World Blitz Chess Championship 2023: Carlsen, Gunina win titles; Indians falter in big matches

Indians faltered in the big matches and fell short of securing podium finishes in both sections after Magnus Carlsen lived up to his reputation and Russia’s Valentina Gunina proved a worthy champion in the World Blitz Chess Championship in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Saturday.

In a second successful title defence in less than 48 hours, Carlsen retained the World blitz crown to go with the World rapid trophy and underlined his reputation as the strongest player across formats.

Starting the day among the joint leaders, the Norwegian suffered a loss to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the 13th round but recovered to win the next six rounds and drew the next two for a winning tally of 16 points from 21 rounds.

For Carlsen, the reigning World Cup winner, this was the seventh World blitz title and 17th World title across formats.

For first-time winner Gunina, too, the lone loss on the final day did not hurt her plans. The overnight leader, seeded a distant 24th, won the last two rounds for a tally of 14 points from 17 rounds.

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The Indians had a poor final day. Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin, the duo among the overnight leaders failed to get going on the home stretch.

Arjun lost to Carlsen and Levon Aronian, besides being held four times. His victories over R. Praggnanandhaa, Ian Nepomniachtchi and last-round rival Baadur Jobava were only good enough for the seventh spot.

Nihal, luckless and winless on the final day, tumbled to the 43rd place after losing three games, including the last two, and drawing seven times.

Among the women, 12th seed D. Harika finished seventh after losing the final round. On this day, she drew the first four rounds and lost the 14th, and won the next two before the loss to Zhu Jiner shatter her dreams of a possible medal.

Meanwhile, the FIDE decided to take away the half-points earned from a farcical draw enacted by Russians Ian Nepomniachtchi and Danill Dubov in the 11th round on Friday.