Clockwise from top left: India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, Norway's Magnus Carlsen, China's Ju Wenjun, and Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia
Doha, Qatar: The world’s top chess players have descended in Doha ahead of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships Qatar 2025, scheduled to run from tomorrow, until December 30 at the Sports and Events Complex of Qatar University.
World number one Magnus Carlsen arrives in Doha as the top seed in both the Open Rapid and Open Blitz events.
A five-time World Rapid champion and eight-time World Blitz champion, the Norwegian maestro highlights the star cast, which also includes reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju of India and China’s Ju Wenjun, the five-time women’s world champion and current world number one.
The Open field features an elite cast including Dommaraju, Carlsen, reigning rapid chess world champion Volodar Murzin, World No.2 and world blitz co-champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk and former World Rapid Champion Vasyl Ivanchuk.
Rising stars Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, R Praggnanandhaa, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and Ediz Gurel are also in contention in the open events.
The Women’s championship will feature 130 players, led by World No.1 Ju Wenjun, who is also the current world champion in women’s blitz. She will be joined by Tan Zhongyi, Alexandra Goryachkina, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Anna Muzychuk, Maria Muzychuk, world rapid women’s champion Koneru Hampy and Kateryna Lagno.
The championships bring immense pride to Qatar as Doha becomes the only city to host the World Rapid and Blitz Championships twice.
The historic event is also set to reward the winners and features a total prize fund of over €1m.
A lump sum amount of €700,000 is allocated for the open events and €300,000 for the women’s events - split equally between rapid and blitz contests, while the top prize stands at €70,000 each for the Open Rapid and Open Blitz champions.
The women’s winners will receive €40,000.
The Rapid championship will be played over 13 rounds in the Open section and 11 rounds in the Women’s event, using a time control of 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move.
The Blitz competition will begin with a Swiss phase of 19 rounds in the Open and 15 rounds in the Women’s section.
The top four players from each will advance to four-game knockout semi-finals.
Doha last hosted the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in 2016, when Ivanchuk claimed the Rapid title and Sergey Karjakin won the Blitz crown.
