In a historic and never-seen-before result, reigning World Blitz Champion Norway’s Magnus Carlsen shared the 2024 World Blitz Championship title with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in Wall Street, New York on Wednesday. The decision to share the title was made after both players played out three consecutive draws in the sudden death. Before this, Carlsen started the final with back-to-back wins and needed just a draw to win but Nepomniachtchi showed an incredible fight and resilience.
He won on-demand, not once but twice, forcing sudden death after the final score was tied at 2.0-2.0.
Nothing separated both players in three sudden-death games and Carlsen offered Nepomniachtchi to share the title before FIDE gave the final confirmation. AS IT HAPPENED | WORLD BLITZ CHAMPIONSHIP KNOCKOUTS HIGHLIGHTS The final was a repeat of the 2021 Classical World Championship match where Nepomniachtchi had lost the match to Carlsen. Incidentally, Carlsen also broke Nepomniachtchi’s curse of finishing in second place.
The Russian had failed to win the title after stumbling in the final on as many as seven different occasions. History has been written today! #RapidBlitz We have two 2024 FIDE World Blitz Champions! Congratulations 👏 👏 pic.twitter.
com/nFFslLaYM9 He has a silver medal in the 2013, 2015 and 2021 World Rapid Championship, in the 2014 World Blitz Championship, in the 2022 World Fischer Random Championship and a second-place finish in the 2021 and 2023 Classical World Champi.
