The preliminary lists of participants of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship and the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship have been published. The events will be held from December 25-31 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

149 players will compete in the open tournaments, and there will be 93 participants in the women’s event. 

The rating favourites of the open event are the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen (representing Norway, rated 2859 in the December list), Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2768), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2766), Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2793), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2764), Alexander Grischuk (FIDE, 2745), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland, 2729), Yu Yangyi (China, 2728), the defendings champions Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2737 - Blitz) alongside many other well-known chess players from all over the world.

The FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship will feature Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2584), Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2563), Humpy Koneru (India, 2572), Tan Zhongyi (China, 2518), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia, 2517), Harika Dronavalli (India, 2507), Zhansaya Abdumalik (Kazakhstan, 2496), Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iran, 2490), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria, 2442), the reigning champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (FIDE, 2520 - Rapid) and Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan, 2440) as well as many other chess stars.

The final lists of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship and the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship will be published after the end of the registration process (December 12, 12:00 CET). 

Preliminary players lists:

Rapid Open: https://chess-results.com/tnr706381.aspx

Rapid Women: https://chess-results.com/tnr706382.aspx

Blitz Open: https://chess-results.com/tnr706383.aspx

Blitz Women: https://chess-results.com/tnr706384.aspx

Registration link: worldrapidandblitz.fide.com/registration/

The event is made possible thanks to the agreement with Freedom Finance, which becomes a General Sponsor of the event. Freedom Broker is an investment company and a stockbroker. Provides access to NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE, HKEX  and other largest stock exchanges on the planet. 

On global scale,  it is a part of the Freedom Holding Corp. group of companies. The Holding's shares are traded in New York at Nasdaq Capital Market under FRHC ticker. 
Freedom Holding Corp. operates in 15 countries: USA, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaidjan, Armenia, Cyprus, Greece, the UK, Spain, France, Germany, UAE and Turkey.

More information about the championships, including schedule and tickets, can be found on the official website of the event: worldrapidandblitz.fide.com