When the Rat's Away, the Cats Will Play

For the first time, the Rapid and Blitz World Championship is being played in New York City. Despite being a relative newcomer to chess, starting in 2020, I seized the opportunity to attend. I purchased a one round rapid ticket through FIDE's surprisingly well done ticket portal, tickets.fide.com. I was put on a waitlist for the blitz, but soon I was also able to acquire a ticket to that as well, ensuring the possibility of a future blog post.

The tournament is being played at the Cipriani, on Wall Street. To get a more complete experience, I convinced a New York based, non-chess friend to join me there. He is both a current stockbroker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as an accredited local tour guide and financial historian. Being that the Cipriani was once the location of New York's stock exchange, he was the perfect companion for the event. The room was extremely quiet, but I was still able to hear some of his whispers regarding details of the space.

The building was built in 1838, according to records of the inscribed frieze that once adorned it. Other records indicate it wasn't completed until 1844. It was the home of the New York Stock Exchange until 1854, and afterwards became the Customs House. The building was later described as old, damp, ill-lighted, and badly ventilated, but today it is significantly more suitable for chess. The air quality is good, with colorful lighting about the columns. However, it is still a bit dimly lit in there.

While I was very much looking forward to seeing Magnus Carlsen in action, it was not to be. Seeing my favorite player, Arjun Erigaisi, was more than enough compensation. Unfortunately in round 12, he found himself in a worse London system position against Lenier Dominguez, and accepted a threefold repetition. The draw left him in six way tie for third and likely out of contention.

I also got to see some of my favorite players from my own country of the United States - Ray Robson, Sam Sevian, and Brandon Jacobson. All three put forth strong showings in the event. Sam Sevian is undoubtedly one of the strongest players ever born in the State of New York, with a peak rating over 2700 in 2022. He defeated Olexander Bortnyk's Philidor defense in round 12. Overall, Sevian performed well on his home turf, scoring 8.5/13, despite an unfortunate loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final round.

Some of you may know I was a long-time moderator of Brandon Jacobson's Twitch stream. Since then, his reputation has taken a beating due to fair play violation allegations. Personally, I am not qualified to judge the veracity of the allegations, but I find his round 10 defeat of Hikaru Nakamura in the vaunted 1. a4 line to be a strong counterpoint to the accusations. Round 12 found him seated directly adjacent to Daniel Naroditsky, whom he played in the notorious "viih_sou" match. Here, Jacobson defeated Ivan Cheparinov in a masterful Giuoco Piano.

I watched Ray Robson's game with interest. Not only is he one of the nicest guys in chess that I've chatted with, but he was also one of 7 American players tied going into Round 12. I was surprised that in general, it was rather hard to follow the actual chess in the tournament, but Ray's rook endgame against Bjerre was one I could understand. He won!

Volodar Murzin's defeat of Praggnanandhaa R put him a half point ahead of the second place finisher, Alexander Grischuk, going into the final round. The 18 year old Murzin went on to win the tournament with an undefeated record. Congrats to the new World Champion! It was a well fought and well deserved victory.

Thanks for reading! All the photos are mine. If you like my post, I will feel compelled to write a follow up for the blitz, so go ahead and hit the button.

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