Top two seeds interchange their places
Pair Blitz was one of the many side events of Prague International Chess Festival 2025. It is, as the name suggests, a fun event. Any two players could form a team and participate. Me and my colleague from ChessBase, FM Johannes Fischer decided to team up for the first time. Of course as his rating suggests, he is a much stronger player. It was evident in his play as he scored 8/11. I scored only 4.5/11 which was my lowest score in over a decade. Anyway, the most important part is we enjoyed teaming up and playing together. We faced the top four finishers. Lost against the eventual champion and runner-up, drew with the team of 12-year-olds and defeated the fourth place finisher team from Malaysia in the final round to finish sixth.
Considering how terrible I played (being slightly under the weather for no one's fault but my own) and Johannes single-handedly pulled our team together for the majority of the tournament, sixth is a great finish. Most importantly, I played a team (although it was a duo) event after more than a decade. After losing the eighth and ninth round, we managed to beat the only team of two IMs in the penultimate round. It was a nice feeling to make a comeback there. We also got a material prize of coffee.
For more K Pair Blitz photos, please click here.
Video Gallery
A total of 26 pairs which means 52 players including three IMs took part from eight countries across the world. The one-day eleven round K Pair Blitz Open tournament was organized by Novy Bor Chess Club at Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czechia on 5th March 2025. The time control of the event was 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment from move no.1.
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Knudsen-Melde | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 17,5 | 130 | |
| 2 | 1 | Cernov-Cernov | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 17,5 | 129 | |
| 3 | 13 | Zawal-Korszanski | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 15 | 128 | |
| 4 | 7 | Looi-Sivanesan | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 14,5 | 127 | |
| 5 | 4 | Nguyen-Tham | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 13 | 13 | 117 | |
| 6 | 3 | Fischer-Shahid | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 12,5 | 129 | |
| 7 | 5 | Narr-Sulzbacher | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 13 | 12,5 | 123 | |
| 8 | 15 | Ejsymont-Popczynska | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 13 | 12,5 | 119 |
