, the Norwegian player decided not to defend the Chess (standard chess) throne, when Ian Nepomniachtchi and Dinh Lap Nhan would compete for the next world championship.
The blitz championship wasn't enough to get Carlsen back to number one according to Elo. After this tournament, he increased his Blitz Elo to 2,857, but was only third behind Alireza Firouzja and Nakamura. Firouzja did not play in Kazakhstan this year and the reason is unknown. In addition, some players like Dinh, Levon Aronian or Wesley So are also absent.
The World Blitz Championships have been held annually since 2006, when Carlsen has won four of the last five. Vietnam's number one player Le Quang Liem won the 2013 championship, but at that time Carlsen was not present.
