Magnus Carlsen wins sixth Rapid World title; Koneru Humpy joint top but settles for bronze

NAGPUR: Magnus Carlsen is nothing but the undisputed king of 64 squares. A day after he suffered a seventh-round defeat to Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev, the fighter in him emerged on Sunday and he won five successive games to take the world rapid crown for a record sixth time in Doha, Qatar.

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At the end of the 12th and penultimate round in the World Rapid Championships, Carlsen jumped to sole lead with 10 points and within just touching distance from regaining the title he had lost last year, while Artemiev and Hans Niemann trailed him jointly on nine points.

In the final round, Carlsen played out a quiet 24-move draw with Anish Giri to emerge champion with 10.5 points.




India No.1s Arjun Erigaisi and Koneru Humpy won bronze medals in the open and women’s sections. While two-time champion Humpy secured her fourth medal, Arjun became only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to register a podium finish in the open section. Anand had won the rapid title in 2017.

Arjun had missed the medal by half a point in the last three editions. In Doha, too, he was almost out of medal contention after losing the 11th round, but bounced back to win the penultimate and the last round.

As luck would have it, the joint second leaders drew, and Arjun found himself on the podium by just a half-point margin in the tiebreak. Arjun, who was joint third with 8.5 points after the 12th round, outclassed Aleksandr Shimanov of Russia to finish joint second on 9.5 points with Artemiev, Niemann, and Leinier Dominguez Perez.


Both Artemiev and Niemann drew their last games with Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, respectively, while Perez defeated young Yagiz Kaan, who had stunned Arjun in the 11th round.

Artemiev took the silver with a tie-break score of 105.5. Based on his Buchholz tie-break score of 98, Arjun prevailed over the other two.

Russian Grandmaster Aleksandra Goryachkina clinched the women’s title after beating China's Zhu Jiner in a play-off.

It was heart-break for defending champion Koneru Humpy. The India No. 1 had tied with Jiner and Goryachkina on 8.5 points at the end of the 11th and final round, but her poor tie-break score meant the 38-year-old had to be content with bronze medal.

With a better Buchholz tiebreak score of 72.5-71.5 than Humpy’s 69, Jiner and Goryachkina entered the play-off to decide the winner.

As per Fide rules, in case of a tie for the first position, only the top two players in women will advance to a playoff — two blitz games — whereas in the open section all those in a tie will enter the play-off.

If only the same open rule had been applied to the women!