Magnus Carlsen retained his world blitz chess title in St Petersburg with a score of 17/21, defeating Polish Grand Master Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Japanese-American Hikaru Nakamura finished third. This was the Norwegian ace’s 10th world title of his career.
Among the women, Kateryna Lagno won the world blitz title with a score of 13.5/17. International Master Sarasadat Khademalsharieh bagged silver and Chinese Grand Master Lei Tingjie took bronze.
Carlsen, who won the world chess championship last month, remained undefeated in the blitz tournament and earned a point more than last year. Duda impressed with a whopping 16.5 points but earned 124 blitz rating points at the end of the tournament.
“I am just relieved,” Carlsen was quoted as saying by Chess.com. “Today was a very tough day. I was always kind of in front but I was being chased by Duda all the way. It was never easy.
“Yesterday, the score was good and the play maybe not so great. I feel like I am usually best against the best players. Today, I feel like I played very well. I needed every single half point to win,” he added.