Hopes were high for Vincent Keymer, the reigning vice world champion in rapid chess for just under 18 hours, when it was announced yesterday at 11 a.m. German time: "The 2023 Rapid Chess World Championship has begun. It will all take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where a large part of the world elite will be guests between Christmas and New Year to determine the world champion in rapid and blitz chess.
The first day did not go well for Keymer. He only managed to collect 3 points from the first 5 games. An attack on the top spots was out of the question. Keymer is considered to have strong nerves, but perhaps the immense expectations after last year's World Cup put him under pressure and paralyzed him.
If that was the case, on day 2 this paralysis was gone. He started the halfway point of the rapid chess world championship with 3 out of 3 and was thus able to play his way into the chasing group of world champion Magnus Carlsen. As luck would have it, the match that everyone had been waiting for was to take place straight away: Magnus Carlsen vs Vincent Keymer. The big Greek shows you exactly what happened in this game:
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