India’s R Vaishali won the bronze medal in the women’s category of the World Blitz Chess Championship and thus after Koneru Humpy won the title in the rapid event here, the country’s players continued their excellent performance at the end of the year 2024. Vaishali defeated China’s Zhu Jiner 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals but lost to another Chinese opponent Xu Wenjun 0.5-2.5 in the semi-finals.
This competition was completely dominated by Chinese players. China’s Xu Wenjun won the world title by defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5. Five-time world champion and International Chess Federation (FIDE) vice-president Vishwanathan Anand congratulated Vaishali for her efforts and said it was a great way to end the year. Anand wrote on X, “Congratulations to Vaishali on winning the bronze medal. He really performed brilliantly. Our WAKA Chess Mentor (Westbridge Ananda Chess Academy) has done us proud.
It was a great way to end 2024.” In the open category, world number one Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the blitz title as there was no clear winner after three sudden-death games. After this both the players agreed to share the trophy. This is the first time that the title has been divided between two players.
“We were both tired,” Carlson told reporters afterward. I know that some will like our decision and some will not. We could have continued the game but sharing the title was a good solution. It was a good way to end the tournament.”
This was Carlsen’s second major win this week as he was thrown out of the Rapid Championship a few days ago due to a dress code violation but ultimately the world body was forced to recall the star player. Carlsen came to the Rapid Championships wearing jeans and refused to wear formal trousers. The world body disqualified him but later allowed Carlsen to wear jeans in the blitz competition.
Disclaimer: Prabhasakshi has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.