So Nakamura is not quite as good as Gelfand in blitz. Nothing to be ashamed of, unless you are the self proclaimed blitz king. oh...

gelfand carlsen 2:0 gelfand player wery well . But whats with prize money why that is secret ? vachier lagrave got 10 000e for win in quali, what are the prizes here ?

Whats up with some of the games? They are sometimes incomplete. Or was Eljanov, in game 13, so bedazzeled by Gelfands 6. Bxc4 that he resigned? There are more examples.

Mamedyarov-Kramnik should be the most agressive game of this tournament. Pity that Mamedyarov destroyed his brilliant start

Aronian was deffenetly the best from all the players on this tournament. Rajabov is ok, but he doesn't play stable chess, Aronian stays in top ten of the best chess players already for a long time unlike Rajabov who plays one year good, one year bad

According to him he played badly:
"Not meant to be, but considering how badly I played overall, a tie for 4th is quite respectable. Just gotta eliminate 3-game losing streaks."
Though now I do agree he is not the best in the world. But still I also feel like he could have done better. Also what does this mean?:
"Just when I thought I couldn't get enough chess, it looks like @MagnusCarlsen and I will be playing a blitz match tonight!"

Amazing game between Ian Nepo and Kramnik! (NOT) Must be transmission error or something

I guess this was one worldchampionship Carlsen had not decided to get rid off...

Some interesting results:
Both Kramnik and Gelfand lose 0-2 against Kariakin (is Kramnik his client?)
Nakamura loses 0-2 against... Vachier Lagrave

I am beginning to wonder how good and strong Anand really is, considering at the age of 38 and 39 he consistently took the 2nd spot in the two world blitz championships he played in and before that he won the world rapid championship in 2003, and a plethora of other rapid events more so than any other player including Kasparov.

He is the only non-white world chess champion - disputed or undisputed. There is no doubt Anand is well past his prime, and yet...he is the champion of the chess world. Posterity, for sure, will do justice to his achievements.

In the meantime, many congratulations to Levon Aronian for his twin victories in the Tal Memorial and the World Blitz Championship.

I am hoping Levon qualifies to play Anand for the 2012 world chess champion title. Although, having Kramnik to fight again with Anand in 2012 is not bad at all - just fosters the aura of a chess world championship a bit more.

All said and done, Anand is a legend beyond compare (or so it seems), Kramnik is a legend for sure, and Levon is all set to become the next legend.

By the time Magnus decides to play in a world championship, whether or not he is world no.1, he will have realised chess (as with any other sport) is bigger than him.

Many congratulations to Levon once again, and looking forward to the battle between Kramnik and Anand in London.

How Magnus fares in London is obviously of no consequence in the bigger scheme of things, and I am truly surprised with myself for writing this. But of course, I never expected Magnus to pull of a fair fight, which he has. Pull out of a fair fight that is.

Levon was so good all these days - both Alexander Jhukov (Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, President of the Russian Olympic Committee) and Arkady Dvorkovich (The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation) were truly admired by his performance, noting in their speeches that he was leading during all 3 days and he gotta a very very solid gap to play final rounds without even exerting himself, and that his success is really outstanding since he is also shared first at the Tal Memorial. In support, GUM building (where this event was taking place) burst into applause (they say President Medvedev even asked, what's going on up there :)), while Red Square turned red from pleasure.

ndeed Jan. Maybe we can’t have leaders who can take the chess world forward, but we can have fighters who can restore the legitimacy of chess as a sport.
We can’t have another one of those so called pseudo- legends like Kasparov and Karpov who pursue personal agendas in the name of sport. Their legendary exploits on the board have long since been wiped out by their personal ambitions to prolong their time as ‘champions’, at any cost and by any means.
In future, when China, India, etc become super powers in chess and have chess historians of their own, the world chess history will look quite different – from a non-russian (or near-russian) perspective, Kasparov and Karpov will be deemed great players of their times (not of all time) with severely flawed personalities who damaged the credibility of chess as a sport.
I am sure Magnus won’t follow in their ill-fated footsteps, and I know he never will. But he has done nothing so far to give hope that he is the future of chess (as a sport) as well.
To compare it to a football world championship (as Magnus has pointed out), it is one thing to beat Brazil in the qualifiers (which every minnow south american footballing country does in every cycle) and another to beat Brazil in the Football World Cup.
I only wish Magnus would compete with the likes of Kramnik and Aronian to battle for the privilege of competing for the ultimate title in the chess world.

Sorry i meant Stanley's (nothing against you fgdfd)

If we would score "match points" then Carlsen would have won.

Why not start at the begining of the Roman alphabet fgdfd? Anand and Aronion seem far more relevant to the topic at hand.

I don't think in blitz any of these guys are looking to draw from a decent position, no matter who they play against. Also, blitz is fun, but it's still, well, blitz. Look at Eljanov-Aronian (nr. 27 in the game list) to see what I mean...

Congratulations (again!) to Aronian for winning the Blitz Championship, decisively. I'm not surprised at his recent success - I'm more surprised it took him this long because a few years ago I had expected Aronian to just climb up to the top. It's great to see him in top form, and he now has the opportunity to take both World Championship Title and the #1 rating spot (based on FIDE November list) from Anand.

Nakamura and Aronian both played the best chess of the tournament. They both played highly creative chess and Nakamura drew 2 of his games in completely winning positions, especially his game against Grischuk. Although I was not a big fan of Naka's pre-tourney, I am now. Amazing performance Naka and don't let the result get you down!

Beautiful photos and great video format, Peter! Would you have the video of Aronian-Nakamura too? That game was really wild.

An excellent couple of weeks for Levon. Congratulations.

Now that we have a break from chess, for real entertainment value, don't miss the three-part quasi-interview of Ilyumzhinov in the increasingly active NYTimes Gambit Blog:

http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/

Thank you very much organizers of this World Blitz Championship. The video streaming was really really outstanding...! It was like to watch mind gladiators in the Coliseum...! It has the potential to make chess more popular and at the same time to show to the World that chess is really a sport, a true fight which demands self control, concentration, determination, intelligence, courage, imagination and a good physical strength too! Long live to Chess..! Congratulations to all grandmasters for the spectacular display of some of the best human qualities..!!

I dream of an Armaggedon (game) between Nakamura's fans and Carlsen's fans.

Indeed, very interesting and objective point of view!

Great Double by Aronian!
I'm very happy for Radjabov too... I wonder why he gets less and less top tournament invites these days.
I'm curious about this blitz match beetween Carlsen and Nakamura... do anyone got some information?