Rapid and Blitz World Championship 2012

The World Chess Federation (Fide) has decided to put more importance to Rapid and Blitz format by rating players under these time controls starting this month. Previously,only ratings under the Classical format was recognized. Its about time as a lot of tournaments worldwide are being held especially in the Rapid format due to lack of time and in order to finish tournaments much earlier. All tournaments of Cepca are Rapid. Watching a game under the Classical format is a drag ,online or live, as it takes 5 hours to finish a game and sometimes up to 7 hours. It stretches one`s patience to the limit no matter how interested you are. To promote under these formats,the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2012 is now on-going in Astana, Kazakhstan from July 1-10. A total of 16 Grandmasters will participate for the prize fund of $400 000 . It is worth noting that the Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships will be held for the first time in the history of the Fide! For the games in the World Rapid Chess Championship each player will have 15 minutes + 10 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. The Final Tournament will be played in three days as a single round-robin event, 5 rounds per day (or 15 rounds in three days). Here are the participants in the final. 1.Magnus Carlsen 2835 2. Teimour Radjabov 2784 3. Sergey Karjakin 2779 4. Alexander Morozevich 2769 5. Vassily Ivanchuk 2764 6. Alexander Grischuk 2761 7. Veselin Topalov 2752 8. Peter Svidler 2741 9. Boris Gelfand 2727 10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2726. As host, Kazakhstan had nominated Murtas Kazhgaleyev 2595 and Anuar Ismagambetov 2478 in rapid chess and Pavel Kotsur 2548 and Rinat Dzhumabayev 2556 in blitz. The final tournament consists of 16 players. Three other players will qualify for the respective Blitz or Rapid Finals from the Semi Finals to be held between the 1st and 4th July 2012. The nominee of the FIDE President is Ehsan Ghaem Maghami 2578 of Iran. The World Blitz Chess Championship time control for each player will be 3 minutes + 2 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. The Final Tournament will be played in two days as a double round robin event, 15 rounds per day (or 30 rounds in two days). Wesley vs Robson So achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess. Before becoming a grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months. He previously was the strongest Under-16 player in the world. So's current FIDE rating is 2653. Ray Robson in October 2009, about two weeks before turning 15, became the youngest grandmaster-elect in history who plays for the United States. Robson's norms were gained at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Norway, at the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Chicago, and at the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay. His rating as of July 2012 is 2601. He won the US Junior Chess Championship in 2009, becoming one of the youngest players ever to do so. The 18-year-old So will face-off against 17-year-old Ray Robson of Florida, in an online match that will test their ability to think quickly, and their endurance. “The match’s unique format gives the two prodigies three hours to complete as many games as possible, with time-controls for each game getting progressively shorter, from five minutes per side at the bout’s onset, down to just one minute during the final phase, all for a grand prize of $1000.” They will play on July 30, in a match that can be viewed online at Chess.com. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com