The Danish Magnus Carlsen, number one in the world, became the world chess champion in the ‘blitz’ modality this Tuesday, by defeating the Kazakh Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final during the tournament held in Doha (Qatar), in which he already won the title of world rapid champion a few days ago.
In an unbeatable end of the year, Carlsen thus achieved his twentieth world championship, the ninth in the blitz chess modality awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE, for its acronym in French), one of its great specialties, after the triumphs achieved in 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Carlsen, 35, recovered after a hesitant start to the tournament, which he entered as the second best ranked, and defeated Abdusattorov, one of the most precocious talents on the circuit after becoming the youngest rapid world champion in history in 2021. Before, in the semifinals, he defeated the American Fabiano Caruana.
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Abdusattorov started ahead and won the first game of the finals. Carlsen managed to tie the second and then achieved the definitive victory in the fourth round with the black pieces, with a final score of 2.5 – 1.5.
The Kazakh surprised the Indian Arjun Erigaisi in the semifinals, the great dominator of the two days of the tournament and tenth in the world ranking, and sneaked into the final of the tournament at the age of 21, in a day well remembered for Kazakhstan, which featured the victory in the women’s team of Bibisara Assaubayeva, of the same age.
In this way, Carlsen says goodbye to 2025 in an unbeatable way, adding his twentieth world champion title, with five in classical chess mode (2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021), six in rapid chess mode (2014, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2025) and all eight in blitz chess
With information from EFE