King and Queens: World Chess Championship in Almaty

Among the women in rapid, China’s Tan Zhongyi won the tiebreak against Kazakhstan’s Dinara Saduakasova, who won silver.

In blitz, the first place went to 18-year-old Kazakhstani Bibisara Assaubayeva, who repeated the brilliant result of the 2021 World Championship.

Thus, Bibisara became a two-time world blitz champion!

The World Rapid and Blitz Championship was supposed to be held in Kazakhstan in 2021. However, due to the covid restrictions of our Government, FIDE declared it impossible to hold the tournament under such conditions and moved it to Poland.

In Poland, the Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov became the winner in rapid, and the French chess player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won in blitz.

In the women’s tournament-2021, Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk became the world champion in rapid chess, and Kazakhstani chess player Bibisara Assaubayeva won the blitz competition.

All four champions-2021 played in Almaty. And only Assaubayeva managed to defend the title. But Kosteniuk, who will play for Switzerland from 2024, finished with 7.5 points in 9th place in the rapid tournament. The last two meetings of the 2008 world champion in classical chess drew with our Zhansaya Abdumalik and Belaya Khotenashvili (Georgia), and these losses did not allow Alexandra to get into the top three.

I must say that in the women’s rapid tournament the competition was very high. Four chess players had eight points at once, and the bronze winner had to be determined by additional indicators. Unfortunately, Abdumalik, who scored eight points, lost in this competition to Russian Alexandra Goryachkina, who competed under the FIDE flag, and Savita Shri B (India), who won the bronze medal. As a result, Abdumalik took the fifth line in the final standings.

For the first place, the struggle unfolded between Tan Zhongyi and Kazakh Dinara Saduakasova. Both chess players scored 8.5 points each, and the winner in rapid had to be determined by blitz games on the so-called tie-break.

The first blitz match ended in a draw, but in the second game the Kazakhstani lost to the Chinese.

– After 11 games, I and the ex-world champion from China Tan Zhongyi scored an equal number of points. As a result of the tie-break, I lost to her, – Saduakasova said. – I consider the silver of the World Championship a worthy result, given the fact that I didn’t play for almost the whole year. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who supported me, followed the performances, wrote kind words and stayed with me. For your endless faith and indifference.

In the men’s tournament, of course, the main focus was on the reigning world champion in classical chess Magnus Carlsen, who seized the lead from the very start of the rapid championship and held it until the very finish. Although, of course, it was not without difficulties.

After winning the first four games in a row, including against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Carlsen drew against 19-year-old Arjun Erigaisi (India) in the fifth round, then won and drew twice. And in the 11th round, Magnus lost to Vladimir Artemiev, and the Russian caught up with the Norwegian on points.

The intrigue in the tournament was revived. Moreover, Fabiano Caruano was waiting for Magnus in the next round. Carlsen could not beat his old rival, sharing points with him, and allowed himself to catch up with the rising star Vincente Kaimer (Germany), who took part in the World Championship for the first time. Thus, the duet of leaders turned into a trio!

However, in the final 13th round Magnus showed his superiority. He literally defeated the Iranian Parham Maghsoodlu in 20 moves, while Kaimer could not put the squeeze on the Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Vladislav Artemiev lost to Caruana. And if the German had won, then Magnus and Vincent would have played the title in a tie-break.

As a result, Magnus single-handedly topped the standings with 10 points. Second place with 9.5 points was taken by Kaimer. And closed the top three winners Fabiano Caruana (9.5 points).

As for the Kazakhs, the best result in rapid was shown by international master Kazybek Nogerbek, who took 38th place with eight points.

Magnus Carlsen was seeded only third in the blitz. Leading the way were Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, who recently had some big wins in commercial online tournaments.

The sensation happened already in the first round, when Carlsen was late for the match with the Belarusian Vladislav Kovalev. He appeared on the court when he had 30 seconds of three minutes left on his clock.

Nevertheless, Carlsen won over his experienced opponent. As it turned out later, the Norwegian was skiing in the mountains and got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the tournament. There was no time to change clothes, and I had to play in sportswear. And this is a violation of the rules! However, the organizers of the championship from FIDE treated such a violation on the part of Magnus condescendingly.

After defeating Kovalev, Carlsen won four more matches in a row, then drew with the Chinese Yu Yangyi and then outplayed such an experienced fighter as Anish Giri with Black. But Nakamura did not lag behind either – he also scored 6.5 out of 7, having a victory over Fabiano Caruana himself.

According to the results of the first day of the championship, Carlsen was one point behind Nakamura. However, on the second day, he caught up and overtook the main competitor.

The face-to-face meeting between Carlsen and Nakamura ended in a draw, after which the Norwegian drew four more matches. And then, at the critical moments of the tournament, he lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexei Sarana. However, Nakamura was unable to take advantage of his opponent’s misfire and drew with Russian grandmaster Alexander Shimanov.

The gap was reduced to half a point, but Carlsen once again showed that he is a real king when he confidently defeated Shimanov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov from Uzbekistan in the end and became the champion again with 16 points. Nakamura was one point behind in second place. And the bronze medal was won by a chess player from Armenia Hayk Martirosyan (15 points).

Thus, Magnus Carlsen in 2022 became the owner of the triple. He won in rapid, blitz and classical chess. Carlsen repeated his achievement in 2014 and 2019, when he also won in all events, which no one else could do before him.

In women’s blitz, our Bibisara Assaubayeva celebrated her victory. She scored 13 points in 17 rounds. Moreover, the Kazakh started the tournament neither shaky nor rolls. Win, draw, win, lose…

Meanwhile, Russian Polina Shuvalova crushed all her rivals and confidently led the way. However, then her strength ran out, and Bibisara got a second wind. And the Kazakhstani woman was unstoppable.

The fate of the championship was decided in the last round. Before him, Assaubaeva and Chinese Tan Zhongyi each had 12 points, but in the final duel Bibisara defeated Indian chess player Harika Dronavalli, and this was the fifth victory in a row for our chess player, and the Chinese lost to Humpy Koneru (India). The second place was taken by Koneru with 12.5 points, the third place was taken by Russian Polina Shuvalova (12 points).

For Bibisara Assaubayeva, this was the second victory in a row in the World Blitz Championship. And this is a huge success, which is rarely achieved by anyone.

The two-time world champion wrote on social media that defending the title was much more difficult for her than winning for the first time in 2021 in Warsaw, when Assaubayeva beat Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk by 1.5 points.

It is noteworthy that, summing up the results of 2022, Assaubayeva put the 18th birthday in the first place in the list of the main personal events, as well as the ability and habit of flying on her own without accompanying people. The victory at the World Cup in the list of ten events published on social networks was in the last 10th place.