The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2023 opens on Friday, December 25th in Almaty, Kazakhtstan. The event will be held from 25-30 December at the Baluan Sholak Palace of culture and sports.
The Open and Women’s competitions are held separately, with around 180 players in the Open events and 100 players in the Women’s events. The first Championship on the schedule will be the FIDE World Rapid Chess 2023 which will be played from 26-28 December. The Open Rapid Championship will be played in 13 rounds, swiss system, and Women’s Championship will be played in 11 rounds, swiss system. Time control for both tournaments is 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment.
FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2023 will be played over two days 29-30 December. The Open tournament will feature 21 rounds played according to the swiss system, and the Women’s event will be played over 17 rounds. The time control is 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment.
The total prize fund is 1 million USD dollars, with 700,000 USD going to the open championships and 300,000 USD for the women’s championships.
The events gather world top grandmasters, including World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 2859), Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2768), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2766), Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2793), Anish Giri (NED, 2764), Alexander Grischuk (FIDE, 2745), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, 2740), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL, 2729), Yu Yangyi (CHN, 2728), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2737) alongside many other well-known chess players from all over the world.
The FIDE Women’s World Rapid & Blitz Championship will feature Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2584), Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2563), Humpy Koneru (IND, 2572), Tan Zhongyi (CHN, 2518), Nana Dzagnidze (GEO, 2517), Harika Dronavalli (IND, 2507), Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ, 2496), Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (IRI, 2490), Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL, 2442), Alexandra Kosteniuk (FIDE, 2520) and Bibisara Assaubayeva (FIDE, 2440) as well as many other chess stars.
Starting lists of players for each competition can be found here.
Detailed information can be found on the Official website of the event
