World Rapid Chess Championship 2021


The World Rapid Chess Championship 2021 was the 2021 edition of the annual World [Rapid Chess Championship] held by FIDE to determine the world champion in chess played under rapid time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held the World Rapid and World Blitz [Chess Championship 2021|Blitz] Championships at a joint tournament. Originally planned to be held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, new coronavirus restrictions introduced by the Kazakh government prompted FIDE to change the location of the tournament to Warsaw, Poland.
The event took place at the Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw between 26 and 28 December 2021, using a Swiss-system with 13 rounds for the open tournament and 11 rounds for the women's tournament. Players who were eligible to participate in the open tournament must have either been rated at least 2550 Elo in a FIDE rating list during 2021, or were a reigning national champion. The time control for the tournament was 15+10, meaning each player initially started with 15 minutes and gained 10 seconds increment with each move.

Participants

176 players took part in the open tournament, and 103 in the women's tournament.
CodeFederationOpenWomen'sTotal
mono|ARG

Prize fund

The prize fund for both the open and women's tournament is shown below. In case of a tie all prize money was shared between the players. Players outside the brackets did not receive any prize money. All amounts are in United States dollars.
Open tournament:
Total: $350,000
Women's tournament:
Total: $150,000

Schedule

The opening ceremony took place on Saturday 25 December. Start times are approximate as all matches in the previous round had to finish before the next round could commence. All times are CET.
Open roundWomen's roundDateTime
11Sunday 26 December15:00
22Sunday 26 December16:15
33Sunday 26 December17:30
44Sunday 26 December18:45
5Sunday 26 December20:00
65Monday 27 December15:00
76Monday 27 December16:15
87Monday 27 December17:30
98Monday 27 December18:45
109Tuesday 28 December15:00
1110Tuesday 28 December16:15
1211Tuesday 28 December17:30
13Tuesday 28 December18:45

Tiebreak regulations

For players who finished on the same score, final position was determined by the following tie-breaks, in order:
  1. Buchholz Cut 1
  2. Buchholz
  3. Average Rating of Opponents Cut 1
  4. The results of individual games between tied players
  5. Drawing of lots
If two or more players were tied for any position other than first, the above mentioned tiebreak system decided the ranking of the tied players.
If two or more players were tied for first, the top two players who finished the highest on the above mentioned tiebreaks would play a two game mini match with the time control of 3+2 to decide the winner. If the score was tied 1-1, the players would continue to play single 3+2 games until one of the players won one game.

Open tournament results

The following table lists all participants, with the results from the 13 rounds. They are ranked according to the results, taking into account the tie-breaks.
Notation: "1 " indicates a win with white pieces against player of rank 116
RankNameRating12345678910111213Total
1nowrap|1 nowrap|1 nowrap|½ nowrap|½ nowrap|0 nowrap|1 nowrap|½ nowrap|½ nowrap|½

Women's tournament results

The following table lists all participants, with the results from the 13 rounds. They are ranked according to the results, taking into account the tie-breaks.
Notation: "1 " indicates a win with black pieces against player of rank 83. The first tiebreak is the Buchholz Cut 1 score, the second tiebreak is the Buchholz score, and the third tiebreak is the average rating of opponents cut 1.
RankNameRating1234567891011TotalBC1BSAROC1
1CFR Russia chess simplified flag infobox.svg|link=Chess Federation of Russia