World Blitz Chess Championship Preliminaries
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave takes clear first place, five other also qualify
Report by Chessdom

The 2010 World Blitz Championship Preliminaries were held on 18th February 2010 in Moscow, Russia. The qualifier was part of the Aeroflot Open 2010 and it took place in the same venue – complex “Izmailovo”.

System of play was Swiss with 9 double rounds (players alternating colours). Rate of play was G-3’+2”. The final standing order of players is determined by the number of points scored. Should two or more players tie for a qualifying place, the tie is resolved by Median Buchholtz score (i.e. Buchholz score without the best and the worst results). Top six players qualify for the World Blitz Chess Championship.

World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France won six matches, drew three, and took the clear first place with 13.5 individual points. The key win was 2-0 against Dmitry Jakovenko in the final round.

Seven players shared the 2nd place, with 13 points each, but only five qualified for the final event. By the additional criteria, these players are: Bu Xiangzhi (China), Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan), and Russians Boris Grachev, Boris Savchenko and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The participants of Aeroflot open tournaments A1 and A2 were admitted without the entry fee. Other interested players had to be rated above 2400 FIDE, pay 300 EUR entry fee and spend two nights at the official hotel.

The total prize fund was 40,000 EUR, with 10,000 EUR reserved for the winner.

The 2010 World Blitz Chess Championship – final tournament – will be held during the Tal Memorial, on November 2010, in Moscow. The final will consist of 20 players: 10 participants of Mikhail Tal Memorial, 6 winners of the Qualification Tournament of Feb.18, 2010 and 4 wild cards named by the Organizers.

The 2009 champion was Magnus Carlsen.

Final standings (Full standings here):

Place SNo. Title Name
Fed. FIDE Total MBch. Bch.
1 5 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
FRA 2730 13.5 71.50 92.00
2 16 GM Bu, Xiangzhi
CHN 2673 13.0 79.00 100.00
3 23 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian
RUS 2658 13.0 74.50 96.50
4 38 GM Mamedov, Rauf
AZE 2640 13.0 72.00 91.00
5 40 GM Savchenko, Boris
RUS 2638 13.0 71.50 90.50
6 26 GM Grachev, Boris
RUS 2653 13.0 70.00 90.00
7 29 GM Dreev, Alexey
RUS 2650 13.0 66.00 84.50
8 37 GM Van Wely, Loek
NED 2641 13.0 64.50 81.50
9 3 GM Eljanov, Pavel
UKR 2736 12.5 66.50 85.00
10 41 GM Kobalia, Mikhail
RUS 2637 12.0 71.00 90.50
10 48 GM Rodshtein, Maxim
ISR 2622 12.0 71.00 90.50
12 35 GM Bareev, Evgeny
RUS 2643 12.0 70.00 92.00
13 24 GM Efimenko, Zahar
UKR 2657 12.0 63.50 81.00
14 39 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav
FRA 2639 12.0 60.50 78.00
15 4 GM Jakovenko, Dmitry
RUS 2730 11.5 79.50 101.00
16 6 GM Karjakin, Sergey
RUS 2720 11.5 74.50 95.50
17 42 GM Andreikin, Dmitry
RUS 2635 11.5 73.00 93.50
18 15 GM Moiseenko, Alexander
UKR 2677 11.5 72.00 90.50
19 2 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan
UKR 2737 11.5 71.00 92.50
20 57 GM Romanov, Evgeny
RUS 2599 11.5 69.00 88.00
21 53 GM Potkin, Vladimir
RUS 2611 11.5 67.00 83.00
22 36 GM Predojevic, Borki
BIH 2642 11.5 66.00 84.50
23 11 GM Bologan, Viktor
MDA 2692 11.5 63.50 82.50
24 49 GM Iturrizaga, Eduardo
VEN 2616 11.5 63.00 82.00
25 60 GM Bocharov, Dmitry
RUS 2594 11.5 57.00 70.00
26 7 GM Bacrot, Etienne
FRA 2713 11.0 76.50 98.00
27 32 GM Le, Quang Liem
VIE 2647 11.0 73.50 93.50
28 82 IM Pridorozhni, Aleksei
RUS 2548 11.0 71.50 90.50
29 31 GM Korobov, Anton
UKR 2648 11.0 70.50 90.00
30 27 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan
IND 2653 11.0 69.00 88.00
31 10 GM Kamsky, Gata
USA 2693 11.0 67.50 87.00
32 20 GM Riazantsev, Alexander
RUS 2661 11.0 62.50 79.50
33 9 GM Motylev, Alexander
RUS 2697 11.0 62.00 81.00
34 43 GM Amonatov, Farrukh
TJK 2634 11.0 59.50 74.50
35 112 GM Salem, A.R. Saleh
UAE 2484 10.5 68.50 86.00
36 1 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
AZE 2741 10.5 67.50 87.00
37 63 GM Rakhmanov, Aleksandr
RUS 2591 10.5 66.50 83.00
38 8 GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny
RUS 2705 10.5 63.50 81.50
39 46 GM Volkov, Sergey
RUS 2623 10.5 63.00 81.50
40 51 GM Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son
VIE 2616 10.0 74.00 95.00
41 55 GM Ehlvest, Jaan
USA 2600 10.0 74.00 93.50
42 28 GM Timofeev, Artyom
RUS 2652 10.0 72.00 92.50
43 34 GM Milov, Vadim
SUI 2644 10.0 69.00 90.00
44 90 GM Shimanov, Aleksandr
RUS 2535 10.0 69.00 87.50
45 50 GM McShane, Luke J
ENG 2616 10.0 68.50 88.50
46 101 GM Wen, Yang
CHN 2513 10.0 67.50 86.50
47 18 GM Zhigalko, Sergei
BLR 2668 10.0 67.50 84.50
48 72 GM Maslak, Konstantin
RUS 2571 10.0 66.50 83.50
49 58 GM Belov, Vladimir
RUS 2595 10.0 63.50 82.50
50 59 GM Lenic, Luka
SLO 2595 10.0 63.50 80.50
51 44 GM Zhou, Jianchao
CHN 2632 10.0 62.50 83.50
52 136
Lou, Yiping
CHN 2416 10.0 62.00 78.50
53 70 GM Yudin, Sergei
RUS 2573 10.0 61.00 76.50
54 21 GM Cheparinov, Ivan
BUL 2660 10.0 60.50 76.50
55 64 GM Hou, Yifan
CHN 2590 10.0 59.50 76.50
56 61 GM Safarli, Eltaj
AZE 2594 10.0 59.00 76.00
57 30 GM Inarkiev, Ernesto
RUS 2649 10.0 57.50 73.00
58 67 GM Melkumyan, Hrant
ARM 2583 9.5 75.00 95.50
59 81 IM Papin, Vasily
RUS 2548 9.5 73.00 93.00
60 65 GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan
IRI 2589 9.5 72.50 90.50
61 13 GM Naiditsch, Arkadij
GER 2687 9.5 72.00 91.00
62 25 GM So, Wesley
PHI 2656 9.5 70.50 91.00
63 14 GM Sargissian, Gabriel
ARM 2680 9.5 66.50 84.00
64 17 GM Smirin, Ilia
ISR 2668 9.5 63.50 81.00
65 22 GM Vescovi, Giovanni
BRA 2660 9.5 60.50 79.00
66 120 IM Durarbeyli, Vasif
AZE 2453 9.5 60.50 78.50
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar February 20, 2010 Daily News, General News, Major Tournaments 3 Comments
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