Fast chess
The reigning World Blitz Chess Champions are Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia (who shared victory in 2024).
[5] A fast chess game can be further divided into several categories, which are primarily distinguished by the selection of time controls.
When time increments are used, a player can automatically gain, for instance, ten more seconds on the clock after each move.
[13] The use of increment in bullet chess is primarily to avoid issues with latency, as well to discourage playing from a lost position in order to win on time (also known as "dirty flagging").
[16] If there is no increment, then difficult questions arise when players must try to flag in trivial draws,[17] which happened in the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 in the match between Monika Soćko and Sabina-Francesca Foisor.
[20] Some tournaments utilise a bidding system for individual players of each match to decide how little time they would be willing to play with as black.
The player with the lower bid for each match receives the black pieces with draw odds.
This system minimises the perceived unfairness of Armageddon time controls that are decided in advance before a tournament with colours randomly allocated.
Larry Kaufman, Kai Laskos, and Stephen Pohl have tested using engines (Stockfish, Komodo, and Houdini) an alternative solution, allowing for equal times: Black has draw odds, but is not allowed to castle short.
[20] Before the advent of digital clocks, five minutes per side was the standard for blitz or speed chess.
[clarification needed] The Washington Divan (2445 15th St. NW) had regular weekly games and used a special clock that beeped every ten seconds to indicate the time to move.
[25] In some chess tournaments and matches, the final standings of the contestants are decided by a series of games with ever-shortening control times as tie breaks.
However, in case of a dispute during a tournament, either player may stop the clock and call the arbiter to make a final and binding judgment.
As of March 2013, the USCF has also added a separate Blitz class rating for any time control between 5 and 10 minutes per player.
[28][29] The 1988 victory by Anatoly Karpov in Mazatlan was officially called the World Active Championship, but FIDE changed the word 'active' to 'rapid' soon after.
[30] The 2001 victory by Garry Kasparov in the FIDE World Cup of Rapid Chess (organized by the French Chess Federation in Cannes) was held contemporaneously to the Melody Amber rapids (thus splitting the top players between the two events),[31] and it is sometimes considered to be official, although it was never named as a "championship" but rather a "world cup".
[32] Viswanathan Anand won the official FIDE 2003 Rapid Championship at the 6th Cap d'Agde event.
[34] Teimour Radjabov won the 2006 7th Cap d’Agde Rapid Chess Tournament, but this had no FIDE status.
This was shortly after the first USSR versus the rest of the world match (in Belgrade), in which ten of these players also competed.
[40] Fischer won both games against each of Tal, Tigran Petrosian, and Vasily Smyslov; all of them were past World Champions.
That year, Fischer played in a blitz tournament organised by the Manhattan Chess Club, and scored 21½/22.
super-tournament was held in Brussels, Belgium; first prize was shared by Garry Kasparov and Ljubomir Ljubojević.
[42] The 4th World Blitz Championship was held in Almaty in 2008, and it was won by Leinier Dominguez Pérez of Cuba.
[49][42] In 2009 and 2010, there was an event called the World Blitz Championship, held after the Tal Memorial in Moscow in November.
[76] In 2016, the World Rapid Championships were held at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Doha, Qatar.
Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine won the 2016 World Rapid Championship, while Carlsen, after defending his title with difficulty in 2015, came in third place.
Anna Muzychuk also from Ukraine, won both the 2016 Women World Rapid and Blitz Championshipship.
At the FIDE Presidential Board meeting at the end of March 2016, they gave Agon six months to find an organizer for the 2017 event.
