The Canadian grandmaster and popular streamer fell ill on the second day of the tournament. It remains to be seen whether he recovers in time for the blitz tournament in two days’ time.
After scoring three points out of six games played, Hansen, part of the popular streaming duo of “chessbrah” alongside Aman Hambleton, announced on Twitter that he’s withdrawing from the event “after developing some aggressive flu-like symptoms overnight.”
Hansen’s diagnosis will have a major impact on the proceedings as a potential COVID outbreak could upend the entire tournament. So far, Carlsen’s topped the charts as expected, as the Norwegian is joint-first after six rounds of play, leading on tiebreakers, with Hansen’s content creator comrade, Hambleton also on 3/6 points at the time of writing. At this point, Hans Niemann is the best-performing American player, outpacing Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana heading into the seventh round.
As is traditional in the chess world, the World Rapid & Blitz Championship takes place in the holiday season, with the best players of the game flying to Kazakhstan this time to face off against each other over the board in a faster time control. The tournament is played in a 15+10 time format, meaning fifteen minutes of starting time with ten seconds added per move.
After the three-day Rapid tournament is concluded, the World Blitz Championship follows, a two-day affair with even faster time controls. The title holders are Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, respectively.
