As the clock ticks down to 2025, the best players in the world will descend on Wall Street for the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships

In a year that marked the International Chess Federation's centenary, celebrated the 45th Chess Olympiad, and witnessed an intense battle for the World Championship title, 2024 will conclude with a fitting and extraordinary finale: the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York City.

Thanks to sponsorship from NASDAQ-listed Freedom Holding, New York's financial district will host the event from December 26–31. Top Grandmasters from around the globe will compete in this much-anticipated tournament, traditionally held in the final week of the year.

Famous for its chess hustlers, important tournaments from the 1920s and the historic Marshall Chess Club, New York has been chosen as the venue for one of the biggest and most popular elite chess events on the planet, watched by millions worldwide.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

Star Players

This year’s event features an all-star lineup of over 300 players in both the Open and Women’s categories. Among them are current and former world champions in various time control formats, continental and Olympic medal winners, and elite Grandmasters from all corners of the globe.

The Open competition is headlined by the five-time World Champion in classical chess and current number one in the world rating list – Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian superstar holds the Rapid and the Blitz crowns and altogether has six Blitz and five Rapid Championship titles.

Carlsen will be facing a large field of challengers, led by world number two and three, Americans Fabiano Caruana (current U.S. champion and former World Championship contender) and Hikaru Nakamura, a five-time U.S. champion and one of the most dominant blitz players in chess history. Despite focusing more on streaming where he became the world’s most popular chess content creator, Nakamura remains at the top, as one of the greatest players of all time.

Adding the pressure on the Norwegian will be the 21-year-old Iranian-born Frenchman, Alireza Firouza, who has this year solidified his status as one of the most formidable players challenging Carlsen’s dominance.

The field will also see former world championship title contenders as well as previous Blitz and Rapid Championship winners take part, including Ian Nepomniachtchi, Boris Gelfand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alexander Grischuk.

Many of the top-U.S. Grandmasters are also playing, including Olympic team members Wesley So, Levon Aronian, and Leinier Dominguez Perez.

Unlike the dominance asserted by Carlsen in the Open competition, the Women’s Rapid and Blitz are renowned for their unpredictability. China’s world champion Ju Wenjun leads the field in the women’s competition, which includes former and current world champions in different formats, including Alexandra Kosteniuk, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Valentina Gunina and Kateryna Lagno. Top U.S. players at the event are Alice Lee, as well as current U.S. champion Carissa Yip and former champion Irina Krush.

The format and the stakes

The total prize fund is just shy of $1.5 million, spread across the Rapid and the Blitz.

The event will open with the three-day FIDE World Rapid Championships, from 26 to 29 December. There will be 13 rounds in the Open and 11 rounds for the Women's section. Each player will start with 15 minutes on the clock and get a 10-second increment per move. There will be no penalties for players arriving late to the game, but their time will keep ticking from the start of the round.

The Blitz follows with two thrilling days of high-speed action on December 30 and 31, featuring a new - two-stage - format in both the Open and Women’s competitions. On the first day, the Open tournament will feature 13 rounds, while the Women’s tournament will have 11 rounds. The time control will be three minutes plus a 2-second increment per move. On the second day, December 31, the top 8 players from each competition will face off in a knockout finale.

The Wall Street Gambit

Between the FIDE Rapid and the Blitz Championships, on December 29, FIDE and the sponsor Freedom Holding are organizing the Wall Street Gambit conference, which will explore the links between chess and finance.

Chess grandees Magnus Carlsen, Vishwanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana will join leading figures from the financial world, including Boaz Weinstein, D. Sculley, and Kenneth Rogoff.

The day will begin with a chess tournament for the conference participants, followed by keynote speeches from some of the most influential names in chess, finance and AI, who will explore the connection between the black-and-white game and investing.

D. Sculley, CEO of Kaggle, will deliver a keynote titled “Predicting in the Face of Incomplete Knowledge: Chess, Finance, and Other Challenges for AI.” Kenneth Rogoff, the former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund and chess grandmaster, will speak on the topic “Chess, AI, and Economics”.

Iconic venues

Both the Open and the Women’s tournaments will take place at renowned New York venues, just a few steps away from the NYSE.

The Open Rapid and Blitz tournaments will be held at Cipriani Wall Street, an iconic landmark built in 1841 and once the home of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Women’s tournaments will be held at 48 Wall Street, a historic building that once housed the Bank of New York & Trust Company Building and the Museum of American Finance.

“A milestone for chess”

With its renowned international tournaments of 1924 and 1927, the Manhattan Chess Club and the historic Marshall Club, New York have an important place in the history and development of chess in the U.S. Now, a new page in chess history is being written in New York, as the forthcoming FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships will be the strongest tournament ever played on U.S. soil.

This edition of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz pays homage to the deep connection between chess and the Big Apple, capping a year filled with some of the most significant events in the chess world.

“The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz are one of FIDE’s most prestigious events, showcasing the world’s top Grandmasters playing under unprecedented time pressure. The fast-paced nature of the Rapid and the Blitz, coupled with big audiences, live-stream and a global viewership measured in millions, make this a thrilling and engaging event for chess fans and newcomers to the game. We are grateful to Freedom Holding and other longstanding partners for their support for our sport”, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said.

“Over the past 100 years, FIDE has worked hard to spread chess to every part of the world, to every community. The forthcoming championships in New York mark a new milestone in that effort which will continue in the future,” Dvorkovich added.

Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp, a financial company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange and the main sponsor of the 2024 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships, stated that his company has been “proud to work closely with FIDE for several years now, supporting the development of chess at every level worldwide.”

"We see chess as a powerful bridge between cultures and communities, perfectly reflecting our company values. Careful data analysis, strategic thinking, risk assessment, and decision-making are essential in both chess and finance. With these shared principles, it was a natural decision for us to help bring the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships to Wall Street."

“We are thrilled to sponsor one of the world’s most prestigious chess events and honored to play a part in bringing top-level chess to a global hub of business and culture like New York,” Turlov added.

Follow, watch and join the action in New York!

The event starts on Thursday, December 26 with the opening ceremony at 1PM E.T.

The games start at 2PM E.T. in the Open section and at 2.15PM E.T. in the Women’s section.

All the information about the event, including results, news, images and regulations are available on the official event webpage: worldrapidandblitz.fide.com

The full schedule of the event is available here: Schedule – 2024 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

There will be live commentary by Grandmasters and special guests on FIDE’s official YouTube Channel, starting on the 26th: FIDE chess - YouTube.

The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships is a ticketed event. A variety of tickets are available, including Single Round Tickets, Day Passes and VIP packages. For more information, please visit: Buy tickets – FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2024.

To celebrate the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York, FIDE and World Chess have designed special – limited edition – merchandise which can be purchased here: 2024 Rapid and Blitz — New York City – World Chess Shop.

The grand chess party is about to begin, and everyone’s invited. Whether you’re a seasoned player or new to the game, join millions of chess fans worldwide to witness one of the greatest events in chess history unfold!