Ding Liren's Dragon Chilling Win Double Gold At FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Championships

Ding Liren Leads Dragon Chilling To 'Dream' Double Gold

"It's like a dream!" said Dragon Chilling captain GM Ni Hua as the Chinese team added 2026 FIDE World Blitz Team Championship gold medals to their earlier victory in rapid chess. The team, led by GM Ding Liren, beat GM Hans Niemann's Endgame.AI convincingly in the final, while Uzbekistan took bronze by defeating Hexamind in a reversal of the third-place match in 2025. The Uzbek team had earlier knocked out the reigning and two-time champions WR Chess, with GM Magnus Carlsen's team refocusing to take the consolation fifth-place prize.

2026 FIDE World Blitz Team Championship Bracket (Quarterfinals On)

Fifth Place Playoff

Dragon Chilling Makes It Double Gold

"Because we are family," said Lei Tingjie, echoing her captain's explanation for their success. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship has not always been taken seriously as a championship, given the randomizing factor of the "amateur board," so it was heartwarming to see how much it meant to Dragon Chilling. Their captain asked for a moment to compose himself (he got a round of applause!) before commenting:

It’s like a dream! We prepared for this tournament a long time. I understand that people always think our players are a little bit shy, but I know all of them. I know they want to win here very, very much! We prepared a lot and we fight like family. For example, I met Wenjun maybe 20 years ago, I think, and then others, maybe more than 15 years, so we are family.

I understand that people always think our players are a little bit shy, but I know all of them. I know they want to win here very, very much! —Ni Hua on the Chinese Dragon Chilling

The blitz final was perhaps the easiest part of the journey, as Dragon Chilling racked up 5-1 wins in both matches to take gold.

GM Wei Yi, GM Lu Shanglei, and Zihao Wang on the bottom board won both games, while GM Ju Wenjun took an unexplained three-move draw in the first game vs. GM Zhu Jiner before scoring a fine win in the second. Asked for a reason for the team's success, she commented, "I think we have very good team spirit!"

It was great to see Ding back at the board and in good spirits. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Perhaps the defining win, however, came for the team's leader, Ding, whose event had been mixed, also on the final day—he lost to Abdusattorov and missed several wins. He picked the perfect time, however, to score his first win of the knockout, against Niemann in the final match.

That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.

Ding is now a world champion again, and, asked for a message for his fans, responded, "It takes long to wait, but it’s all worth it! I can say I’m back to the complete team competition."

Dragon Chilling beat Mr Birdie and Friends, but it was incredibly close. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The road to the final had been tough, with Dragon Chilling losing their first match of the day 2.5-3.5 to Mr Birdie and Friends. Ding missed a win against GM Vladislav Artemiev, while GM Yu Yangyi had played brilliantly, only to lose a winning position to GM Sam Sevian by making a second queen!

Dragon Chilling hit back to win the second match by the same narrow margin, then clinched a spot in the Semifinals with a 4-2 win in the first tiebreak match. It has to be noted, however, that Yunlong Ning could have tied the match if he'd spotted a fleeting chance to give mate-in-one on the bottom board!

Dragon Chilling then made it into the final in another dramatic match, against the Uzbekistan team led by world top-five stars GMs Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The curiosity there was that all three matches were won 4.5-1.5, but the Chinese team won the first and the third, which was sudden death.

Endgame.AI took silver medals. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Endgame.AI, meanwhile, looked a shadow of themselves in the final but had performed brilliantly for most of the day to get there. Niemann commented: "We were sixth in the rapid and second here, so I’m very happy. Maybe people considered us underdogs compared to other teams, but I’m glad we proved them wrong!"

Maybe people considered us underdogs compared to other teams, but I'm glad we proved them wrong! —Hans Niemann

Endgame navigated the Quarterfinals without the need for tiebreaks, though the margin of victory against GM Arjun Erigaisi-led Team MGD1 was slender—they won the first match 3.5-2.5 and drew the second.

In the Semifinals, Endgame faced Hexamind, who had finished third a year earlier. A single win for GM Volodar Murzin decided the first match 3.5-2.5 in Hexamind's favor, but Endgame powered back to win the second 5-1. GMs Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian, who had lost in that match, bounced back to win in the tiebreak, but Endgame won on the bottom four boards to clinch that spot in the final.

Uzbekistan Gets Revenge To Take Bronze

Uzbekistan began on a high by beating WR Chess, and they nearly went all the way. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The match for third place was a repeat of a year ago, and it very nearly had the same outcome, with Hexamind starting with a 4-2 win. GM Divya Deshmukh showed some nice geometry—and GM John Nunn's motif "loose pieces drop off"—to punish WGM Afruza Khamdamova's 16...Ba3?.

