Interview with Bibisara Assaubayeva , 2021 FIDE World Women's Blitz Champion

"Before the tournament, I thought taking 10th place would be good because I think I am not too strong in blitz."

An applause is heard on the broadcast, as Duda wins and should likely have secured at least a playoff!

Madness as MVL, Duda and Firouzja all win and tie for 1st place, and it's looking as though Alireza may miss out on the playoff (but will win a bronze medal)!

A roller-coaster game ends with a win for Vachier-Lagrave, which means this is Carlsen worst performance in a World Blitz Championship ever.

Three decisive results in a matter of few seconds!

Alireza Firouzja, Duda and Vachier_Lagrave win their games!

Alireza Firouzja won his last 5 games, but it seems it wasn't quite enough!

3 results, 30 seconds 🤯

Vachier_Lagrave plays lights out with the white pieces, knocking out Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja takes it over Aronian, and Duda moves on versus Artemiev in the #RapidBlitz!

Carlsen: "This is not close to be good enough." and "I have to just realise that I wasn't even close to be good enough this time. It's disappointing. What to say? Some days it just doesn't work, and that was the case today."

It's confirmed that Firouzja finishes 3rd, so while all 3 get $50,000, it's Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who will play a tiebreak for the gold medal!

Carlsen on losing his #1 spot on the blitz ranking

🏆 Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will play the playoffs for the first place. Alireza Firouzja wins the bronze medal.

Who will you be rooting for in the playoff?
anonymous poll

Jan-Krzysztof Duda – 5
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 56%

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – 4
👍👍👍👍👍👍 44%

👥 9 people voted so far.

Live: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DH0uabAi1J4

Some days you just don't have it. I was nowhere close to the level I needed to be today. Good outcome for the public though, pretty sure no chess fan wanted to see Alireza in the playoffs anyway. Good luck to Duda and MVL!

🔗 Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen)

The first game is a draw, and now the players keep playing game after game until someone finally wins! (because we had to have only a 2-player tiebreak to ensure everything was over fast and to a fixed schedule😀)

The first tiebreak game ends in a draw!

The second game has begun!

Maxime is pressing with the black pieces!