ASTANA — The International Chess Federation (FIDE) World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships 2024 will start today in the Kazakh capital and last until Aug. 5, according to the FIDE’s press service.
Ding and Carlsen meet in Kazakhstan for WRBTC 2024. Photo credit:www.chess.com
The event features 350 players representing 39 teams, including world champion Ding Liren from China, and top-rated player Magnus Carlsen from Norway. The competition gathers current and former Open and Women’s world champions and many of the world’s strongest players competing for a prize fund of 350,000 euros (US$377,634).
The five-day championship will consist of two tournaments. The Rapid tournament, scheduled for Aug. 2-4, will be a 12-round Swiss tournament. The time control for this segment will be 15 minutes, with a 10-second increment per move starting from the first move.
Following the Rapid tournament, the Blitz tournament will take place on Aug. 5-6. This event will begin with a pool stage, consisting of a round-robin format with no more than seven rounds. The top 16 teams from the pool stage will advance to the knockout stage. The Blitz tournament’s time control will be three minutes, with a two-second increment per move starting from the first move.
Bibisara Assaubayeva, Alisher Suleimenov, Aldiyar Ansat, Darmen Sadvakassov, Meruert Kamalidenova, Ramazan Zhalmakhanov, Arystanbek Urazayev, and others will represent Kazakhstan.
“With elite international players and non-professionals in each team, this promises to be a very exciting and dramatic event for the chess world,” said tournament director Pavel Tregubov.
