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On Wednesday, history was created in chess, when the title tournament at 2024 FIDE World Blitz Championship was shared between two. Defending champion Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen shared the title with his Iranian counterpart Ian Nepomniachtchi after their seven games ended in no result. The proposal to share the title came from Carlsen himself, which the Iranian Grandmaster accepted without any hesitation. In the championship final, Carlsen had a strong start, as he seized victory in the first two games.
The third game saw Nepomniachtchi make an incredible comeback, and kept his chances alive by outplaying Carlsen. The Iranian player ended up winning the rest of the two games, which tied the scores at 2.0-2.0. This pushed the match into sudden death, and both players played three consecutive ties. Seeing that there is no player coming out of the contest, Carlsen proposed the idea to share the title, to which his opponent agreed. This was Carlsen’s eighth title of the FIDE World Blitz Championship, whereas the Iranian won his first.
Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali wins bronze at FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2024
Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali won a bronze medal in the women’s section of the 2024 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2024. She took down her Chinese counterpart Zhu Jiner 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals. However, in the semifinals, she was defeated by Ju Wenjun of China 0.5-2.5. Later, in an all-Chinese final, Ju Wenjun defeated Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5. The Indian Grandmaster had made her way to the quarterfinals by topping the standings with 9.5 points out of 11.
Speaking of the rest of the Indian contingent which had the likes of Koneru Humpy, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandha, were knocked out of the Blitz. Vaishali was the only player remaining in contention for a medal in the Indian contingent. Coming back to Carlsen, he expressed his delight after winning the title and said, “It feels very good to share gold with Nepo. We reached a point where it had been a long day. We played many games, we had three draws and I felt that I could keep playing. But it was a nice solution to share the win, it was a good way to end it."
