First Day of 2015 World Chess Blitz Championship Ends with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Sole Posession of First Place
· At the end day 1 of the World Chess Blitz Championship, Vachier-Lagrave, a French grandmaster, leads Magnus Carlsen of Norway by a 0,5 point margin;
· 2 other grandmasters trail the leader by 1 point: Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Leinier Dominguez Perez of Cuba;
· The Blitz World Champion will be crowned October 14 after 10 more rounds of play
October 13, 2015 – BERLIN, GERMANY – Today marks the fourth day of the FIDE World Chess Rapid and Blitz Championship in Berlin, and the start of the Blitz Championship.
After 11 rounds of play, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France leads the tournament, with 9.5 points. The defending Blitz World Champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who won the Rapid Championship yesterday, is in second place with 9 points.
They are followed by 2 grandmasters: Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Leinier Dominguez Perez of Cuba (the 2008 Blitz Champion), who are a further 0.5 back. In the last round, Karjakin beat Carlsen, pinning the first loss of the tournament on the defending champion.
There are 188 players playing in the Championship.
The final 10 rounds will be played Wednesday, October, 14. The games will start at 2 PM, Berlin time. After the final round, there will be an awards ceremony for both the Rapid and the Blitz Championships, followed by a press conference with the Blitz Championship medalists.
The World Chess Rapid and Blitz Championships have had huge, enthusiastic crowds throughout the first four days. Several thousand spectators have visited Bolle Meierei, the site of the tournaments, and hundreds of thousands of people have watched live video and streaming of the games on Worldchess.com, the new official broadcasting Web site for championship events.
Tournament photos are available for media on the official tournament Web site: www.berlin2015.fide.com/gallery. For high-resolution images, please contact media@agonlimited.com.
The full results of World Chess Rapid and Blitz Championship Day 4 are at www.berlin2015.fide.com/results. The live broadcast is at www.worldchess.com.