Bengaluru: After a streak of four rapid losses, Magnus Carlsen bounced back with eight blitz wins in a row on Saturday in the Fide World Team Rapid and Blitz Championship. Among his eight wins for WR Chess was one against five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand of Chess United. The world No 1 hung his knight against Dragon Chilling’s Xu Xiangyu to lose in Round 9.
Of the 48 teams who started out, only eight remain in contention heading into Sunday’s quarterfinal, semifinals, third-placed match and finals.
The time control is 3 minutes, with an increment of 2 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Among those who fell out of contention was Chess United after their loss to Indian side Chess Gurukul, which featured a Praggnanandhaa win over Anand.
The teams who have made the quarterfinals are WR Chess, Uzbekistan, Mr Birdie and Friends, Dragon Chilling, Endgame.AI, Team MGD1, Hexamind, Chess Gurukul.