World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2026

Dates and host city

Dates

December 2026, exact dates not yet announced

Host city

Not announced by FIDE as of late August 2026

Titles

Four: open and women's, in rapid and in blitz

Rapid time control

15 minutes per player, plus 10 seconds per move

Blitz time control

3 minutes per player, plus 2 seconds per move

Defending champions

Magnus Carlsen (both open titles), Aleksandra Goryachkina, Bibisara Assaubayeva

Prize fund

Over €1,000,000 in 2025; the 2026 fund comes with the host announcement

The championships have run in their current annual form since 2012, and every edition since 2016 has fallen in the last week of December. The 2025 edition ran from 25 to 30 December in Doha, Qatar: three days of rapid, then two days of blitz, in the same hall. Doha followed New York in 2024 and Samarkand in 2023. FIDE announces the host city and the full schedule together; once that lands, the round times with IST conversions go on this page.

The timing makes December a stacked month: the World Chess Championship match between Gukesh and Sindarov ends in Geneva on 15 December, and the rapid and blitz start about ten days later.

How the championships work

The event is two championships back to back. The World Rapid comes first: a Swiss tournament at 15 minutes per player plus 10 seconds per move, played over three days. In 2025 the open event ran 13 rounds and the women's event 11. A tie for first goes to a playoff between the top two on tiebreaks: in Doha, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Zhu Jiner finished level, and Goryachkina won the two-game blitz playoff for the women's title.

The World Blitz follows on the last two days at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds. Since 2024 it ends with a knockout: a long Swiss first, 19 rounds in the open and 15 in the women's event in 2025, then the top four play semifinal and final matches of four games each. That is how Carlsen beat Abdusattorov 2.5-1.5 for the 2025 title after finishing only third in the Swiss.

Blitz punishes the clock as hard as the board. In the 2025 Swiss, Carlsen knocked over most of his pieces against Haik Martirosyan with two seconds left, pressed the clock before restoring them, and was forfeited under the rule against gaining time that way. He accepted the decision, then won four straight games and still took the title. Anyone rated for it can qualify: entry is by rating, national championship titles, or a federation wildcard, which is why the open Swiss fields more than a hundred players.

Defending champions

Four titles were decided in Doha in December 2025. These are the champions who defend in 2026:

Carlsen's Doha double took him to six rapid and nine blitz world titles. Assaubayeva's blitz win carried a prize beyond the trophy: it qualified her for the 2026 Women's Candidates, the tournament that decides the next challenger for the women's classical crown.

Indian players to watch

The 2026 entry list is not out yet, so the recent record is the guide. In Doha 2025 Arjun Erigaisi was India's strongest performer: bronze in the rapid on 9.5/13, then a shared bronze in the blitz after reaching the semifinal, where Abdusattorov beat him 2.5-0.5. Nihal Sarin finished the blitz Swiss on 13/19, tied for fourth place, and missed the knockout only on tiebreaks.

In the women's rapid, Koneru Humpy came to Doha as the defending champion from New York 2024 and shared the lead on 8/10 going into the final round. A winning endgame slipped to a draw in time trouble, which left her with bronze while Goryachkina and Zhu went to the playoff. Humpy has won the women's rapid title twice, in 2019 and 2024.

How to watch

• —Broadcast: FIDE streams every round free on its YouTube channel with live commentary; the 2025 rounds were called by Maurice Ashley, Peter Leko and Jovanka Houska.
• —Live games: every board runs move by move on the official event site once FIDE opens it; the host announcement itself lands on fide.com.
• —Timings: round times depend on the host city's time zone, so IST timings go up here with the schedule.

Rapid and blitz games are short enough to replay in one sitting: load a finished game into the analysis board and find the move the clock forced the players to miss.

World Rapid and Blitz 2026 FAQ