Chess: Carlsen aims for gold in rapid and blitz on Wall Street this weekend | Magnus Carlsen

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen got off to a poor start on Wall Street as the 34-year-old Norwegian defends his rapid and blitz World Cup crowns against a host of ambitious U.S. and international challengers in New York.

Carlsen only had a score of 50%, 2.5/5, after a series of draws and a loss in the fifth round. His only victory so far came in round two, where he overwhelmed his Montenegrin opponent.

After five of the 13 rounds, the leading quartet with 4.5/5 includes US commentator Daniel Naroditsky and 18-year-old Russian Volodar Murzin, who defeated number 2 seed and US champion Fabiano Caruana.

The opening rounds of the 11-round Women’s World Rapid were a triumph for rising US star Alice Lee, 15, who won all four of her games and is the sole leader. Lee, who rose to prominence last year, faces top seed and reigning women’s world champion China’s Ju Wenjun, half a point behind, in a crucial fifth-round clash on Friday.

The 182-strong field for the World Rapid/Blitz includes 30 Americans and US world Nos. 2 and 3 Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura are sure to be prominent, with Alireza Firouzja of France, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Arjun Erigaisi from India leading the new generation. China is the top three seeds in the Women’s World Rapid/Blitz with 113 participants. The total prize money is $1 million for the open rapid and blitz tournaments, including $428,500 for the two women’s events.

This is the first time that the popular World Speed ​​Championships will be held on American soil, let alone in the center of the international financial world. Rapid chess is defined as 15 minutes per player per game, plus an allowance of 10 seconds per move from the first move, while blitz is three minutes per player per game, plus two seconds per move.

Carlsen has already won five world rapid chess and seven world blitz competitions in his illustrious career, winning both titles in 2022 and 2023. The list of his life’s victories is impressively long and underlines the task that lies ahead of the new classical world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. The 18-year-old from India, who is not competing in New York, wants to match the Norwegian’s successes.

Carlsen’s chess CV above lists 64 major titles, all but nine straight. Gukesh has only won six so far – a world title, a Candidates, three Olympic gold medals and a Fide Circuit, albeit with an age advantage of 16 years.

Rapid is now Carlsen’s favorite format and last week he scored again on the Champions Tour, where most events took place online while the eight-player final was played in Oslo.

It ended with a final between Carlsen and his old rival Ian Nepomniachtchi, whom he defeated in the 2021 world title fight, with the sixth game lasting 136 moves, the longest in the history of the world championship. This time the result was much quicker as Carlsen won 4-1, including a 23-move blow in the final game.

Carlsen is always alert to new developments and his 7 a3 repeated Gukesh’s novelty against Ding Liren from game 13 of the Fide world title game in Singapore, a draw in which the teenager overlooked a victory.

Nepomniachtchi distinguished himself from Ding by castling early, but he lacked the power of the rook-raising 17 Rh3! This is an old and powerful strategy against the French, which reminds me of the shock I experienced as a black man in London against Oliver Penrose in 1948. Here White’s attack on the king quickly proved that the Russian queen’s trip on the opposite side was irrelevant, and Carlsen’s final 23. Qg6! created the irrevocable threat of Ng5 and Qh7 checkmate.

A major threat to Carlsen in New York will likely be the many ambitious Americans, aware of their country’s strong historical record in speed competitions. The first modern U.S. champion Samuel Reshevsky and his contemporary Reuben Fine were both experienced blitz players, while Bobby Fischer won an unofficial world blitz championship in 1970 ahead of the Soviet elite. In recent years, popular streamer Nakamura has been Carlsen’s almost equal in the fast game.

The World Rapid began on Thursday and continues on Friday and Saturday at 19:00 GMT. You can watch the game for free with grandmaster and computer commentary and reviews on lichess.org and other major chess sites.

Between the three-day, 13-round Rapid tournament on December 26th and 28th and the two-day Blitz on December 30th and 31st, Fide organized the Wall Street Gambit, a conference exploring the fusion of chess and finance.

Its highlight will be a keynote address by renowned economist and GM Kenneth Rogoff, who will discuss chess, AI and economics. Carlsen, Caruana and India’s former world champion Vishy Anand will be present. Standard tickets cost $1,000, while VIP tickets for $5,000, which include a blitz game and selfies with Carlsen, have already sold out.

No British players traveled to the World Rapid/Blitz due to the high cost and low chances of winning. For England’s experts, the annual £10,000 Caplin Hastings Masters from December 28th to January 5th is the event of the moment. More than 100 entries range from at least seven over 2500 grandmasters to a long tail where more than half of the field has a rating below 2000.

England’s youngest ever GM, 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, is the top seed for the domestic side, while a likely candidate for an international title is 21-year-old FM Alex Golding, who already has two IM norms and a rating of 2400+ has just won the traditional pre-Christmas blitz tournament in Richmond at Orleans Park School from over 100 entries.

3952: 1 Nh6+ Kf8 2 Nf5! (Threat 3 Rh8 mate) g6 3 Qh6+ Kg8 4 Qh7+ Kf8 5 Qh8+! Bxh8 6 Rxh8 mate. Black can sacrifice his bishops and his queen on g2 and f2, but this only delays mate.