Sergey Karjakin Leads World Blitz Championship

Valentina Gunina shares 2nd place in the women’s event.

11 rounds of the King Salman World Blitz Championships among men and women were played in Riyadh on December 29.

An incident happened as early as in round 1 of the open tournament: Ernesto Inakiriev, who had a tough position with Magnus Carlsen, made an illegal move (his king was in check) in a severe time trouble. The World Champion didn’t see it and continue playing, then the Russian grandmaster stopped the clock and called up an arbiter to claim the win. His demand was met. However, the Chief Arbiter Takis Nikolopoulos overruled the arbiter's decision to declare the game lost for Carlsen, and the game was supposed to go on. Ernesto refused to continue playing, after which the game was declared a win for Carlsen. Inarkiev appealed this decision but his claim was not satisfied.

Sergey Karjakin (Russia) is leading the pack of the open tournament with 9 points out of 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) is half a point behind. Peter Svidler (Russia), Wang Hao, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi (all from China), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) have scored 8 points.  

Round 12 pairings

Pia Cramling (Sweden) is the leader of the women’s tournament - 9.5/11. Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) and Valentina Gunina are trailing by 1 point. Kateryna Lagno (both from Russia) and Nataliya Buksa (Ukraine) have got 8 points. 

Round 12 pairings

Official website

Photos from official website