He never dreamed: How an 18-year-old Russian became world rapid chess champion
The World Rapid World Championship for men and women in New York ended in a triumph for Russian chess. Volodar Murzin, 18, won the title of rapid chess champion. The grandmaster scored 10 points out of 13 without suffering a single defeat. Russians Alexander Grischuk (second place) and Jan Nepomnyashchy (third) finished with 9.5. In the women's World Cup Ekaterina Lagno won bronze with 8.5 points out of 11.
Beat Caruana and Nakamura
Volodar Murzin continued the pleasant tradition when on the eve of the New Year holidays the representatives of the Russian Federation make loud sensations at the World Rapid Chess Championships. Last year Anastasia Bodnaruk was seeded only 51st, but managed to win the main tournament of the year, defeating Humpy Koneru in a dramatic tie-break (the Indian representative won her second title this year). Murzin, who had 59th position on the starting list, took a clean sweep of first place with 10 points out of 13.
It was a brilliant tournament for our young grandmaster. At first he shared the first place with only three participants, having won four victories in a row (including over the second seed Fabiano Caruana) and playing a draw with Levon Aronian. On the second day, Murzin confirmed that his successes at the start were no coincidence. He played tight draws with top grandmasters (Dominguez, Erigaysi, Giri), and in the ninth round he beat the titled Hikaru Nakamura.
Volodar started the final day with a victory over Duda, who was also the leader in the group. After that the top-3 was made up entirely of Russians: Murzin and Grischuk had eight points each, Nepomnyashchy had 7.5. Fifteen chess players had seven points each, so the whole fight was ahead of them. The moment of truth came in the 12th round. Murzin was playing with Pragnanandha with black and was close to his first defeat. The Indian grandmaster had a few precise moves to make for victory, but nerves took their toll.
In the last round, Murzin played a neat draw against Karen Grigoryan (the Armenian grandmaster was pumped up at the finish, having won games against Wei Yi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov). Alexander Grischuk, who was trailing by half a point, settled a game with Lenier Dominguez on the 12th move, after which there were no more pursuers who could catch up with Volodar. Thus Murzin became perhaps the most unexpected champion in history.
"I really hope this is not a dream," Murzin noted in an interview with the organizers. - I don't even know what to say, except that I feel great happiness. So far this is the main victory in my career."
Half a point behind Volodar were compatriots Grischuk and Nepomnyashchy (Yan beat Samuel Sevian in the last round and moved from seventh to third place). Additional scores brought Grischuk the silver medal and $70,000, Nepomnyashchy the bronze and $56,000.
"After the first day, of course, it's a sin to complain about this result, but I still wanted more. Congratulations to Volodar and Sasha! Tomorrow I'll have a rest, and the day after tomorrow - a blitz tournament. I'll try again," Jan Nepomnyashchy wrote in his Telegram channel.
Murzin earned $90,000 for first place. However, the most important thing is the title, which will forever leave his name in chess history. It should be noted that Volodar and 18th world champion Gukesh Dommaraju were the main rivals at the children's level. This year, the 18-year-old Indian reached the top chess title by winning a match against Ding Lizhen in Singapore, while 18-year-old Murzin became the world rapid chess champion.
- Gukesh is doing a great job, working hard on himself. You can see that he has already reached a high level. Excellent tactics, good counting, able to squeeze out the maximum in draw endings. Gukesh has a lot of strengths. Have you often crossed paths with him? Quite often. The most memorable 2018 World Cup was in Santiago. He took first place, I took second place. Although I was the only one in this tournament who managed to beat him," Volodar told Izvestia.
The way of the champion
Volodar was born on July 18, 2006 in Nizhny Tagil. Murzin is from a large family - he has four siblings. The boy learned the basics of chess at home, and his first coach was Sergei Sulimov, to whom Volodar came at the age of seven in a chess club in the after-school group of a secondary school. Later he was enrolled in "Strategy", a sports school of a checkers and chess in Nizhny Tagil, with the same coach.
In his first official tournament - a stage of the Children's Cup of Russia (S. Levitsky Memorial in Nizhny Tagil) - in 2014, Volodar scored nine out of nine and began to rapidly advance among the leading Russian young chess players. In 2015, Murzin won the national championship in blitz in his age group, and a year later he became the best at the European championship in classical chess.
In 2017, Volodar won two medals (one of them gold) at the World Championship in his age group and subsequently distinguished himself many times at world and European children's forums. In different years he practiced with famous coaches - Yaroslav Prizant, Dmitry Kokarev, Alexander Galkin. Volodar attended sessions of the grandmaster center of FSHR "Siberia", where he was mainly tutored by grandmaster Pavel Maletin. Since 2017 Grandmaster Mikhail Kobalia, senior coach of the Russian junior national team, has become the main mentor of the young man.
Mikhail Robertovich is still leading Volodar, and even at the last moment he showed up at the 2024 World Cup in New York to support his mentee.
- "It's great that Mikhail Kobalia was there," Russian national team coach Vladimir Potkin told Izvestia. - You can help remotely, but in person is more effective. Especially when a player is 18 years old - at such a young age help is especially important on the spot. There are many moments when you can help both chess-wise and psychologically.
Mikhail Kobalia has a lot of experience in tournaments - both as a player and as a coach, he must have given Volodar tactical advice, Potkin admits.
- For example, Murzin was leading on the last match day, and he had a game against Alexander Grischuk. It could have been a quick draw, but it was obvious that Volodar had been instructed to play with a full effort. In the end, the draw was a struggle, and Murzin kept his fighting spirit. He did not get out of the game rhythm, and it turned out to be the right decision. We see that the game tone should be maintained throughout the tournament. Here you can see the hand of a competent mentor who suggested the right tactics," explained the national coach.
In 2020, 2021 and 2023, Volodar shared first place at the Russian Under-21 Junior Championships. As one of the country's main hopes, Murzin participated in the home, Sochi World Cup - 2021 among men, where he made it to the second round of the competition. In 2022, he made his debut in the superfinals of the Russian Championship, where he scored six points out of 11. In 2023 he won a strong open tournament in Tashkent, the G. Agzamov Memorial, with a score of nine points out of 10. He became world champion in Rapid and Blitz among under-18s.
In October 2024 he played well at the Global Chess League in London, and in December he became world champion in Rapid. Among Russians, only Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov (listed by Rosfinmonitoring as a terrorist and extremist), Sergey Karjakin and Daniil Dubov have managed to do this before.
- I would like to note that not only did he show a fantastic result in New York, winning a prestigious tournament, but he did it in the face of tremendous competition," Potkin continued. - All the favorites are playing in the U.S., and Murzin showed a mature game. He outplayed Fabiano Caruana positionally and showed composure in the endgame. Particularly in the finish against Pragnanandha, a great talent from India. He managed not only to defend, but also to turn the tide of the match in his favor. This shows that the work that Volodar has been doing in recent years has paid off. And the result is more than deserved. I think that Murzin has a great chess future ahead of him. We will follow his successes even more closely.
The World Blitz World Championships will take place on December 30 and 31.
