The FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2022 (WFRCC) was the second official world championship in Fischer Random Chess (also known as Chess960). The competition followed a similar format to the first championship in 2019, with qualifying stages open to all interested participants taking place online on Chess.com and Lichess, and four qualified players joined four invited players in the over-the-board final, which took place at the Berjaya Reykjavik Natura Hotel in Reykjavík, Iceland from 25 to 30 October 2022.

The winner of the final was Hikaru Nakamura, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in armageddon after drawing the match 2-2. He is the second FIDE world champion in Fischer random chess.

Players There were four directly seeded players: defending Fischer random champion Wesley So, classical chess champion and Fischer random championship runner-up Magnus Carlsen, the strongest Icelandic grandmaster Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson and Ian Nepomniachtchi who was chosen as the wild card by the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. They were joined by the four winners of the online qualifiers on Chess.com and Lichess, two from each site. The qualifiers started on August 19 on Lichess and on August 22 on chess.com.

The qualifiers for the World Championship were:

Qualification method Player Age Rating Worldranking (October 2022)Top 100 Players October 2022, FIDE 2019 World Fischer Random Champion Wesley So 2774 5 2019 World Fischer Random Championship runner-up Magnus Carlsen 2856 1Local Organizers' Wildcard Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson 2533 476FIDE President's Wildcard Ian Nepomniachtchi 2793 3 Qualifier 1 of Chess.com Vladimir Fedoseev 2688 51 Qualifier 2 of Chess.com Matthias Blübaum 2647 98 Qualifier 1 of Lichess Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2713 31 Qualifier 2 of Lichess Hikaru Nakamura 2768 6

Since the seeding of participants of the group stage is based on their FIDE Rapid Rating from September 2022, below are the participants by rapid ratings for September 2022 and October 2022.

Player Seed Rapid Rating Worldranking Rapid Rating Worldranking (September 2022)10-01&period2=2022-09-01 Top 100 Players October 2022, FIDE (October 2022) Wesley So 1 2784 5 2784 6 Magnus Carlsen 2 2834 1 2834 1 Hikaru Nakamura 3 2789 4 2789 5 Ian Nepomniachtchi 4 2779 6 2766 8 Vladimir Fedoseev 5 2739 13 2741 15 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 6 2676 36 2676 38 Matthias Blübaum 7 2587 Not given 2617 Not given Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson 8 2520Rapid Players September 2022, dated '28 Sep 2022', FIDE Not given 2520Rapid Players October 2022, dated '30 Sep 2022', FIDE Not given

Qualifiers

Chess.com All FIDE-titled players can participate in the Chess.com qualifiers. Each qualifier takes place over three days. On day 1, players compete in a nine-round Swiss tournament with a 10+2 time control, and the top-eight finishers advance to the knockout stage. On day 2, the players compete in two-game matches with a time control of 15+2 and the same starting position for both games. On day 3, the players compete in a four-game match with two different starting positions, two games per position. Players don't swap colors between games two and three. In the event of a tie, a single armageddon game with a bidding system is played in the same starting position. The higher-seeded player chooses if they play White or Black in the first game before seeing the starting position.

Qualifier 1 The first qualifier was played from 22 to 24 August 2022. 100 players participated in the Swiss stage which was won by Samuel Sevian with 7.5 points. In the knockout final, Vladimir Fedoseev defeated Eric Hansen to qualify for the main event.

Qualifier 2 The second qualifier was played from 29 to 31 August 2022. 75 players participated in the Swiss stage which was won by Pranav V with 7 points. In the knockout final, Matthias Blübaum defeated David Navara to qualify for the main event.

Lichess Anyone can play in the Lichess qualifiers. The qualifiers follow a multi-stage format:

Stage 1 (19 August - 4 September) involves two phases. First, multiple open-entry 3+2 arenas will be held over two weeks. The top 50 finishers in each arena will qualify for the second phase: a single 3+2 arena per qualifier, from which 500 players will advance to the next stage, per qualifier. Stage 2 (10-11 September) will also comprise two phases. First, the players will be divided into groups to play an 11-round, 5+2, Swiss tournament. The top 18 finishers in each group will join each other and 10 wildcard players to play a 9-round, 10+2, Swiss, from which the top 15 will advance to the final stage. In the final stage (17-25 September), One wildcard will be invited at this stage for each Qualifier, per the co-organisers’ discretion, to make up 16 players in each Qualifier. The players will play each other in knockout matches to determine who will be invited to play in the over-the-board finals in Reykjavik. Those who progress to this stage will also receive a share of a $2,500 prize fund, per qualifier.

Qualifier 1

Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov won the first Lichess qualifier to qualify for the over-the-board final. This qualifier was the only among the 4 qualifiers to not have an armageddon game.

Qualifier 2

American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won the second Lichess qualifier to qualify for the over-the-board final.

Organization Eight-players are drawn into two groups with four players in each group base on their seeding. The format is a best-of-two double round-robin tournament, meaning there were 6 rounds with each player facing the others in their respective group four times: twice with the black pieces and twice with the white pieces. The format for matches in the knockout stage is a best-of-four series, with the use of Armageddon as a tiebreaker.

Regulations The time control (for both the group stages and the knockouts) will be 25 minutes per player for the first 30 moves, after which each player will receive additional 5 minutes on the clock and an increment of 5 seconds per move starting from move 31. The position of the pieces will be revealed to the players 15 minutes before scheduled play, with the players able to consult a registered Second beforehand. Players will get 2 points for winning the two game mini match, 1 point each for a draw and 0 points for a loss. For example, a 1.5-0.5 mini match score will be listed as 2–0. There will be two such mini matches between each pair of players in the group.

