World Blitz Team 2025: WR Chess, MGD1, Freedom, Hexamind, Ashdod and others advance to the KO stage

by Shahid Ahmed - 15/06/2025

The defending champion, WR Chess Team, Freedom, Uzbekistan and MGD1 have topped their respective Pools in the Pool stage of FIDE World Blitz Team Championship 2025. Out of them, only WR Chess and Uzbekistan have won all twelve matches. However, in the KO stage, those scores will not matter. World Blitz 2024 Cochampion, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi has joined WR Chess. Surprisingly, GM Alireza Firouzja did not play a single game in the Pool stage. MGD1 would certainly like to make it a double and dethrone the defending champions, WR Chess. Hexamind Chess Team and Ashdod Elit Chess Club have also advanced to the next stage. KO Stage starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: John Brezina

Teenager Khagan Ahmad stuns Hikaru Nakamura

Blitz means the games are not worth analyzing. The best way to watch/replay them is through a video. GM Jan Krzysztof Duda (WR Chess) was the best performer among all 53 teams. He scored the highest 11.5/12. Sarbartho Mani (Freedom), GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (Generation XYZA) and GM Arjun Erigaisi (MGD1) scored an unbeaten 11/12 each. GM Andrey Esipenko (KazChess) and Islam Alten (KazChess) also scored 11/12, however, they both suffered a loss each.

The defending champion - WR Chess Team topped Pool A with a perfect 24/24 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Pool B 1st Freedom 22/24 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Pool C 1st - Uzbekistan 24/24 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Pool D 1st - MGD1 23/24 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Pool A: GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (WR Chess) is the only player to score 11.5/12 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Pool B: Sarbartho Mani scored an unbeaten 11/12 for his team Freedom in Pool B | Photo: John Brezina

Pool C: GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (Generation XYZA) scored 11/12 and remained undefeated | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram

Pool D: World no.3, GM Arjun Erigaisi (MGD1) scored an unbeaten 11/12 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Pool D: GM Andrey Esipenko (KazChess) 11/12 | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

13-year-old Khagan Ahmad (Turkish Airlines Sports Club, 2232) scored quite possibly the biggest of the day when he defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura (WR Chess, 2837) in Round 3. The teenager not only scored a hat-trick with this win but also went on to score a triple hat-trick, regstering nine wins in-a-row. It goes without saying that beating the World no.2 gave him an immense confidence boost.

Final moments - GM Hikaru Nakamura - IM Khagan Ahmad | Video: FIDE

GM Hikaru Nakamura analyzes his games | Video: GMHikaru

IM Khagan Ahmad (Turkish Airlines Sports Club) scored a huge upset against GM Hikaru Nakamura (WR Chess) | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

World Blitz 2024 Cochampion - GM Ian Nepomniachtchi has joined WR Chess for the Blitz event | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

MGD1 would like to win a double and dethrone the defending champions WR Chess | Photo: FIDE/Rafal Oleksiewicz

Replay live stream

Replay Blitz Pool stage live commentary by GM Daniel King (ENG) and IM Jovanka Houska (ENG) | Video: FIDE

Venue

The venue for the event is Novotel London West in London, England.

Prize

The total prize fund is €500000 combining Rapid and Blitz, €310000 in Rapid and €190000 in Blitz. There are six prizes in Rapid - top five and two rating categories. The top three prizes are: €110000, 70000 and 50000 each respectively. Best U2400 and U2200 will earn €10000 and €5000 each respectively. For Blitz, the number of prizes got increased to five from four. The top three are - €75000, €50000 and €30000 each.

Replay Blitz Pool stage games

Pool A standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	11	WR Chess Team	12	12	0	0	24	60	264	1989,3
2	5	Ashdod Elit Chess Club	12	10	1	1	21	56,5	211	1774
3	7	Knight Dance	12	9	1	2	19	49	171	1461,8
4	6	FIDE MB Team	12	8	1	3	17	44,5	136	1298,8

Details

Pool B standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	2	Freedom	12	11	0	1	22	62	230	1960,3
2	6	Hexamind Chess Team	12	11	0	1	22	57	224	1800
3	9	Theme International Trading	12	9	1	2	19	46	185	1374,3
4	7	Malcolm's Mates	12	9	0	3	18	55	158	1683,3

Details

Pool C standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	1	Uzbekistan	12	12	0	0	24	58	264	1868,5
2	12	Germany and Friends	12	11	0	1	22	55	220	1755
3	6	Rookies	12	10	0	2	20	51	180	1614,8
4	9	Generation XYZA	12	8	1	3	17	52,5	131	1626,3

Details

Pool D standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	6	Team MGD1	12	11	1	0	23	61	233	1855,3
2	14	KazChess	12	11	0	1	22	57,5	230	1822,5
3	8	Hetman GKS Katowice	12	10	0	2	20	50,5	172	1429,5
4	11	Barys.kz	12	8	1	3	17	48,5	151	1408,3

Details

KO stage pairings

Round of 16
No.	Team	Game 1	TB1

1	A1 WR Chess Team		0
8	B4 Malcolm's Mates		0

15	D3 Hetman GKS Katowice		0
10	C2 Germany and Friends		0

13	D1 Team MGD1		0
12	C4 Generation XYZA		0

3	A3 Knight Dance		0
6	B2 Hexamind Chess Team		0

5	B1 Freedom		0
4	A4 FIDE MB Team		0

11	C3 Rookies		0
14	D2 KazChess		0

9	C1 Uzbekistan		0
16	D4 Barys.kz		0

7	B3 Theme International Trading		0
2	A2 Ashdod Elit Chess Club		0

Details

Links

Buy tickets

Official site

Tournament Regulations

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