World Rapid & Blitz Championship 2024: Format, schedule, prize money Details — All you need to know

The 2024 edition of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships will take place at Wall Street, New York, from December 26 to 31.

With interest in Indian chess at an all-time high following D Gukesh’s win in the World Chess Championship, hopes will be high for India’s top chess talents to compete against the world’s best.

Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen will aim to defend his title, which he won in Samarkand in 2023.

FORMAT

The format for the World Rapid Championship will follow a Swiss system, with 13 rounds in the Open Rapid format and 11 in the Women’s Rapid format. The player with the most points at the end will be declared the World Rapid Champion.

The World Blitz Championship will also follow the Swiss system initially, with 13 and 11 rounds for Open Blitz and Women’s Blitz, respectively. Upon completion of these rounds, the top eight players will progress to Stage 2, a knockout format, to determine the winner.

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TIME CONTROLS

For the World Rapid Championship, each round will have a time control of 15 minutes, with 10-second increments per move starting from move 1.

For the World Blitz Championship, each round will have a time control of 3 minutes, with 2-second increments per move starting from move 1. 

TIE-BREAKS RULES

If two or more players finish on the same number of points, the tie is broken by the following criteria:

• 1. Buchholz Cut 1
• 2. Buccholz
• 3. Average rapid/blitz rating of Opponents Cut 1 
• 4. Direct encounters between the players in tie
• 5. Drawing of lots  

TOP INDIANS IN ACTION

Several Indians will be in action in both tournaments. 

Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggananandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani, Sandipan Chanda, Aravindh Chithambaram, Harsha Bharathakoti, Pranav V, Bharath Subramaniyam, Diptayan Ghosh and Karthik Venkataraman will be in action in the Open Blitz and Open Rapid. 

In the Women’s Blitz and Women’s Rapid, Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Vantika Agrawal, Sahithi Varshini M, Padmini Rout, and Priyanka Nutakki will be India’s representatives. 

SCHEDULE (ALL TIMINGS IN IST)

World Blitz Championship: 

Women’s World Rapid Championship:

Women’s World Blitz Championship: 

PRIZE MONEY

The total prize money for the Open tournaments is $1,000,000 (approximately Rs 8.5 crore), with $90,000 awarded to the first-place player in both. In the World Rapid Championship, prize money is divided equally among players with the same number of points. In the World Blitz Championship, prize money is divided equally among players who finish with the same number of points but do not qualify for Stage 2.

For the women’s tournaments, the total prize money is $428,500 (approximately Rs 3.6 crore), with $60,000 awarded to the first-place player in both. As with the Open tournaments, prize money in the Rapid Championship is divided equally among players with the same number of points. In the Blitz Championship, it is divided equally among players who finish with the same number of points but do not qualify for Stage 2.