Vaishali stuns So and Niemann as Carlsen wins Total Chess Blitz opener
R Vaishali beat Wesley So and Hans Niemann in Budapest while Magnus Carlsen took the opening Total Chess Blitz event.
R Vaishali defeated Wesley So and Hans Niemann at the Total Chess Blitz opener in Budapest. Magnus Carlsen won the event, and Arjun Erigaisi tied for fourth.
Key takeaways
- R Vaishali beat Wesley So and Hans Niemann in Budapest
- Magnus Carlsen won the Total Chess Blitz opener
- Arjun Erigaisi finished in a five-way tie for fourth
- R Praggnanandhaa ended with a victory
- The Total Chess World Championship 2026 is the first edition of the tour
R Vaishali beat Wesley So and Hans Niemann as Magnus Carlsen won the opening Total Chess Blitz event in Budapest, The Bridge reported. Arjun Erigaisi finished in a five-way tie for fourth, while R Praggnanandhaa ended his campaign with a victory.
Vaishali recorded wins over two elite grandmasters in the blitz section, according to The Bridge. The Times of India said her victories answered questions about women playing elite GMs. Carlsen claimed the opener in Budapest. Erigaisi shared fourth place in a five-way tie. Praggnanandhaa closed his campaign with a win.
The Total Chess World Championship 2026 is the first Total Chess World Championship, announced by Norway Chess on October 15, 2025, approved and endorsed by FIDE and jointly organized by both bodies.
The tournament is a new initiative to combine talents of the three chess formats of classical, rapid and blitz into one tournament tour. The event is part of the Total Chess World Championship Tour 2026–27, which offers two spots for the Candidates Tournament 2028.
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is allowed significantly less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a variant of fast chess with draw odds for black and unequal time controls, usually used as a tiebreaker of last resort.
The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships.
The current world blitz champion is the Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. Grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva from Kazakhstan is the current women's blitz world champion. Magnus Carlsen has held the title a record nine times.
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