Vaishali wins bronze in Women’s World Blitz Chess Championship

Vaishali defeated China's Zhu Jiner 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals before losing to another Chinese opponent Ju Wenjun 0.5-2.5 in the semi-final

New York: India’s R Vaishali clinched a bronze in the women’s section of the World Blitz Championship, capping another strong performance by the country’s chess players after stalwart Koneru Humpy‘s title-winning show in the rapid event here.

Vaishali defeated China’s Zhu Jiner 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals before losing to another Chinese opponent Ju Wenjun 0.5-2.5 in the semi-final. In an event completely dominated by the Chinese, Ju Wenjun went on to snare the world title defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5.

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Five-time world champion and International Chess Federation (FIDE) vice president Viswanathan Anand congratulated Vaishali for her efforts, saying it was a great way to end the year. “Congratulations to Vaishali for taking bronze. Her qualification was truly a power-packed performance. Our Waca Chess mentee (WestBridge Anand Chess Academy) has done us proud,” Anand wrote on ‘X’.

“We are so happy to be supporting her and her chess. What a way to wrap up 2024. In 2021, we thought we would get stronger chess players but here we have it a World Champion (Humpy) and a Bronze medallist (Vaishali)!” he wrote.

In the ‘Open’ section, world number one Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the Blitz title after three sudden-death games failed to produce a winner. This was the first time that the title was awarded to two players after Carlsen asked whether it could be shared given the deadlock.

“We were both tired, some will like it some will not,” Carlsen said. “We reached a point where it had been a long day. We played many games, we had three draws and I felt that I could keep playing. But it was a nice solution to share the win, it was a good way to end it,” said Carlsen.

This was Carlsen’s second big win this week as the world body was forced to bring him back after his withdrawal from the Rapid championship just a couple of days back due to dress code violation. Carlsen came wearing jeans for the Rapid event and refused to wear formal trousers, prompting FIDE to disqualify him. However, the world governing body allowed him to wear jeans in the Blitz event.