Doha: Magnus Carlsen was crowned the winner of the Qatar 2025 World Rapid Chess Championship after defeating Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final match, allowing the Norwegian player to win both the rapid and blitz titles of the championship hosted at the Sports and Events Complex at Qatar University.
The final match saw Carlsen defeat Abdusattorov in the second and fourth encounters, while the Uzbek player won the first encounter and they drew in the third.
In the semi-finals, Carlsen drew against the American Fabiano Caruana in the first and second encounters before winning the third and fourth, while Abdusattorov defeated India’s Arjun Erigaisi in the first and third encounters before they drew in the third match.
Erigaisi had topped the rankings in the rapid chess competitions after his decisive draw with his compatriot Nihal Sarin, the 25th seed in the tournament, at the end of the nineteenth round, raising his score to 15 points, which he collected from 12 wins, six draws, and one loss against the Dutchman Jorden van Foreest.
Magnus Carlsen, the world number one, was in third place with 13.5 points, followed by Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who obtained 13 points.
Carlsen, the winner of the Qatar 2025 World Rapid Chess Cup, secured his place in the semi-finals after drawing against Abdusattorov in the nineteenth round, having previously managed to win a difficult encounter against France’s Maxime Lagrave in the 18th round.
Carlsen achieved victory in 11 matches, drew in 5 encounters, and suffered three losses against Erigaisi, Caruana, and Armenia’s Haik Martirosyan.
Regarding the Qatari players, Hussein Aziz obtained 7 points after achieving victory in 7 matches and losing 12 matches, while Ahmed Seif, Ibrahim Al-Janahi, and Khaled Al-Jumaat managed to obtain five points during the 19 rounds, while Hamad Al-Kuwari earned 4 points and Fahad Al-Mansouri 3 points.
, Regarding the Arab players, the Emirati Salem Abdul Rahman came in 40th place with 11.5 points while the Egyptian Bassem Amin ranked 159th with 9 points, followed by his compatriot Hamed Wafaa in 191st place with 8 points, and the Syrian Mazen Fandi in 200th place with the same score but trailing by move count, and the Omani Imran Al-Hosani in 210th place with 7.5 points.
Kazakh Assaubayeva clinches women’s title
In the women’s category, the Kazakh Bibisara Assaubayeva was crowned the champion after defeating the Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk, the world champion of the Qatar 2016 edition, in the final.
The Kazakh Bibisara Assaubayeva drew with the Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk in the first, second, and third encounters in the final before winning the fourth encounter.
The Kazakh Bibisara Assaubayeva had defeated the Chinese Zhu Chener in the semi-finals in 3 matches, while the Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk, the world champion of the Qatar 2016 edition, defeated the Dutch Eline Roebers in the first and third encounters before drawing in the second and the Dutch player winning the fourth.
The Kazakh Bibisara Assaubayeva topped the overall rankings with 11 points from 14 rounds, the Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk came in second place with 11 points, then the Dutch Eline Roebers, “19 years old”, with 11 points, followed by the Chinese Zhu Chener with the same score.
The five-time world champion, the world number one Chinese player Ju Wenjun, came in 17th place with 9.5 points.
The Chinese player Li Tingyi, the world number two and former women’s world champion, achieved 8.5 points to come in 46th place.
Qatari Female players performance
Regarding the Qatari female players, the former world champion Zhu Chen came in 101st place to top the list of Arab female players with 6.5 points after achieving victory in 4 matches against the Bulgarian Beloslava Krasteva, the Mexican Tania Rodriguez, the Georgian Keti Tsatsalashvili, the Spanish Redondo Rodriguez, and the Turkish Odun Gulunay, while she drew with the Chinese Li Yufei, the Russian Maria Yakimova, and Aleksandra Zherebtsova from Montenegro.
As for the Qatari national team player Ghada Al-Khulaifi, she obtained two points in her first participation in the world championships.
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