WBTC 2025: Favourites deliver as 16 teams move into knockouts
After three days and 12 rounds of Rapid, things got hotter in London as the FIDE World Blitz Team kicked off. Following 13 rounds of fast-paced action, 16 out of 53 teams have advanced to the final playoff stage on Sunday. The blitz competition is split in two stages. On day one, the teams were divided into four equally strong pools, playing in a round-robin format. There were four pools – three had 13 teams, while Pool D had 14. The top four teams in each pool qualified for the knockout playoffs, which are taking place on Sunday, June 15. In Pool A, WR Chess, Ashdod Elit Chess Club, Knight Dance and FIDE Management Board Tram advanced to the knockouts. WR Team won all of their matches, with the closest they came to a struggle being the round six match against The MongolZ squad, which ended with a narrow win, 3.5:2.5. In that match, WR’s Hou Yifan, the world’s top-rated female player, lost to more than 500 points lower-rated Khishigbat Ulziikhishig. WR was significantly strengthened by the late arrival of Ian Nepomniachtchi, who received his UK visa just in time to play in the Blitz. The big hero of the day for WR was Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda who scored 11.5 points out of 12 games on one of the top boards. In a big surprise of the day, 13-year-old IM Ahmad Khagan (2290) from Turkish Airlines stunned GM Hikaru Nakamura (2837) in round five. Visibly upset, Nakamura didn’t even set up his pieces back, as is customary after the game, and just walked out of the playing hall. During the day, Khagan proved his victory was not an accident – he won 9 out of 13 games, facing strong grandmasters. Ashdod dropped just one match – a 1.5:4.5 loss to WR Team – drew another and won the rest to comfortably secure second place, with 21 matchpoints. Their standout performer was Aldiyar Sailaubay on the amateur board, who scored 9.5/12. Knight Dance finished third with 19 matchpoints, despite two losses and a draw. Close behind were the FIDE Management Board Tram, who secured fourth place on 17 matchpoints. Zhu Chen and non-professional standout Stepan Zaiarski played key roles in their qualification. From Pool B, Freedom, Hexamind, Theme International Trading and Malcolm’s Mates moved to the knockout phase. In round 10, Freedom suffered a defeat at the hands of Theme International Trading, but that didn’t endanger their spot in the knockouts. Freedom’s Le Quang Liem and Haik Martirosyan were the best performers, scoring 8.5 points out of the nine games they played. Despite losing a match to Freedom (4.5:1.5), Hexamind stormed through in all other matches to enter the knockouts in shared first place in Pool B. Both Freedom and Hexamind ended the day with 22 matchpoints. Theme International Trading recovered from a stunning 6:0 opening loss to Hexamind to finish third with 19 matchpoints. Fourth place went to the British squad Malcolm’s Mates, with 18 matchpoints which was greatly helped by GM Luke McShane who won 10 out of 12 games. In Pool C, the most consistent performance was delivered by Team Uzbekistan, who entered the final round with two matchpoints ahead of the field. Their star player, Nodirbek Yakubboev, had a great run, scoring 9.5 points out of 12. Germany and Friends, led by Vincent Keymer, came in second place after losing just one match – to Uzbekistan. They finished on 22 matchpoints. Rookies took third place with 20 matchpoints, despite losses to the top two teams. Generation XYZA claimed the final qualifying spot with 17 matchpoints, even after losing to all three teams above them. Notably, XYZA’s Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus topped individual scoring in Pool C with 10/12. Pool D saw the favourites – 2025 World Rapid champions MGD1 – advance alongside KazChess, Hetman GKS Katowice, and Barys.kz. MGD1 made just one draw (with fifth-placed Team Hungary) and won all other matches, ending the day on 23 matchpoints. The Indian team scored five match victories in which they won all six games – the most of all top-placed teams in the Blitz, across all groups. Their top-performing player was board one Arjun Erigaisi, who made 11 points out of 13 games. With 22 matchpoints, KazChess was second. Their non-professional player Islam Aiten made the biggest contribution having won 12 out of 13 games. Hetman GKS Katowice took third place with 20 matchpoints. Their top board, GM David Navara, was instrumental in their success with a score of 11/13. Barys.kz clinched the final knockout spot in Pool D with a commanding 6:0 win over Perfect in the last round, finishing on 17 matchpoints. The knockouts With the pool stages now concluded, the focus shifts to Sunday’s knockout rounds, where the 16 qualifiers will battle for the title of the 2025 FIDE World Blitz Chess Champion. With the stakes rising and a sharper, knockout format – it promises to be an exciting closing to a spectacular week of chess. FIDE World Blitz Team Championship – Knockout pairings Written by Milan Dinic Photos: Rafal Oleksiewicz Official website: worldrapidblitzteams2025.fide.com/ About the event: The third edition of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships is taking place in London, United Kingdom, between June 10 and 16, 2025. The event is open to teams from all over the world. Teams can be made of club members, members of different federations, or any other chess players. Altogether, 52 teams are taking part in the Rapid World Championship. The total prize fund is €500,000 (£421,000), €310,000 will go to the Rapid tournament, €190,000 is earmarked for the Blitz.