FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships

[Simon Myles]

Great opening round pairings for the Sassy Seniors & Wood Green Youth teams in round 1, which starts at 2pm.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Round 1 on 2025/06/11 at 1400
No. Team Team Res. : Res.
1 WR Chess Team Sassy Seniors :
2 Turkish Airlines Sports Club KazChess :
3 Malcolm's Mates Mongolia-B :
4 Berlin Chess Federation Uzbekistan :
5 Freedom Mother Continent :
6 The MongolZ Team MGD1 :
7 Germany and Friends Chess Rising Stars :
8 Noval Group Kyrgyzstan Ashdod Elit Chess Club :
9 Hexamind Chess Team Wood Green Youth :
10 ¡Ållez-Y Initiative! Knight Dance :
11 Team Hungary English Knightmares :
12 OlalaStars Rishon LeZion Chess Club :
13 Generation XYZA ANI :
14 Chess Trust Accelerators Duobeniajan Costa Calida ESJ :
15 Global Ramblers Berlin Lasker Legends :
16 Uppsala SSS Hetman GKS Katowice :
17 FIDE MB Team Oxbridge :
18 The London Legends Barys.kz :
19 Theme International Trading Danish Futures :
20 UK Chess Challenge Masters e-therapeutics :
21 Rookies Hammersmith Chess Club :
22 xChess.AI Wood Green :
23 Perfect Satranc Istanbul :
24 Desert Penguins Sharks 4NCL :
25 Mongolia-A Youth KG :
26 Equity Bank, Kenya ChessbrahTV :

[Roger de Coverly]

It's in lichess at
https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-worl ... 1/ccC7t7LI

(round 1)

[Mick Norris]

FIDE day 1 report

Early surprises at the start of FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships

After four rounds in the Rapid segment, India’s MGD1 stands as the sole leader, having secured victories in all four matches. Three teams share second place – the favourites WR Chess and Freedom, as well as the newcomers to the competition, the British team Malcolm’s Mates.

Nobel Prize-winning biologist and former Royal Society President Venkatraman Ramakrishnan had the honour of making the first ceremonial move.

Originally from India, he took up chess at 19 after moving to the US and briefly played for Ohio University. “I played so much my studies suffered, so I stopped,” he recalled. In an interview, Ramakrishnan pointed out that “AI has revolutionised chess as much as it has revolutionised science”, citing the influence of Demis Hassabis – a prominent chess player and AI pioneer.

[LawrenceCooper]

In an attempt to distract myself from the round 5 Wood Green derby I noticed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sErtRsfpQ with the did he/didn't he touch the knight around two and a half minutes in.

[Ian Thompson]

I noticed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sErtRsfpQ with the did he/didn't he touch the knight around two and a half minutes in.

Ho wasn't even close to touching it. Was the arbiter right not to give Giri some extra time for the disturbance as he requested?

[LawrenceCooper]

I noticed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sErtRsfpQ with the did he/didn't he touch the knight around two and a half minutes in.

Ho wasn't even close to touching it. Was the arbiter right not to give Giri some extra time for the disturbance as he requested?

The general consensus from people I spoke to (including arbiters) was that he touched it and should have been made to move it. I was less sure, maybe the second time he hovered, but I wouldn't rule that he did unless I was certain. You are clearly convinced that he didn't. Given the mix of opinions it seemed a reasonable claim and not someone trying it on to get the game paused.

[Roger de Coverly]

as well as the newcomers to the competition, the British team Malcolm’s Mates.

Impressive scores so far by Malcolm's lower board players.

https://chess-results.com/tnr1182830.as ... t=20&snr=3

Just one draw conceded over 8 games.

[Jonathan Rogers]

well, this is good fun - Anand's win a highlight, and lower down Ameet Ghasi with a brutal win over Shirov. "Malcolm's mates" seemed to be on course for a good result (win or draw) against the top seeds but in the end "only" made 1.5/2 on the lower boards and lost two Blacks higher up.

[John Moore]

Malcolm's Mates (!) recovered by crushing a respectable looking Team Hungary by 5.5-0.5

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The general consensus from people I spoke to (including arbiters) was that he touched it and should have been made to move it. I was less sure, maybe the second time he hovered, but I wouldn't rule that he did unless I was certain."

I didn't think he touched it (watching the video), but Giri should know better than to hover, as it is distracting, and if he had been made to move the knight, it might stop him hovering...

[Carl Hibbard]

He touched the right "ear" of the knight on the second movement from what I can see - but you need a big screen to see it.

[GrahamStuart]

The video on Reddit which has been slowed down seems to show he touched the Knight, although the Arbiter would not have been able to see this easily from the phone which he had to check with.

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments ... pid_teams/

As Kevin states he should know better than to hover over the piece.

[Neil Morgenstern]

I just looked up what I paid for my ticket to see one game of the World Championship match between Carlsen and Caruana in 2018, and apparently it was £55.

[Neil Morgenstern]

He touched the right "ear" of the knight on the second movement from what I can see - but you need a big screen to see it.

From what I recall of the touch-move rule (albeit it may have changed since my main playing days) is that it has to be a deliberate touch, i.e. with the fingers in a way you'd pick it up. If you accidentally brush up against the knight (or any other piece) when you're clearly going to pick up the pawn in front of it (for example) that doesn't make you have to move it.