World Rapid and Blitz being absolute meme

So, main stories that will be discussed here how Magnus withdraw from Rapid championship and joined back for blitz because of jeans where championship was shared with Nepo.

Dress-code

Story follows like this, arbiters wanted Carlsen to change his jeans, during Day 2 of Rapid, he said that will change tomorrow, but arbiters pressured on him changing now, or he is disqualified. So he ragequit.
A lot of people side with Magnus, pointing out how dress code is pointless or shouldn't be too strict at least. After all, it was the case before 2018. We can even see it at this photo, 2016 Blitz winners, where Dubov and Karjakin wear jeans.

It makes sense to have some dress-code, it helps to attract sponsors, chess look better etc. But yes it shouldn't be too strict, so this situation is bogus from FIDE. Arbiters should be watching after games (And some top players show their dissatisfaction with this part), not after how players dress, unless it's not something completely inappropriate. It's good that FIDE allowed jeans in the end for blitz and negotiated with Magnus here.

But of course Carlsen quitting and saying 'f**k you" is way over the line, considering that everyone follows same rules, for example Nepo was also fined during Rapid for his jacket.

Another thing that Carlsen is privileged to other players in this tournament in the first place. He is always on board 1

and what is more controversial has separate VIP room, while other players has to just stay next to each other in between the rounds. Nepo didn't like it in 2023 Championship.

Once, round was delayed due to him being late. So, considering FIDE organizers is already treating him in a special way, why be so dissatisfied? He didn't try to send an appeal, just ragequit, in part I believe because tournament wasn't going well for him too. Anyway, good FIDE said jeans can be okay and he returned for blitz.

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Roots of the conflict

Conflict didn't start because of jeans only of course. Magnus has a big place in a world of chess, he and his team always knew how to run business, get money from chess. He is closely aligned with chess.com (sold them chess24 and other projects which he propped himself during covid), became an ambassador for chess in Esports foundation for 2025 (recent stuff, there is maybe quite a potential, a LOT of saudi sheikhs money) and partnered with entrepreneur Jan Buettner for Freestyle Chess (Chess960) Grand Slam tour, prize fund, 10 million dollars.

So the latter thing (Freestyle) is important. Magnus recently announced that they gonna fight for champion title there. FIDE (finally) started to understand that there is another actor on the board, that can claim even more legitimacy than FIDE if they want (I mean chess.com is practically a monopoly for example, Magnus is most public figure in chess). Magnus said that FIDE threatened players that will play in his tour (FIDE denied, but stated that they do not want any split, which I can imagine to happen if there will be some alternative "freestyle" ecosystem to FIDE). Not much to say, I do not really like chess.com, while Magnus is great player, but I wouldn't say he should be the one who rules over chess. Anyway 2025 gonna be an interesting year!

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Results

GM Volodar Murzin won the tournament, with rating 2638. But it can't be called a coincidence (even though as always, some luck is needed to win), he also played great in 2023 Rapid, and qualified for play-off in Blitz this year. Grischuk took 2nd place and Nepo 3rd. Win for Russian players and spectators!
You might wanna checkout some puzzles from the games

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Caruana qualified yet another time for Candidates through FIDE Circuit. Man deserves respect, consistent great play (Arjun could've suprassed him if he took top-3 in Rapid, but he didn't).

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Nakamura had an upset this year, some games are kinda interesting.
In one of the rounds, his opponent used 50-move rule to claim draw, one move before checkmate.

In another he lost to GM Brandon Jacobson, who is known by the fact that he got banned by Chess.com for alleged cheating (he's denying that he was cheating) where he defeated GM Naroditsky with big score using a4-Ra3 line. Well, even though he didn't risk playing rook sac line, he won using 1.a4.
Besides he lost to Niemann in the last round
Same in Blitz, he didn't qualify to play-offs

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Blitz Championship

Different format, 8 first players in swiss, qualify to knockout-playoffs. Honestly it resulted in players playing more safely in swiss part (10 players tied for first place in the end, lol, and 2 Dubov and Naroditsky are out due tie-breaks). But I am not gonna lie, watching knockout was interesting. I noticed that watching blitz games without engine is so much more enjoyable. I rooted for Nepo in Finals and had pleasure of understanding that Ne3 wins before move was played (Nepo went from 0-2 to 2-2 in main part of the final match)

But actual meme is of course that friendship prevailed, after 3 draws in tie-breaks (format is sudden death, first one to win, wins the match) Magnus suggested to share a title, Nepo agreed and FIDE said it's okay to have 2 champions.

New Year Miracle! But honestly it's ridiculous, chess is a sport and having 2 champions is meh. There was a loophole in rules, so theoretically (not practically though, 5-10 extra games, one would lost I believe) they could've played forever with draws, but arbiters should've added armageddon or maybe cut down time (I would watch 2+1 blitz for example). Even though I am happy for Nepo to be shared first and understand that they were tired. It just not how sport on high level should be done and sets a strange precedent. For example in Women's Blitz Championship Ju Wenjun won second game against Lei Tingjie and became champion but they as well could've shared 1st place out of comradery without playing lol. I guess FIDE will add armageddon or change format.

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Thanks for the reading! Share your opinions and memes on forum. If you want to support me, hit like, i have lichess team, and i am coaching (if you interested dm). Happy new year!

(Don't forget about those puzzles, nice collection)