By Swetha Anil Kumar
Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2025 for a record sixth time in Doha, Qatar.
Carlsen finished on top with an outstanding score of 10.5 points out of 13, competing in a tough 13-round tournament that featured the strongest players in the world.
India’s Arjun Erigaisi claimed a historic bronze medal finishing on 9.5 points, just one point behind World Rapid Champion Magnus Carlsen.
He became the only male player from India to win a medal in the open section at a World Rapid Championship after five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand.
The two-time champion, Koneru Humpy secured her fourth medal, winning a bronze in the women’s section. The India No. 1 had tied with Jiner and Goryachkina on 8.5 points at the end of the 11th and final round, but because of her poor tie-break score, she had to settle for a bronze medal.
Savitha Shri B finished fourth, Vaishali Rameshbabu ended fifth, and Divya Deshmukh was eighth in the final standings.
Out of Arjun’s 13 games in the event, he only lost two of them, one to silver medallist Vladislav Artemiev and another to young Turkish phenom Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
In 2017, Anand had won the rapid title. In the last three editions, Arjun had missed the medal by half a point. Even in Doha, he was almost out of medal contention after losing the 11th round, but made a comeback and won the last two rounds.
In the final standings, Nihal Sarin and world champion Gukesh Dommaraju were 19th and 20th, while R Praggnanandhaa could only manage the 28th spot.
Arjun’s bronze medal also earns him a quota at the pilot tournament of the Total Chess World Championship Tour, which will take place in October next year.