For the first time in World Blitz Championship history, the open section has two champions after Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to a draw after tiebreakers in the final with the score at 3.5 - 3.5.
(Side note - Carlsen was, of course, wearing jeans in the final)
Meanwhile, reigning classical women's champion Ju Wenjun added the blitz title to her glittering resume after a hard-fought 3.5 - 2.5 win over compatriot Lei Tingjie. Earlier, Ju had beaten India's Vaishali Rameshbabu 2.5 - 0.5 in the semifinal.
Open section - Carlsen & Nepo
After having walked out of the Rapid Championship (where he was having a poor showing) after being disqualified from round 9 for wearing jeans, Carlsen made a U-turn on his decision to not play the Blitz championship and reminded the chess world what all the fuss was about. He beat Hans Nieman 2.5 - 1.5 in the quarterfinal (where he trailed 0.5 - 1.5 at one point) before brushing aside Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3.0 - 0.0 and strolling into the final.
On the other side, Nepomniachtchi started with a 2.5 - 0.5 win over teenage sensation and newly crowned Rapid champion Volodar Murzin before battling past Wesley So 3.0 - 2.0 to set up a rematch of the 2021 classical World Championship in the final.
The final started with Carlsen on the attack, and he took an early 2 - 0 lead and needed only a draw in the third match to take the crown. Nepomniachtchi, though, dug deep to pull out two wins in the next two must-win games to force the match into tiebreaks. After three draws in sudden death tiebreakers, Carlsen offered that they share the title and Nepomniachtchi agreed.
This is Carlsen's eighth Blitz title (and 18th major chess tournament triumph) while this is Nepomniachtchi first. This meant that serial runner up Nepomniachtchi (three times in Rapid, twice in Classical and once in Blitz) finally broke his finals curse.
Magnus Carlsen suggested to Ian Nepomniachtchi to share the first place! #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/GILoLJai58
- International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 31, 2024
"I thought at the point we had already played for a very long time, and I was first of all very happy to end it. I thought at that point it would have been very very cruel on both of us if one gets the first and the other gets second. So I thought it would be a reasonable solution," said Carlsen about the offer to share the title.
Women's section - Ju
Reigning classical champion Ju Wenjun smashed her way to the final with straightforward 2.5 - 0.5 wins against Valentina Gunina and Vaishali in the quarters and semis respectively. Vaishali, who had topped stage 1 yesterday, beat Jiner Zhu with a comeback 2.5 - 1.5 in the quarters but couldn't do much about the Ju juggernaut in the semi.
On the other side of the draw, Lei beat Bibisara Assaubayeva 2.5 - 1.5 in the quarter before a hard-fought 3.5 - 2.5 win over Kateryna Lagno in the semi to set up a rematch of the 2023 classical World Championship.
The final started with five straight draws and little to separate the two players from China (the third was a marathon 153 move battle) before Ju stepped it up in game 6.
���� Lei Tingjie and ���� Ju Wenjun draw their second game of the final. After the game they left the stage together and as Maurice Ashley said: "They're acting like sisters! #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/rI9ufYttnJ
- International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 31, 2024
"Lei Tingjie is a very strong Blitz player and I was just more lucky. I think we both played well. In Game 6 she played this opening I luckily checked earlier in this tournament," said Ju after her win that underlined her dominance of the women's chess world.