Thursday, 28 December 2023

2023 World Rapid and Blitz - Day 2

 Day 2 once again saw a number of upsets in the Rapid section of the 2023 World Rapid and Blitz. Magnus Carlsen started with another win, before slowing down with draws in the next 3 rounds. This allowed Vladimir Fedoseev and Yangyi Yu to catch him on 7/9. There is now a large pack of 13 players half a point off the lead.

One player who bounced back strongly after a slow start was GM Anton Smirnov. After score 1.5/5 on  day 1, he reeled of 3 straight wins  and a round 9 draw to end day 2 on 5 points. New Zealand representative Felix Xie would also be pleased with his second day results, scoring 2/4 to move up to 2.5/9.

Today is the final day of the Rapid, with 4 rounds to be played. In the case of a tie for 1st place, there will be playoffs arranged, which may involve up to 8(!) players.

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