new york
India’s R Vaishali won the bronze medal in the women’s category of the World Blitz Chess Championship and thus after Koneru Humpy won the title in the rapid event here, the country’s players continued their excellent performance at the end of the year 2024. Vaishali defeated China’s Zhu Jin’er 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals but lost to another Chinese opponent Xu Wenjun 0.5-2.5 in the semi-finals.
This competition was completely dominated by Chinese players. China’s Xu Wenjun won the world title by defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5. Five-time world champion and International Chess Federation (FIDE) vice-president Vishwanathan Anand congratulated Vaishali for her efforts and said it was a great way to end the year.
Anand wrote on X, “Congratulations to Vaishali on winning the bronze medal. He really performed brilliantly. Our WAKA Chess Mentor (Westbridge Ananda Chess Academy) has done us proud. It was a great way to end 2024.” In the ‘Open’ category, world number one Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the blitz title as there was no clear winner after three sudden-death games . This is the first time that the title has been divided between two players.
