Arjun, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit, Nihal, Raunak, Humpy and Harika set to play at World Rapid and Blitz Team 2024

by Shahid Ahmed - 02/08/2024

The second edition of FIDE World Rapid Team Championship is starting today in Astana, Kazakhstan. A total of 12 Indians are going to take part, third after Kazakhstan 159 and Kyrgyzstan 13. Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani, S L Narayanan, Pranav V, B Adhiban, Srinath Narayanan, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and Mihir Shah will be representing their respective teams. A total of 303 players in 39 teams representing 32 countries are slated to take part. The total prize fund in Rapid is €250000, for Blitz €100000. The top three prizes in Rapid are €100000, 60000 and 40000 each, for Blitz €40000, €25000 and €17500 each respectively. There will be four rounds every day from 2nd to 4th August 2024. Round 1 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 3 p.m. IST. Photo: Sagar Shah

A strong World Team event starts today

Our very own Cofounder and CEO of ChessBase India, IM Sagar Shah and Head of ChessBase India Hindi - FI Niklesh Jain, are present at the venue. We will bring you a detailed coverage of both Rapid and Blitz events.

Both World Champions - Wenjun Jun (CHN) and Ding Liren (CHN) will play for the same team - Decade China | Photo: Sagar Shah

FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship will take place from 1st to 6th August 2024 | Photo: Official site

Kazakhstan's first two GMs - Yevgeniy Vladimirov and Darmen Sadvakasov | Photo: Sagar Shah

The gallery was packed with audience during the opening ceremony | Photo: Niklesh Jain

A vibrant and colorful opening ceremony | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The World Champions - Wenjun Ju and Ding Liren | Photo: Sagar Shah

World Junior champion - Kazybek Nogerbek (KAZ) and WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola (LAT), Deputy Chair, FIDE | Photo: Sagar Shah

The no.1 ranked woman - GM Yifan Hou (CHN) lights up the cauldron with the FIDE Torch | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The Arena where opening ceremony took place | Photo: Niklesh Jain

For more Torch Relay and Opening Ceremony photos, please click here and here.

A heart to heart conversation with World Champion Ding Liren | Video: ChessBase India

We travelled an entire day to meet the World Champion | The Mumbai to Astana Vlog | Video: ChessBase India

The spectacular torch relay ceremony in Kazakhstan | Video: ChessBase India

Team composition

Each team will consist of at least six and maximum nine players. Apart from having to include at least one female player, just like last year, teams will have to include a recreational player, who has never achieved a Standard, Rapid or Blitz FIDE rating of 2000 or more. It is not mandatory for the teams to have board order as per rating. For more details, please check the tournament regulations, link provided at the end of the article.

Format

The 12-round Swiss League team event has a time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment from move no.1. There is no default time. No penalty shall be imposed on a player if he/she is late for any of his/her games. Scoring is usual for a team event. Match points: Win = 2, Draw = 1 and Loss = 0. For Blitz, the time control is 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment. Blitz event will be played in two stages - Pool and Knockout. Check out the Blitz Pool Process and Tournament Regulations at the end of the article for more details.

Teams

There are 39 teams in total. Here are the four teams which comprises at least one Indian player.

Team-Composition

Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games	Rp
1. WR Chess Team (RtgAvg:2582 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Gustafsson,Jan
1	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	2827	NOR	1503014			0	0
2	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2753	FID	4168119			0	0
3	GM	Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	2742	POL	1170546			0	0
4	GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	2732	UZB	14204118			0	0
5	GM	Hou, Yifan	2550	CHN	8602980		w	0	0
6		Rosenstein, Wadim	1887	GER	24148148	R		0	0
7	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	2688	IND	25059530			0	0
8	GM	Keymer, Vincent	2645	GER	12940690			0	0
9	GM	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2485	SUI	4128125		w	0	0
3. Chessy (RtgAvg:2528 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Sutovsky,Emil
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games	Rp
1	GM	Rapport, Richard	2702	ROU	738590			0	0
2	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2677	IND	5029465			0	0
3	GM	Van Foreest, Jorden	2659	NED	1039784			0	0
4	GM	Sarana, Alexey	2648	SRB	24133795			0	0
5	GM	Koneru, Humpy	2456	IND	5008123		w	0	0
6		Ainakul, Mukhtar	2025	KAZ	13727354	R		0	0
7	GM	Martirosyan, Haik M.	2612	ARM	13306553			0	0
8	GM	Muzychuk, Anna	2404	UKR	14111330		w	0	0
9	IM	Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan	2342	TUR	44599790			0	0
6. Team MGD1 (RtgAvg:2453 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Narayanan,Srinath
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games	Rp
1	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	2671	IND	35009192			0	0
2	GM	Narayanan, S L	2595	IND	5058422			0	0
3	GM	Sadhwani, Raunak	2576	IND	35093487			0	0
4	GM	Pranav, V	2495	IND	25060783			0	0
5	GM	Adhiban, B.	2504	IND	5018471			0	0
6	GM	Narayanan, Srinath	2437	IND	5018420			0	0
7	GM	Dronavalli, Harika	2415	IND	5015197		w	0	0
8		Shah, Mihir	1954	IND	46628878	R		0	0
7. Ashdod Chess Club (RtgAvg:2434 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Slav,Moshe
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games	Rp
1	GM	Nihal, Sarin	2664	IND	25092340			0	0
2	GM	Eljanov, Pavel	2635	UKR	14102951			0	0
3	GM	Volokitin, Andrei	2580	UKR	14107090			0	0
4	GM	Moiseenko, Alexander	2545	UKR	14102560			0	0
5	GM	Khotenashvili, Bella	2399	GEO	13602640		w	0	0
6		Tanikin, Isabek	1783	KAZ	13728717	R		0	0
7	GM	Alekseev, Evgeny	2543	ISR	4138147			0	0
8	GM	Smirin, Ilia	2513	ISR	2801990			0	0
9	GM	Golod, Vitali	2374	ISR	2804140			0	0

Details

Schedule

Rapid and Blitz schedule | Source: Official site

Replay Opening Ceremony Live stream

World Rapid and Blitz Team 2024 Opening Ceremony | Video: FIDE

Venue

The venue for the event will be Astana, Kazakhstan

Prize

The total prize fund is €250000 in Rapid and €100000 in Blitz. There are six prizes in Rapid - top five and one rating category. The top three prizes are: €100000, 60000 and 40000 each respectively. Best U2400 will earn €12500. For Blitz, there are four prizes with a total of €100000. They are - €40000, €25000, €17500 and €17500 each.

Team list

No.	Team	RtgAvg	Captain
1	WR Chess Team	2582	Gustafsson,Jan
2	Decade China Team	2559	Ni,Hua
3	Chessy	2528	Sutovsky,Emil
4	Al-Ain ACMG UAE	2519	Khader,Sami & TeamDirector: Al Taher,Hisham
5	Kazchess	2510	Dauletova,Gulmira
6	Team MGD1	2453	Narayanan,Srinath
7	Ashdod Chess Club	2434	Slav,Moshe
8	GMHans.com	2416	Niemann,Hans
9	Q4Rail Kingsofchess Krakow	2392	Pakleza,Zbigniew
10	Royal Chess	2390	Vahidov,Tair

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

Blitz Pool Process Regulations