Magnus Carlsen APPLAUDS Hikaru Nakamura in Opening Ceremony of World Rapid Blitz Chess Championship

Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, the two finalists of the thrilling Speed Chess Championship on chess.com, are among a star-studded field competing in the World Rapid & Blitz Championship which begins in Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 26.

For the 7th year since 2016, the prestigious speed chess event will take place from December 26-30. While questions about the scheduling of the World Rapid & Blitz during Christmas continue to come up, it remains immensely popular among fans, with most top players returning every year.

Magnus Carlsen, with an incredible 7 gold medals (3 rapid and 4 blitz), 3 silver and 2 bronze in the last 10 years, will be back and is once again the huge favourite. Carlsen took both titles in 2014 and 2019, but scored a disappointing 12th place in the blitz and 3rd in the rapid in Warsaw last year.

The Norwegian will be particularly eager to take back a World Championship title or two, as he is in danger of being without a single title for the first time since 2013.

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125 Comments

  1. HAHAHAHAH guys only this part of stadium is empty because of security and the other parts were full 😀

  2. SO MANY FANS IN THE STADIUM!
    DAMN!
    Compared to this , the Olympiad in India was Absolutely Nothing!

  3. I am looking forward to this event!
    These are amazing athletes.

  4. Can someone explain the tournaments in chess? Which are most important etc? There's so many different world this world that lol

  5. Jeez, they are announcing their name & the titles like they both are going into WWE ring for real as if it's a chessboxing 😂

  6. Give it up for the 5-time U.S Champion "Hikaru Hakamura" as the lady announcer said.

  7. Magnus has to win this week, if he loses to Hikaru again in back to back speed chess tournaments Hikaru will be saying to Magnus "Who's your Daddy?" — to me Magnus lately looks tired, stressed, pale and drawn while Hikaru looks confident but humble, well rested, and relaxed.

  8. They have tens of thousands people watching them live online and they decide to make it only for invited people? Why? Are the players feeling good in an empty arena? It must be so awesome to have that shit filled up with fans…

  9. We should cancel chess. There is barely anything going on. Magnus clapping hikaru is chess news. Seriously. I love chess. But this is embarrassing

  10. Damn that hall looks dark af! Goodluck to all players

  11. It's time for chess to start opening up, there are millions of fans all over the world. This covid sht has to end. They should broadcast the events like the world cup.

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