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Powerhouse WR Chess Takes Early Lead

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Powerhouse WR Chess Takes Early Lead

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WR Chess, led by GM Wesley So, rose to clear first on day one of the World Rapid Team Championship 2023, winning all of their matches so far.

The top seed, GM Viswanathan Anand‘s Freedom, had a rocky fourth round, nearly losing to GM Pentala Harikrishna‘s Team MGD1. With the entire match on the line, GM Raunak Sadhwani scored a critical victory vs. GM Richard Rapport to save his team from the jaws of defeat. 

The World Rapid Team Championship continues on Sunday, August 27, at 7:30 a.m. ET / 13:30 CEST / 5:00 p.m IST.

See what happened

You can click here to find all the details of what happened during the event, including games, results, standings, and more, as part of our live events platform.

The inaugural World Rapid Team Championship features six-nine player teams with a unique blend of professional players, top women, and amateurs on each one. The novel format, faster time control, and inclusion of amateur players alongside professionals make the event accessible to a wider audience. GM Maurice Ashley, a commentator for the event, shared his thoughts:

“I think this new format is really interesting because you do have this combination of males and females on the same team. I think that’s going to be one interesting dynamic you don’t see too often. But I think the real wild cards are the amateurs.

A lot of times, amateurs are unpredictable. You don’t know what’s going to happen in those games. And you can imagine, the match is tied, and the thing that’s going to decide who’s going to win the match is the result of the amateur game. That’s going to be crazy, seeing like five GMs staring down the amateur board, all the pressure’s on. Will you win the game or not? And the games are going to be like defibrillators, heart machines. Who’s going to win?”

Many top players have joined in for this innovative event, including two former world champions, Anand and GM Vladimir Kramnik.

Kramnik’s team, the Chess Pensioners, led by GM Dominquez Leinier. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

There are five players from the world top ten playing: GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, So, Anand, and Rapport. GM Hou Yifan, the highest ranked woman in the world, is competing. Many strong prodigies, including GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, have also joined the action. 

At the close of the World Cup, Caruana shared his anticipation for this tournament.

The event is also free and open to spectators with the opportunity to watch the commentators live on-site as they create the broadcast. 

The roster for WR Chess is strong that recent World Cup runner-up, Praggnanandhaa, is board five. The team features five super-GMs: So, Nepomniachtchi, Abdusattorov, Jan-Krysztof Duda, Praggnanadhaa, and Vincent Keymer, along with two women’s world champions, Hou and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. They cruised to four convincing victories today to claim clear first. 

In round one, as they faced FIDE Management Board team, the encounter between GM Nigel Short and Abdusattorov was a wild matchup between the old guard and younger generation. Both players headed to an unorthodox position that suited their mutually creative styles. Abdusattorov set the board on fire with his imaginative and unsound 39…Ne5!? 

Short called his bluff, accepting the sacrifice, and Abdusattorov conjured a vicious kingside attack. To survive, the English grandmaster sacrificed both his rooks in an inventive attempt to create a perpetual check.

Even FIDE Management created a team of their own, led by GMs Bologan Victor and former world championship challenger, Nigel Short. Photo: Nika Riga/FIDE.

WR Chess’s round two match vs. Six-pack turned out to be their closest victory due to the opposing team’s star of the day, GM Aravindh Chithambaram, who scored an upset victory vs. So. After the American grandmaster achieved a well-coordinated and centralized middlegame position with black, Aravindh fearlessly counterattacked, activating his forces and chasing back So’s to wrangle the advantage away from the world number eight.

In the third round, they achieved a near sweep of Ashdod Elit Chess Club, scoring 5.5/6. Hou won the battle of women’s world champions vs. GM Mariya Muzychuk. Entering the queen ending with five pawns vs. five, Hou went on a pawn-grubbing rampage, ending with four passers to zero. 

Hou Yifan has been more active competitively during her summer break from her day job as a professor. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

Even when faced off against another team that was leading for three rounds, Columbus Energy KingsOfChess Krakow, the WR Masters nearly cleaned house with a 5-1 match win in round four. Only GM Szymon Gumularz was able to prevent a shut out with a combination using three tactical themes, fork, discovered attack, and intermezzo, to upset Keymer.

Team MGD1 and Freedom are tied for second with 3.5/4. In round three, Team MGD1 achieved a critical victory vs. Caruana’s team, the Kompetenzakademie Allstars. GM Nihal Sarin led the way with an upset win vs. GM Levon Aronian. With a knight sacrifice, the Indian prodigy set up a remarkable zugzwang six moves ahead. 

Nihal has been a major asset to MGD1, playing every round today and going undefeated. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

In the last round of the day, Freedom and Team MGD1 faced off a neck-and-neck matchup. Four of the grandmaster-laden boards finished in draws, and the fate of the match rested on Raunak vs. Rapport and the amateur board, Alexander Shapiro vs. Peter Anand.

Shapiro came through for Freedom to win with the black pieces, putting Raunak in a must-win position to save his team. Rapport’s queen and bishop stared menacingly into his kingside, yet Raunak was up for the challenge, running his king to safety on the queenside and taking command of the game in the queen ending. Fighting his way through two promotion races to finally convert his advantage, Raunak secured the draw for MGD1, tying with their opponents on the leaderboard. 

Raunak came through when his team needed it most. Photo Niki Riga/FIDE.

The day overall was loaded with creative play, daring sacrifices, and astonishing upsets. In addition to his win vs. So, Aravindh defeated another super-GM, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in round four. Can you find the stunning move that jumpstarted his victory?

White to move.

Aravindh was unstoppable today. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

Vachier-Lagrave had his own shining moment when he played a strategic queen sacrifice vs. IM Nikolas Lubbe in round two. His remaining pieces steadily improved, eventually building up overwhelming dynamic play. As Ashley described: “Yes, you have the queen, but my pieces are dancing.”

GM Parlam Maghsoodloo went for an all-or-nothing king attack vs. IM Georgios Souleidis in round two, allowing the complete demotion of his queenside and even letting his opponent promote to a second queen before completing his hunt of the white monarch. 

Day two will kick off with the anticipated matchup of the top two seeds, WR Chess and Freedom. Team MGD1 will face the Vachier-Lagrave-led ASV AlphaEchecs Linz.

Standings – Day 1 (Top 20)

All Games – Day 1

The World Rapid Team Championship 2023 takes place August 25-28, 2023, in Dusseldorf, Germany. The format is a 12-round team Swiss. The time control is 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment starting on move one. Official website.



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