A.Shvartsman and N.Sadowska - World Champions Blitz

Lishui China, 14-11-2024

Alexander Shvartsman brings Israel the gold

(By Siep Buiurke 14-11-2024)
The World championship Blitz

For the eleventh time he won the world title in the Blitz game, for the
first time for his new country Israel. He had the best Solkovsystem of
all four frontrunners after nine games, Alexander Shvartsman.
In the exciting tournament in Lishui there was the World Championship
Blitz today. The attention paid to it by the Chinese organization was
excellent. There was a live stream feed from one of the games in a
separate room and in another there was live commentary. It was an
exciting tournament in which it was unclear who would occupy the first
three places. In the end, the result was determined by the Solkov
system. It was on the Israeli's side. But luck does not exist, it is
with the strong as Shvartsman had shown ten times earlier. World
champion Iurii Anikeev, Martijn van IJzendoorn and young Dutchman Simon
Harmsma shared the first place with him. Especially the latter delivered
a great performance by achieving an equal number of points in this
group. However, he had the misfortune of having had a less strong
program. Harmsma promises to be a worthy opponent for the coming years.
A point less there were six players with 12 points. The young Latvian
player Vsevolods Mitrivics also promises something for the future, at
the World Cup youth he had finished third. In the adult World
Championship he finished before former/world champion, his compatriot
Guntis Valneris.
Among the women, Polish Natalia Sadovska won, she came before last
year's champion, the Chinese You Zjang. Third was again a Polish player,
Marta Bankowska. In contrast to the male, there was a clear separation
between the first three women. Sadovska was by far the strongest player.
Her title was not compromised from the start. Some players regretted
their participation because of the severity of the tournaments held in
Lishui this week. Tomorrow they have to fight hard again in the
tournament, that was interrupted after four rounds for this world
championship,  The 9th "Xingqiu Cup" Draughts China Open Tournament.
Tomorrow again two games and also on Friday. The winner will be known on
Sunday when there is for the first time only one round that is also the
last roud.

( photo's source: Facebook page of Fangchao Chen )

Results Open: https://results.fmjd.org/tournaments/2024/f_1565/