The crucial match, however, was the next. Uzbekistan won 3.5-2.5 to force tiebreaks, but it could very easily have been at least a draw for Hexamind, giving them the bronze medals.

Uzbekistan overcame Hexamind. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Firouzja puzzlingly took a draw by repetition in a promising position against Abdusattorov, while there was more bottom-board drama. Murat Omarov for Hexamind had been completely winning, but had a level position when he missed Akjol Rakhmatullaev's devilish trick.

A draw would have given Hexamind bronze, but instead we went to a playoff, where Uzbekistan scored a crushing 5.5-0.5. We often saw during the event that when one or two players lose, the rest can crumble under the increased pressure.

It was another strong event for Uzbekistan, with Abdusattorov crossing 2800 and powering to 2819.9 on the blitz live rating list.

WR Chess Ends Tough Event With 5th Place Prize

Going into the final day, one of the big questions was whether WR Chess could shrug off the disastrous 17th place in rapid chess and still win a third blitz title in a row. The answer was no, and we didn't need to wait long to get it, since Uzbekistan won their quarterfinal across two matches.

WR Chess monopoly of the blitz title came to an end. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The margins were very thin, however, with Carlsen and GM Fabiano Caruana winning on the top boards only for WR Chess to lose on the bottom three for a 3.5-2.5 victory for Uzbekistan. That could have gone differently, with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, for instance, spotting a winning idea, then spoiling it, and going on to lose to WGM Umida Omonova.

The return match finished 3-3 and knocked WR Chess out of the title-running, which meant Carlsen could regret pushing for another win against Abdusattorov. He stumbled and lost in a tricky position where a draw would have been enough to force tiebreaks.

Carlsen's urge to win against Abdusattorov backfired. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Team owner and player Wadim Rosenstein lost both of his games, and ended his tweet after the event with, "P.S. WR Chess Team—thank you for making sure nobody accuses us of winning every tournament. 😉 Next year, let’s return to normal, please)."

WR Chess Team—thank you for making sure nobody accuses us of winning every tournament. —Wadim Rosenstein

Congratulations to Dragon Chilling and everyone involved in organising the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championship in Hong Kong. ♟️🇭🇰

This event has a special meaning for me because it started as my idea in 2022. I believed there was space in chess for a different kind of… pic.twitter.com/uBAnIzhlqj — Wadim Rosenstein ( @WadimRosenstein ) June 21, 2026

That wasn't quite all, however, since the quarterfinal losers entered a playoff for the last paying spot—fifth place.

WR Chess made it through to the final, but only after an epic battle against Mr Birdie and Friends. WR Chess won 3.5-2.5, Mr Birdie hit back with the same scoreline, the first tiebreak match was drawn 3-3, and it was only in the second that WR Chess finally came out on top by a 4.5-1.5 margin. No match in the event ever made it to armageddon.

WR Chess' opponents in the fifth-place match were Team MGD1, who had come through a semifinal against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu's Chessgurukul.

Praggnanandhaa and Arjun traded wins in their match for a spot in the 5th-place final. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Once again it was close, with WR Chess winning the first match 3.5-2.5 despite Arjun defeating Carlsen in 119 moves. Team MGD1 hit back to force tiebreaks, while the third Carlsen-Arjun clash was over as a contest much sooner—10...d6? by Arjun was a losing move.

Wins by GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Wesley So wrapped up a 4-2 victory for WR Chess.

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave called the tournament a "struggle," pointing out that "almost every one of us was having dumb moments," before summing up: "Of course, we wanted to get the title, we didn’t even get close to it, so it’s a team failure, for sure, but at least we had good spirit!"

It's a team failure, for sure, but at least we had good spirit! —Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

One team that managed to combine team spirit with results is Dragon Chilling. Asked how they would celebrate, Wei responded, "Maybe we will go for the party for three whole days!"

The blitz podium also had the same team in first place. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That's all for the FIDE World Team Rapid and Blitz Championships in Hong Kong!

How to rewatch?

You can replay all the games from the 2026 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championship on our Events page . The event was also broadcast live on the FIDE YouTube channel.

The 2026 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships ran June 17-21 in Hong Kong, with almost 50 teams of six players competing. Each team had to feature at least one female player and one recreational player—someone never rated 2000+ on any official rating list. The Rapid was a 12-round Swiss with a time control of 15 minutes for all moves, plus a 10-second increment per move. The Blitz (3+2) began with teams playing a round-robin in pools, before the top 16 played a knockout, where each clash featured two mini-matches.

Previous coverage: