World Blitz Championship wrap up

Levon Aronian wins the World Blitz Championship
Radjabov takes silver, Carlsen bronze

The 2009 World Rapid Champion Levon Aronian defended his fame of strong fast game player and won the 2010 edition of the World Blitz Chess Championship. After 38 rounds Levon Aronian gained 24,5 points, which was enough to conquer the World Blitz Chess Champion title.

Second place is for Teimour Radjabov, who finished just 1/2 points behind Aronian. Radjabov had a difficult start, being in the bottom half of the table after day 1, trailing full 3 points behind the leaders. In day 2 he managed to score 8,0/14, including a win with black over Aronian, and climbed to shared 3rd-5th. In the last day Radjabov was the only one to challenge the leader’s position. He started with 7,0/8, but lost game 37, which could have put him in favorable position for the title. A win in the last game of the tournament secured the silver medal for Radjabov.

Magnus Carlsen, the defending World Blitz Champion, finished 3rd a point behind Aronian. The bronze medal came after yet another good performance by the Norwegian young talent. With strong first day Carlsen was top of the table after the 14 games. The second day started with a disastrous 3,5/9 for Carlsen, which allowed Aronian to have a 1,5 points lead at the end of the day. Despite playing better in day three, the gap was too big for Carlsen to close, and he finished clear 3rd.

Scroll down for standings and videos. More videos can be found at the previous report.

More about Levon Aronian

Standings

1 GM Aronian, Levon ARM 2801 24.5
2 GM Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2744 24
3 GM Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2802 23.5
4 GM Gelfand, Boris ISR 2741 21.5
5 GM Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2741 21.5
6 GM Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2760 20.5
7 GM Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2791 20.5
8 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2763 19.5
9 GM Svidler, Peter RUS 2722 19.5
10 GM Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2742 19
11 GM Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2771 19
12 GM Mamedov, Rauf AZE 2660 18
13 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2720 18
14 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2703 18
15 GM Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2721 17.5
16 GM Andreikin, Dmitry RUS 2683 17.5
17 GM Grachev, Boris RUS 2654 16.5
18 GM Savchenko, Boris RUS 2632 15.5
19 GM Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2709 13.5
20 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2744 12.5