Magnus Carlsen has completed the double for a second year in a row by winning both the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Samarkand. A loss to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was followed by a 6-game winning streak as he took the Blitz half a point ahead of Daniil Dubov, who was left to regret his forfeit loss the day before. Vladislav Artemiev took bronze. Valentina Gunina slowed down on Day 2 of the Women's Blitz, but still took gold ahead of Alexandra Kosteniuk, with Zhu Jiner claiming bronze.

Watch the World Blitz Championship: Open | Women

The brigade got back

The second day started with a few of the heavyweights climbing back to the top boards of the tournament. Among them, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave created the biggest of the bangs when he defeated Magnus Carlsen, fresh off the blocks in the very first game of the day. MVL showcased one of his strongest skills, his endgame play, to defeat probably the best-ever endgame player in the history of the game—and that with an exchange sacrifice.

Vachier-Lagrave played a great endgame against a great endgame superstar | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

And showing that even the mighty need their own ways of coping with setbacks, Carlsen needed a break to deal with it too.

Along with Vachier-Lagrave, another heavyweight to climb back to the top boards was Levon Aronian who blazed a trail with a six-win streak in rounds 10-15. However, it ended suddenly with an unexpected mishap on the top board in the 16th round. 

Still to his credit, Aronian climbed back in the standings to set up the final round clash against Carlsen on the top board, which ended in a draw.

Carlsen and Aronian about to begin their final round game | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

Levon crowd-sourced some advice before that game.

Second-seeded Fabiano Caruana was another to stage an impressive comeback, after his brutal no-draw first day of eight wins and four losses. He almost made it for a fight for the medals—except for an unfortunate loss against Dubov.

Caruana suffered an unfortunate loss against Dubov in the 17th round | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

In the women's section, it was Humpy Koneru who made the best comeback of the day, scoring six points out of seven games in rounds 9-15. But among them was a crucial game against Valentina Gunina, where Humpy missed a smooth win.

White's 63.Rf3?? is a blunder, and Humpy could have won here easily with 63...Qg1+ when the next 64...Qg4+ picks up the white rook. The game ended in a draw in 114 moves. Humpy's Waterloo was against Kosteniuk in the 16th and penultimate round, when she lost a 219-move (!) marathon.

The angry Carlsen

After his loss against Vachier-Lagrave in the 13th round and a stroll by the lake, Carlsen returned to the tournament hall to start a six-game winning streak. The most beautiful among them was his short tactical delight against Alexey Sarana. The tactical melee starting with 12.Rxb7 and followed up with 15.Nxe6 created an aesthetically beautiful attack. Though Carlsen didn't continue the game optimally, he was rewarded with a blunder in the final seconds.

Carlsen's tearing six-game streak concluded with his hitting a score of 15 points in 19 games, ending as the sole leader. This elicited quite a valid reaction on X.

Another remarkable story involves Daniil Dubov, who refused to be bogged down by the happenings of the previous day and scored a heavy 6.5 points in 8 games to reach 14.5 points and second place just behind Carlsen. Apart from the above win against Caruana, Dubov's other brilliance was against Yu Yangyi.

Strangely, Dubov didn't attempt to fight for the title in the final two rounds, preferring two quick draws against Baadur Jobava and Dmitry Andreikin. He finished second with 15.5 points. Theoretically, his score can be equal to Carlsen's if one discounts the half-point penalty from the previous day.

Vladislav Artemiev finished a creditable third with 15 points. He benefitted from the above oversight by Aronian in addition to his simple but beautiful win against Peter Svidler.

Dubov's partner-in-mishap from the previous day, Ian Nepomniachtchi, suffered an unusual oversight in the last round, much to the shock of the commenting Viswanathan Anand. It was hilarious to hear the former world champion shout, "Bishop d8, bishop d8..." a total of six times, before bellowing, "Ian! Bishop d8." Sometimes, commentating can be stressful too.

The much-expected quest to the Candidates 2024 through the FIDE circuit by performing well at this tournament did not end in any success for Anish Giri or Arjun Erigaisi. This means that Gukesh Dommaraju is now confirmed to take the seat, joining fellow Indian GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Vidit Gujrathi.

Three Indian Candidates—Vaishali, Praggnanandhaa, and Gukesh—with Arjun | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

Gunina's resilience

Leading the tournament with 9.5 after the first 10 rounds, Valentina Gunina had established a two-point lead over the trailing pack of players that included Alexandra Kosteniuk. However, scoring just 2.5 points in the next five games to reach 12 points shrunk her lead to just half a point after the 15th round. Gunina had also tasted her only defeat of the tournament in the 15th round against Zhu Jiner. Kosteniuk had scored four points in these five games.

However, Gunina's wins over Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk in the final two rounds settled the title in her favor, the latter being singled out for praise by commentator Peter Leko: "Gunina is playing a positional masterpiece in the last round." Our Game of the Day has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.

What does the title mean for the champion? Gunina admitted:

Gunina receives a deserved hug from Nepomniachtchi | photo: Lennart Ootes, FIDE

Replay the World Blitz Championship: Open | Women