MGD1, a chess management team from Puna, India, won last week’s Fide World Rapid Championship in London despite starting as only the sixth seeds. Both the No 1 seeds, WR Chess, and the third seeds, Malcolm’s Mates — effectively the England national team — finished well out of the medals.
Arjun Erigaisi led the Rapid gold medal team and MGD1 showcased its wares with its amateur board P Tayade Atharvaa, who totalled a mighty 11 out of 12. According to the rules, he had never been rated above 2000 across the board, but turned out to be playing at above 2800 online. It also emerged that he had been a serious talent in his early teens but had renounced chess in favour of a better paid career.
In contrast, WR Chess’s weak point was its amateur player and sponsor, Wadim Rosenstein, who scored only four out of 12 and also allegedly took a move back, which is one of the cardinal chess sins.
Nevertheless I have some sympathy with Rosenstein, a tech billionaire whose initiative in 2023 launched the World Rapid and Blitz Teams, which was backed by the Scheinberg family of PokerStars fame at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. There are many worse ways on which to spend your fortune than on your favourite hobby.
As a result of Rosenstein’s largesse, chess fans were able, for instance, to watch the rare sight of the all-time world No 2 woman Hou Yifan back in action with an unbeaten 5.5/7, and of Russia’s new prodigy, 10-year-old Roman Shogdzhiev, making his debut in a tournament in the west. Shogdzhiev did not disappoint, scoring 5/8, losing only once, and performing at the 2500 grandmaster level.
Malcolm’s Mates, named after the England international director Malcolm Pein, suffered due to the low scores on the two top boards of Luke McShane, who totalled 2/9, and Gawain Jones. who scored 3/8. Jones did have one stellar moment, though, in the fourth round, after he had lost his first three games and was then paired with USA’s Levon Aronian, who had won his first three.
In an even position, the game ended abruptly at move 26 when Aronian blundered his knight and resigned immediately. McShane also recovered in the blitz. where, relegated to fourth board, he made the team’s best score of 10 out of 12.
At age 55, the former world champion Vishy Anand rolled back the years to brilliantly defeat the current world No 4 Erigaisi, with 25…Rxb2! the highlight move.
All the dozen Russian players received their visas promptly apart from the world No 9, Ian Nepomniachtchi, whose passport was in a different city. Nepomniachtchi belatedly arrived in time for the World Blitz last weekend, and led WR Chess to victory.
WR defeated Uzbekistan 9-3 in the blitz final after another controversial episode. Most of the WR team arrived two minutes late for their quarter-final against Germany, and lost the first round 4-2. After their defeat they then successfully appealed on the grounds that they had not been made aware of the correct start time on What’sApp. All the other teams were there at the appointed time. The original result was annulled, and WR won the replayed match 8.5-3.5.
Magnus Carlsen won the 2022 World Blitz Championship after a similar late arrival for a game with just half a minute on his clock.
Puzzle 2628
Denis Garrido v WIM Cholleti Sahajasri, Chess.com Titled Tuesday 2025. Black to move and win.
Click here for solution
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