Carlsen Sweeps Rapid And Blitz Titles At World Championships In Doha
Wed, 31 Dec 2025
Magnus Carlsen closed out 2025 with his sixth World Rapid title and ninth World Blitz title, taking his combined world championship count to twenty.
Magnus Carlsen closed out the year in Doha, Qatar, winning both the World Rapid and World Blitz Chess Championships at the year-end event that ran from December 25 to 31. It was his sixth Rapid title and ninth Blitz title, pushing his combined tally of world championships across classical, rapid, and blitz to twenty.In the Rapid event, Carlsen finished a full point clear of the field at 10½ from 13, with Vladislav Artemiev second and Arjun Erigaisi third. The margin extended a run in which Carlsen has rarely been seriously challenged at the shorter time controls in recent years, even as he has stepped back from classical world championship competition.He then beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2.5–1.5 in the Blitz final. Abdusattorov's run to the final nonetheless confirmed his status as one of the sport's most consistent performers at rapid and blitz time controls, a form he would carry into the new year.The women's titles went elsewhere: Aleksandra Goryachkina won the Rapid crown after a blitz playoff against Zhu Jiner, while Bibisara Assaubayeva successfully defended her Blitz title, beating two-time champion Anna Muzychuk 2.5–1.5 in the final — her third world blitz title.The event closed out a year in which Carlsen continued to dominate the faster formats while leaving classical world championship competition to Gukesh Dommaraju and the Candidates cycle, a split that has become one of the defining storylines of the sport heading into 2026.