FIDE, the International Chess Federation, in a piece published on Tuesday, announced there are 100 days before the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships are set to take place in Doha, Qatar. While they have kept last year’s format for the Blitz, featuring a Swiss followed by a Knockout, the second stage will feature just four players instead of eight. FIDE’s CEO and GM Emil Sutovsky provided an explanation for the format change.
The format is mostly the same as last year, with 13 rounds of rapid in the open championship and 11 in the women’s. The major change is in the Blitz, where we have seen an increase in the number of rounds in the Swiss stage and a decrease in the number of players who will qualify for the Knockout.
There will now be 19 rounds of blitz played in the open tournament and 15 in the women’s, an increase from 13 and 11 last year, respectively. Only the top four players will play on the last day of the blitz championships, starting with the Semifinals. Sutovsky explained the rationale in an email, mentioning that they spoke to several players and that the change has been received positively:
We felt KO was a really attractive format, but last time having top-8 led to many non-games in the last round. Also starting the KO from just 4 players allows for more rounds in the Swiss – so one bad game can’t ruin your tournament, and also those who do not qualify have more chances to play – and not just one day of blitz.
Last year, the first stage of the blitz championships took place on one day and the second on the next, so that everyone who wasn’t one of the eight qualifying players was left spectating or making the most of their time in New York elsewhere. This time, players who fly to Qatar will get to play on all five days. The first 13 rounds of the Swiss take place on December 29th, while rounds 14-19 are on the 30th followed by the Knockout on the same day. The Women’s tournament features the same deal, except it’s 10 rounds on day one and the last five rounds are on day two, followed by the Knockout.
GM Rafael Leitao, who analyzes the Game of the Day for Chess.com in our news reports, responded optimistically to the news. He told Chess.com, “I really like this new system, I think it’s better than the previous one. With more rounds to play no one can complain about the lack of luck, while keeping the attractive knockout format for the spectators. I’m looking forward to it!”
With more rounds to play no one can complain about the lack of luck, while keeping the attractive knockout format for the spectators.
—Rafael Leitao
Last year was the first time that the blitz championships featured two stages; before then, it was a long Swiss tournament. 2023 featured with 21 rounds, for instance. This year’s announcement marks a clear departure from that format and a preference for the knockout portion to decide the champion.
It’s going to be even tougher to make it to the final stage of the blitz events. To give you an idea, 10 players last year finished with 9.5/13, so GMs Daniil Dubov and Daniel Naroditsky were left out of the final eight by tiebreaks. In this year’s format, it means that six players would have been left out of the Knockout; at the same time, we can expect fewer cagey draws in the last rounds.
The major point of controversy in last year’s FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship was the agreement between GMs Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi to conclude their match and share the title, despite regulations that required them to play on until there was a decisive result. This year, in the Knockout, if a match is tied after four games then a final sudden death game will decide the match.
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