World Blitz Championship

Magnus Carlsen will be defending his title in Moscow over the next three days.
A gruelling three day 38-round marathon from the 16th to the 18th of November will decide the next champion.

Here are the participants who will be competing, noting that only a small number of them were present last year.

Karjakin (3rd in 2009) and Kramnik (4th) as well as renowned Blitz player Hikaru Nakamura are the players who are perhaps the most likely to snatch Carlsen's crown.

SeedNameCountryClassical RatingAgeWorld rank2009 standing
01Magnus Carlsen NOR (2802) 1921
02Levon Aronian ARM (2801) 28312
03Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2791) 3544
04Alexander Grischuk RUS (2771) 2765
05Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE (2763) 2589
06Sergey Karjakin RUS (2760) 2093
07Ruslan Ponomariov UKR (2744) 27117
08Teimour Radjabov AZE (2744) 2312-
09Pavel Eljanov UKR (2742) 2713-
10Boris Gelfand ISR (2741) 421417
11Hikaru Nakamura USA (2741) 2315-
12Peter Svidler RUS (2722) 34236
13Sergei Movsesian SVK (2721)3224-
14Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS (2720) 2026-
15Fabiano Caruana ITA (2709) 1832-
16Maxime Vachier Lagrave FRA (2703) 2036-
17Dmitry Andreikin RUS (2683) 2054-
18Rauf Mamedov AZE (2660) 2283-
19Boris Grachev RUS (2654) 2491-
20Boris Savchenko RUS (2632) 24124-

The ages demonstrate that Blitz is very much a young players realm with many player's in their early twenties. Carlsen is second youngest (after Caruana) with veteran Boris Gelfand hoping to perform better than in 2009.

For more information go to the Official site


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