Indians faltered in the big matches in both sections after Magnus Carlsen lived up to his reputation and Russia’s Valentina Gunina proved a worthy champion in the World blitz chess championship in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Saturday. In a second successful title-defence in less than 48 hours, Carlsen retained the World blitz crown to go with the World rapid trophy. For Carlsen, the reigning World Cup winner, this was a seventh World blitz title and 17th World title across formats.
For first-time winner Gunina, too, the lone loss on the final day did not hurt her plans. The overnight leader, seeded a distant 24th, won the last two rounds for a tally of 14 points from 17 rounds.
The Indians had poor final day. Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin, the duo among the overnight leaders, failed to get going on the home stretch.
