World Rapid and Blitz Championship sees major Indian participation

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Indian chess players picked up impressive seeds at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, with Arjun Erigaisi ranked 12^th in the blitz section and D. Harika ranked 4^th in the women’s division for the rapid section.

Other Indians to feature include Koneru Humpy, who is a former champion, and along with Harika is representing India again after the Chess Olympiad that was held in Mahabalipuram. Among the men, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin are expected to produce impressive performances. The tournament will include 13 rounds of rapid games held over three days, followed by 13 rounds of blitz games held over two days, that will begin on December 30. Magnus Carlsen will also participate, to win his 8^th gold medal at the event, where he has so far collected a total of 12 medals since his first appearance in 2012.

The top five seeds for the open category in the rapid section are Magnus Carlsen, Richard Rapport, Hikaru Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The top five seeds for the open category in the blitz section, meanwhile, are Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen, Yu Yangyi and Vladislav Artemiev.

In the women’ division, the top 5 seeds for the rapid and blitz sections, respectively, are Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kateryna Lagno, Tan Zhongyi, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Nana Dzagnidze. The World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship is set to kick off in Almaty and Kazakhstan on Monday.