After winning the world championship in April 2023, Ding only played one more tournament due to pre-planned events, the Superbet Chess Classic. Since then, he has not participated in any major tournaments, either online or on the chessboard. After a four-month break, the Chinese player decided to return when he accepted an invitation to the finals of the Speed ​​Chess Championship.

Speed ​​Chess Championship is the most attractive online speed chess tournament that Carlsen considers the most attractive at present because of its combination of blitz and super blitz chess format. Each match lasts 180 minutes, including 90 minutes of 5+1 chess (five minutes for each side, adding one second after each move), 60 minutes of 3+1 chess and 30 minutes of 1+1 chess.

This year’s tournament features 11 invited players, and five qualifiers. The tournament runs from September 4 to September 22, with a knockout format to determine the champion. The prize fund is $140,000, with the champion receiving $15,000 and additional bonuses based on the difference in scores.

According to the standard chess rankings, Carlsen is in first place with an Elo of 2,839, while Dinh is fourth with an Elo of 2,780. In blitz chess, the Norwegian player is second with an Elo of 2,887, while the Chinese player has an Elo of 2,787.

Apart from Dinh and Carlsen, the remaining players participating include defending champion Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nihal Sarin, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh Dommaraju, Du Uong Y, Vidit Gujrathi, Alexey Sarana and Dmitry Andreikin. India has four players participating in the tournament, the largest number on the list.

The Speed ​​Chess Championship has been held seven times, with Carlsen winning the first two, but Nakamura dominating the last five. The 2022 final took place just hours after the FIFA World Cup final, when Nakamura narrowly defeated Carlsen 14.5-13.5. The match attracted tens of thousands of simultaneous viewers, and was highly regarded in the chess community for its expertise and entertainment.

Xuan Binh