FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019

The FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019 was the first world championship in Fischer Random Chess officially recognized by the international chess federation FIDE.[1] The competition started on April 28, 2019, with the first qualifying tournaments, which took place online and were open to all interested participants. After several rounds, a last round was played in the form of a Final Four from October 27 to November 2, 2019, in the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Bærum in Norway. The winner of this last round was Wesley So, defeating Magnus Carlsen, with score 13.5–2.5, to become the first world champion in Fischer Random Chess. Over the course of the competition, various time controls were applied, with longer games being weighted more heavily.[2]

Wesley So won the final.
Credit: Lennart Ootes
Magnus Carlsen finished in second place.
Credit: Lennart Ootes
Ian Nepomniachtchi playing against Wesley So.
Credit: Lennart Ootes
Ian Nepomniachtchi, while castling, lifted the rook before the king, which is not allowed.
Credit: Lennart Ootes

Rounds

The championship included several rounds with different time controls, organizational forms and access requirements.

First qualifying round

The first qualifying round was open to all interested chess players without a title and was played online via the chess server chess.com. Each of 32 groups played a Swiss-system tournament with 9 rounds and a time control of 10 minutes for the entire game plus an increment of 2 seconds per move. The top 5 players from each group qualified for the second qualifying round, for a total of 160 players.

Second qualifying round

The second qualifying round was open to the 160 qualifiers from the first qualifying round as well as all FIDE title holders. Each of 12 groups played a Swiss-system tournament with 9 rounds, also with a time control of 10 minutes plus 2 seconds increment. The top 7 players from each group qualified for the third qualifying round, for a total of 84 players.

Third qualifying round

The 84 qualifiers from the second qualifying round were divided into 6 groups of 14 players each. Each group was supplemented by two invited chess players. Each group of 16 players played a single-elimination tournament. In each round of the tournament, the two players played a “minimatch” consisting of two games with opposite color assignments. In case of a tie, another minimatch with shorter time control was played, and another one with even shorter time control if the tie persisted. If there was still no decisive result after the third minimatch, the pairing was decided by an Armageddon game.

While the first two qualifying rounds brought a number of surprises, the winners of the third qualifying round were all near the top of the FIDE world rankings in standard chess. Nevertheless, some prominent players were knocked out, including Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk and Leinier Domínguez. The following 6 players qualified for the quarterfinals:

Name Federation FIDE rating
Ian Nepomniachtchi  Russia 2775
Alireza Firouzja  Iran 2685
Vidit Gujrathi  India 2703
Peter Svidler  Russia 2737
Vladimir Fedoseev  Russia 2681
Wesley So  United States 2763

Two more players were seeded directly into the quarterfinals: The loser in the World Chess Championship 2018 in standard chess, Fabiano Caruana, and the loser in the unofficial Fischer Random world championship match 2018, Hikaru Nakamura.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals were played from October 4 to 6. The first day saw matches between pairs of players. On the second day, the four losers played each other in pairs in a sort of repechage. On the third day, the winners of the first two days played each other in pairs. The three winners qualified for the semifinals: Caruana, Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Each match of the quarterfinals consisted of two “slow” rapid games (45 minutes for 40 moves plus 15 minutes for the rest, without increment), two “fast” rapid games (15 minutes plus 2 seconds increment) and 2 blitz games (3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment). The games were weighted differently: 3 points for each slow rapid game, 2 points for each fast rapid game and 1 point for each blitz game. Only one match was tied after the 6 games, the one between Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja on the first day. Nepomniachtchi won the deciding Armageddon game.[3][4]

Day 1

Peter Svidler 5 7 Fabiano Caruana
Wesley So 3 9 Hikaru Nakamura
Vladimir Fedoseev 8 4 Vidit Gujrathi
Alireza Firouzja 6 7 Ian Nepomniachtchi

Day 2 (repechage)

Vidit Gujrathi Alireza Firouzja
Wesley So Peter Svidler

Day 3

Vladimir Fedoseev 5 7 Wesley So
Hikaru Nakamura Fabiano Caruana
Ian Nepomniachtchi Alireza Firouzja

The matches between Caruana and Nakamura and between Nepomniachtchi and Firouzja ended when a player won by reaching 6½ points. The match between So and Fedoseev was also already decided after the third game with 6½:1½ points in favour of So. Nevertheless, the two players decided to play the remaining three games, even though they were no longer relevant for the qualification for the semifinals.[5]

Semifinals and finals

The semifinals and the finals took place from October 27 to November 2. In the semifinals, the three qualifiers from the quarterfinals were joined by the world champion in standard chess and the unofficial world champion in Chess960, Magnus Carlsen. The schedule was as follows:

Date Event Format
October 27 semifinals, games 1 and 2 45 min for 40 moves + 15 min for the rest, 3 points for a win
October 28 semifinals, games 3 and 4
October 29 semifinals, games 5 to 8 15 min + 2 s increment, 2 points for a win
semifinals, games 9 to 12 3 min + 2 s increment, 1 point for a win
semifinals, tiebreak (armageddon, if needed) 5 min for white, 4 min for black, white has to win, black wins by drawing or winning
October 30 rest day
October 31 finals / match for third place, games 1 and 2 45 min for 40 moves + 15 min for the rest, 3 points for a win
November 1 finals / match for third place, games 3 and 4
November 2 finals / match for third place, games 5 to 8 15 min + 2 s increment, 2 points for a win
finals / match for third place, games 9 to 12 3 min + 2 s increment, 1 point for a win
finals / match for third place, tiebreak (if needed) 4 min for white, 5 min for black, white has to win

Semifinals

Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 TB Total
Slow rapid Fast rapid Blitz Armageddon
3 points per game 2 points per game 1 point per game 1 point per game
Magnus Carlsen 0 3 3 1 2 0 2 Not
required
12½
Fabiano Caruana 3 0 0 1 0 2 0
Ian Nepomniachtchi 0 0 1 0 1 Not
required
5
Wesley So 3 3 1 2 1 13
Starting position[6] 744 744 357 357 67 67 642 642

So won the semifinal match against Nepomniachtchi by reaching a score of 13-5 in the third fast rapid game. Carlsen won the semifinal match against Caruana by reaching a score of 12½-7½ in the last fast rapid game. Thus, So and Carlsen qualified for the final, while Nepomniachtchi and Caruana played for third place.[7]

Finals

The bracket below shows the first-place match between Carlsen and So as well as the third-place match between Nepomniachtchi and Caruana. The matches took place concurrently. So won the championship, defeating Carlsen 13½-2½. Nepomniachtchi beat Caruana 12½-5½ to take third place.[8]

Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 TB Total
Slow rapid Fast rapid Blitz Armageddon
3 points per game 2 points per game 1 point per game 1 point per game
Magnus Carlsen 0 0 0 1 0 Not
required
Wesley So 3 3 3 1 2 13½
Ian Nepomniachtchi 0 3 3 2 1 2 Not
required
12½
Fabiano Caruana 3 0 0 0 1 0
Starting position[6] 294 294 729 729 253 253 381

References

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