In the event of a tie for qualification out of group stage, tie breaks will be applied in the following order: Game Points Head-to-head score among tied players Armageddon where the players bid a maximum time of 15 mins and the lower bid gets to play with black pieces and draw odds while being able to seek advice from the second for 5 minutes before the game starts.

In the knockout stage, it will be best of four games with Armageddon as the tie-breaker.

Prize money The total prize pool for the tournament is $400,000, which is distributed as follows: FinishPrize ($USD)1st$150,0002nd$85,0003rd$55,0004th$40,0005th$25,0006th$20,0007th$15,0008th$10,000

Schedule Date Day Event 24 October 2022 Monday Opening ceremony 25 October 2022 Tuesday Group Stage Round 1–2 26 October 2022 Wednesday Group Stage Round 3–4 27 October 2022 Thursday Group Stage Round 5–6 28 October 2022 Friday Rest day 29 October 2022 Saturday Semifinals 30 October 2022 Sunday Finals Closing ceremony

Results

Group stage

Group A {| class="wikitable" |- !Rank !Player !Rapid ratingOctober 2022 !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| ! ! |- |- align="center" style="background:#BBF3BB; color:black" | 1 || align="left" | | 2676 | style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 2 || 2 | 2 || 0 | 2 || 2 | 10 | 10 |- align="center" style="background:#BBF3BB ; color:black" | 2 || align="left"| | 2766 | 0 || 0 | style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 1 || 2 | 2 || 2 | 7 | 7 |- align="center" style="background:white; color:black" | 3 || align="left"| | 2784 | 0 || 2 | 1 || 0 |style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 2 || 1 | 6 | 5.5 |- align="center" style="background:white; color:black" | 4|| align="left" | | 2520 | 0 || 0 | 0 || 0 | 0 || 1 |style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 1 | 1.5

Group B {| class="wikitable" |- !Rank !Player !Rapid ratingOctober 2022 !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| !colspan="2"| ! ! |- |- align="center" style="background:#BBF3BB ; color:black" | 1|| align="left"| |2834 | style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 0 || 1 | 2 || 2 | 2 || 2 | 9 | 8 |- align="center" style="background:#BBF3BB ; color:black" | 2 || align="left"| | 2789 | 2 || 1 | style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 1 || 1 | 2 || 2 | 9 | 7.5 |- align="center" style="background:white; color:black" | 3 || align="left" | | 2741 | 0 || 0 | 1 || 1 |style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 2 || 1 | 5 | 5.5 |- align="center" style="background:white; color:black" | 4|| align="left" | | 2617 | 0 || 0 | 0 || 0 | 0 || 1 |style="background:lightgray" colspan="2"| | 1 | 3

Summary

Day 1

Day 1A pairing 1 2 Rapid Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson ½ 00.50 Wesley So ½ 1 1.5 2 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1 12 2 Ian Nepomniachtchi 0 0 00 Matthias Blübaum 0 ½ 0.5 0 Hikaru Nakamura 1 ½ 1.5 2 Magnus Carlsen 1 ½ 1.5 2 Vladimir Fedoseev 0 ½ 0.5 0 Starting positionSee Fischer random chess numbering scheme 629 629

Day 1B pairing 1 2 Rapid Ian Nepomniachtchi 1 1 2 2 Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson 0 0 0 0 Wesley So ½ 0 0.5 0 Nodirbek Abdusattorov ½ 1 1.5 2 Vladimir Fedoseev 1 ½ 1.5 2 Matthias Blübaum 0 ½ 0.5 0 Hikaru Nakamura ½ 1 1.5 2 Magnus Carlsen ½ 0 0.5 0 Starting positionSee Fischer random chess numbering scheme 295 295

On day 1, Abdusattorov defeated Nepomniachtchi in 22 moves in the first game after sacrificing his knight for initiative on move 12 and proceeded to win the mini match too. In the first game against So, Abdusattorov defended a rook vs knight and bishop endgame with queens and pawns for each side where he also had to deal with a passed flank pawn for 56 moves where eventually they agreed to a draw on move 82 while he won the second game with relatively clean technique and subsequently the mini match too.

Carlsen also defeated Fedoseev in 25 moves in the first game but blundered the exchange for a pawn on move 26 of the second game. However, Carlsen managed to create a fortress and secured a draw and subsequently the match victory. After drawing the first game against Nakamura where he had offered a bishop sacrifice on move 1 which was not accepted since the queen could eventually be trapped after capturing the bishop, Carlsen again inexplicably blundered a full rook on move 31 of the second game from a slightly better position and resigned 15 moves later, thereby losing the match. Abdusattorov and Nakamura finished the day as the sole leaders of their respective groups with perfect scores.

Day 2

Day 2A pairing 1 2 Rapid Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson 0 000 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1 1 2 2 Wesley So 1 0 1 1 Ian Nepomniachtchi 0 1 1 1 Matthias Blübaum 0 0 0 0 Magnus Carlsen 1 1 2 2 Hikaru Nakamura ½ ½ 1 1 Vladimir Fedoseev ½ ½ 1 1 Starting positionSee Fischer random chess numbering scheme 362 362

Day 2B pairing 1 2 Rapid Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1 1 2 2 Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson 0 0 0 0 Ian Nepomniachtchi 1 1 2 2 Wesley So 0 0 0 0 Magnus Carlsen ½ 1 1.5 2 Matthias Blübaum ½ 0 0.5 0 Vladimir Fedoseev ½ ½ 1 1 Hikaru Nakamura ½ ½ 1 1 Starting positionSee Fischer random chess numbering scheme 1 1