Chess
2025 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz: Koneru Humpy looks to defend title; Gukesh returns – Preview
All you need to know about the 2025 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.
Humpy Koneru prevailed with white pieces in the final round on Wednesday. (Photo credit: Michal Walusza/FIDE)
Top chess starts from across the globe have landed in Doha, Qatar as the annual season ending 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Championships is all set to commence from Friday.
Four world champions will be crowned by the start of the new year over the next five days – Open Rapid, Open Blitz, Women's Rapid, and Women's Blitz.
The rapid competition in both sections will be held from, starting on 26 December with the champion slated to be crowned on 29 December, following which the blitz events will start.
In the open section, the Indian focus will be on the reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, who had skipped the drama filled edition last year after winning the classical title.
Arjun Erigaisi will be the highest rated Indian in action in the open rapid ahead of Gukesh. They will be joined by the likes of Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna.
All of them will also feature in the blitz event, starting on 30 December, where Erigaisi will once again be the top rated Indian.
In the women's event, Koneru Humpy will look to defend her rapid world championship title, as she starts as the eighth seed just ahead of compatriot Harika Dronavalli.
The likes of Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Vantika Agrawal and others will also be in action in the tournament.
The best players from the world including Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabinao Caruana, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and others will feature in the competitions.
Indians in action
Open Rapid & Blitz: Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Raunak Sadhwani, Pranav Venkatesh, Aravindh Chitambaram, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, SL Narayanan, Sandipan Chanda, Krishnan Sasikiran, Abhimanyu Puranik, M Pranesh, Adhiban Baskaran, Leon Mendonca, Mitraba Guha, Bharath Subramaniyam, Karthik Venkataraman, P Iniyan, Aditya Mittal, Raja Rithvik, Sankalp Gupta, Pranav Anand, Harshit Raja, Goutham Krishna, Sharan Rao, Harikrishnan RA, GB Harshvardhan
Women's Rapid & Blitz: Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Vantika Agrawal, Padmini Rout, Rakshitta Ravi, B Savitha Shri, Priyanka Nuttaki, PV Nandhidhaa, A Charvi, Pranali Dharia, Isha Sharma
Where to Watch?
You can catch all the LIVE action from the 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Championships on FIDE's YouTube channel.
