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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Leonard Barden

Star-studded WR Chess repeat World Blitz title amid controversy in London

WR Chess with the World Team Blitz trophy
From left: Jan Gustafsson (captain), Wadim Rosenstein (team owner), Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hou Yifan, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Hikaru Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja, Ian Nepomniachtchi. Photograph: Rafal Oleksiewicz/Fide

WR Chess, the star-studded world top 10 team, retained their World Team Blitz crown in London last week, but only after an almighty scare and with significant help from the appeals committee. WR had already been beaten for the World Rapid title by MGD1, a Pune-based group led by India’s Arjun Erigaisi.

WR lost 2-4 to Germany in their Blitz quarter-final, but got the match annulled on the grounds that they had been advised of the wrong start time so had arrived two minutes late for a three-minute game. All the other teams arrived on time.

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