New Delhi: India’s chess icon Viswanathan Anand will among the players who will participate in the World Rapid and Blitz team chess championship, which will be held in London from June 10 to 16.
The five-time world champion will part of the Freedom team helmed by FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsly and is the only Indian in that team.
The event is open to teams from all over the world and can be composed of of club members, members of different federations or any other chess players.
As per tournament rules, each team shall have at least six and not more than nine players, including at least a female player, one recreational player, other than the one indicated in the previous point, who never achieved FIDE Standard, Rapid or Blitz Rating of 2000 Elo points (or unrated) up to and including the March 2025 rating lists.
A captain, who may also be one of the players and each match will be played on six boards. In each match, teams shall have at least one female player, one recreational player.
🔥 Introducing Team Freedom — a dynamic force heading to the 2025 World Rapid & Blitz Team Championships!
From Asia to Europe to the Americas, this global team features 5-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand 🇮🇳, former Blitz World Champion Le Quang Liem 🇻🇳, and even former… pic.twitter.com/UD4hrkhoxA
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) May 6, 2025
The tournament championship consists of two events – Rapid, to be played on June 11-13, and Blitz on June 14-15.
The Rapid event will consist of 12 rounds with a time control: 15 minutes for the first with an increment of 10 seconds per move starting from move 1.
The Blitz event will be held in a round robin tournament in the pools stage (June 14) while the knockout tournament for 16 best teams in the play-off stage will be held on June 15.
There will be a time control of three minutes for the whole game with an increment of two seconds per move starting from move 1.
The cumulative prize fund of the tournament is €500,000, where €310,000 goes to the rapid event and €190,000 for blitz.
The WR Chess team, spearheaded by Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, is favoured to win in the absence of the top-ranked Magnus Carlsen. Arjun Erigaisi on the top board will be assisted by P Harikrishna on the second board.
World junior champion V Pranav, Nihal Sarin will also be in action in the event.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will part of the Freedom team helmed by FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsly and is the only Indian in that team. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
