Vassily Ivanchuk is new World Champion in Rapid Chess

The World Rapid Championships in Doha, Qatar, had a dramatic finish. Before the last round five players shared the lead with 10.0/14. Three of these five players won in the last round: Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk and Vassily Ivanchuk. The tie-break had to decide – in this case, the Elo-average of the opponents. And here Ivanchuk was best and became World Rapid Champion 2016.

The Rapid World Championship is a 15 rounds Swiss event with a time-control 15 minutes+ 10 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. The event will be played on three days with five rounds each day. The total prize fund is 200,000 USD of which the winner will receive 40,000 USD.

With 8.0/10 Ivanchuk started day 3 as sole leader but at first had trouble to find his form. He started with a loss against Ian Nepomniachtchi and then played two draws in rounds 12 and 13.

But after winning a topsy-turvy game in round 14 against Vishy Anand he shared the lead with Alexander Grischuk, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen. But Ivanchuk had the best tie-break and therefore “only” needed a win in the last round to become new World Rapid Champion.