Alexandra the First: Goryachkina became the rapid world champion
The next Rapid Chess World Cup was not without Russia's triumph. Our strongest grandmaster of recent years, Alexandra Goryachkina, became the rapid world champion for the first time in her career. Perhaps this is her second biggest achievement after winning the 2023 World Cup in Baku. Russia could have had a golden double in Qatar. Vladislav Artemyev was in the lead before the final day, including beating Magnus Carlsen himself in a personal meeting. However, the Norwegian rolled at the finish line, scoring 3.5 points out of four, and guaranteed himself another title. Artemyev did not maintain this pace, but after passing the tournament without defeats, he eventually became the second.
Gold with Defeat
The World Cup in Doha started quite calmly — there were no major sensations. Many of the favorites managed to start with almost no mistakes, and at the end of the five opening rounds there were five people in the lead, among them one Russian, Vladislav Artemyev.
The two-time Russian champion is very good at quick control, and his proximity to Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Arjun Erigaisi was quite predictable. Vladislav won four games out of five, including 2025 World Cup semi–finalist Nodirbek Yakubboev and strong Iranian grandmaster Amin Tabatabai.
Last year's world rapid chess champion started the tournament with a bold minus. After winning the opening round, Volodar Murzin unexpectedly suffered three defeats in a row and dropped out of the fight for high places on the very first day.
The second day turned out to be much more eventful. There were enough sensations and unexpected results. Artemyev acted as the slaughterer. In the sixth round, he beat the ninth-seeded Erigaisi with black, and then got the better of Carlsen. In the sixth round, the Norwegian grandmaster yawned at Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's pawn, but managed to escape, and then made a gross mistake in the game against Vladislav. At some point, Magnus got a chance to save himself, but still Artemyev managed to achieve victory.
In the middle of the race, the Russian pulled away from his closest competitors by one point. It was a solid advantage, but it wasn't possible to keep it until the end of the day. Vlad drew with Vachier-Lagrave and Alexey Sarana in turn, and Hans Niemann caught up with him. The American performed well at the rapid and Blitz World Cup at home last year (he was one step away from knocking Carlsen out in the playoffs), but did not get to the medals. This time, Hans was clearly determined to compete for the podium.
There were four other people very close to Artemyev and Niemann, including Carlsen and 14-year-old Yagiz Erdogmus. The Turkish representative started the tournament with a defeat from Murzin, but then scored seven points out of eight possible. It is also worth noting the confident play of Alexander Shimanov. If it hadn't been for Niemann's defeat in the ninth round, the main Levitov Chess commentator would have been very close to the top. On the second day, the grandmaster from St. Petersburg beat two participants in the 2026 candidates tournament, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri, as well as compatriot Dmitry Andreikin.
On the final day, Carlsen, who won the Rapid Chess World Cup five times, again demonstrated his dominance. (2014, 2015,2019, 2022, 2023). In the 10th round, Magnus beat Saran, all his competitors drew, and in the 11th he became the sole leader, defeating Niemann. Artemyev and Erdogmush were one step behind. Another group of seven players (including Shimanov) — score a point!
In the penultimate round, Magnus played with a young Turk and extended his winning streak to five games in a row. To secure the championship, it was enough for him to draw with Anish Giri in the last round. Carlsen did it without difficulty and could not look back at the pursuers, who had to compete for silver and bronze.
Artemyev and Niemann were in the semi-position. To keep second place, Vladislav had to avoid losing to Wesley So, and Vlad coped with this task. He finished the tournament with a score of "+6" and deservedly received silver. But Niemann's draw with Vachier-Lagrave did not guarantee him anything. As a result, Erigaisi became the third, who beat Shimanov with white. This defeat pushed the latter back to 14th place. This is the fourth result among Russians. Andrey Esipenko rounded out the top 10, Daniil Dubov became the 12th.
Goryachkina's Triumph
The women's competition for medals was led by the leaders of the Russian national team, Alexandra Goryachkina and Ekaterina Lagno. Goryachkina started with three wins in a row, but slowed down a bit on the second day. One win in four games (over Bella Khotenashvili). However, it is worth noting that Alexandra was opposed exclusively by top players, including the current rapid world champion Hampi Konera.
Lagno, on the contrary, showed excellent results on the second game day, scoring 3.5 points out of four. Ekaterina, who was celebrating her birthday, beat compatriot Polina Shuvalova and the finalist of the 2023 World Cup Nurgul Salimova. Goryachkina and Lagno lagged behind the leaders, Zhu Jin'er and Hampi Koneru. In the ninth round, the representatives of China and India played each other in a draw, which Alexandra took advantage of. The Russian beat Afruz Khamdamova and equaled the leaders.
In the 10th round, Goryachkina, Koneru and Jin'er won synchronously (the Chinese outplayed Lagno, depriving her of a chance at the top 3), and in the final they shared points with their closest pursuers.
As a result, these three scored 8.5 points out of 11. According to the regulations, the two strongest chess players in terms of additional indicators (Jin'er and Goryachkina) had to determine the champion in a tie-break, which was played according to the system: two games with 3+2 control and a sudden death game in case of a draw. Alexandra won the first game, and drew the second. Thus, Goryachkina became the world champion in rapid chess for the first time in her career.
This year, Alexandra was able to qualify for the 2026 candidates tournament, becoming the second at the FIDE Grand Prix, and ends the year with the rapid championship title (starting in January, she began working personally with coach Evgeny Tomashevsky). With this form, you can aim for success at the Blitz World Cup, which will be held on December 29-30.
"An extremely successful year continues for Russian chess players," Alexander Tkachev, Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, told Izvestia. — Alexandra won this tournament for the first time in her career. She became the third Russian woman to win the World Rapid Chess Championship. Of course, I sincerely congratulate her. Many thanks to her for showing the result, for the joy and pleasure that she brought to millions of her fans. She's doing great! Congratulations to her coach Evgeny Tomashevsky too. This is his first major coaching success.
Lagno became the ninth, Shuvalova — the 13th, 14-year-old Diana Preobrazhenskaya — the 27th.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
