FIDE World Rapid Team Championship

The FIDE World Rapid Team Championship followed the Swiss system with 12 rounds. The tournament rules ensured inclusivity, diversity, and fair representation by requiring each team to include at least one female player, and at least one player in each team, who has not achieved a FIDE Standard, Rapid, or Blitz Rating of 2000 Elo points or be unrated.[2]

The list of participants of the championship included former world champions, such as Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Hou Yifan, Mariya Muzychuk and Alexandra Kosteniuk, as well as World Championships runners-ups, World Cup winners, and former world champions in rapid and blitz chess.[3]

Approximately 300 participants worldwide, including over 15 Olympic champions, formed up 36 teams to compete.[4]

Prior to the start of the tournament, FIDE pointed out the following teams as some of the strongest and clear favorites, due to the squad experience and average team rating[10]

• Freedom (Richard Rapport, Viswanathan Anand, Daniil Dubov, Santosh Gujrathi Vidit, Evgeniy Najer, Polina Shuvalova, Alexander Shapiro);[4]
• WR Chess (Ian Nepomniachtchi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa R, Hou Yifan, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Wadim Rosenstein);[4]
• Kompetenzakademie Allstars (Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Gukesh D, Sebastian Siebrecht, Nino Batsiashvili, Keti Tsatsalashvili, Rainer Becker, Manfred Schneider);[4]
• Chess Pensioners (Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Leinier Dominguez, Darmen Sadvakasov, Jovanka Houska, Kristof Barati, Dennis Koenig, Miron Ananiev, Yaroslav Ananiev).[4]

The FIDE World Rapid Team Championship adopted a team-based Swiss tournament format. Teams, consisting of six to nine players, competed against each other in 15-minute games with an increment of 10 seconds per move. The scoring system awarded teams with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss in each round. The team with the highest amount of match points at the end of the tournament was crowned as the World Team Rapid Champion.[2]

The championship offered a total prize fund of €250,000. In case of a tie, the prize money would be shared equally among the tied teams.[10][11][12]

The tournament spanned over three days.[5]

With a record of two draws and ten wins out of 12 matches, the inaugural FIDE World Rapid Team Championship was claimed by the team WR Chess. Securing a total of 22 matchpoints, they emerged victorious. In the second position was team Freedom with 20 matchpoints, while team MGD1 secured the third spot with 18 match points. The fourth place was clinched by Team Armenia, while a surprising fifth place was attained by Team Germany and Friends.[2][13]

Wesley So, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Praggnanandhaa R, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Jan Gustaffson, Wadim Rosenstein, Vincent Keymer, Hou Yifan, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Ian Nepomniachtchi,

In the crucial Round 5, team WR Chess defeated the first-ranked team Freedom with a distinguished score of 5:1. While Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Praggnanandhaa, Hou Yifan, and Wadim Rosenstein won their games, Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi drew their matches versus Vishy Anand and Daniil Dubov, respectively.[2][13]

The dynamic squad, Columbus Energy KingsOfChess from Kraków, earned the top spot in the under-2400 rating category. Additionally, the eleven-year-old prodigy Christian Glöckler from Hesse won the special prize for the best game by a young player. Ranked fifth globally in his age group, Glöckler showcased his immense talent, adding to the achievements of German chess.[2][13]

• The official website of the FIDE World Rapid Team Championship