FIDE World Team Rapid Day 3: Dragon Chilling Take Gold; Carlsen Loses 4 In A Row

Dragon Chilling Takes Rapid Gold In Nail-Biting Finish; Carlsen Loses 4 In A Row

GM Ding Liren won in the final round as Dragon Chilling clinched the 2026 World Rapid Team Championship on tiebreaks ahead of silver medalists Team MGD1 (led by GM Arjun Erigaisi) and bronze medalists Hexamind Chess Team (GM Alireza Firouzja). When Dragon Chilling won their first match of the day, they took a three-point lead, but they lost the next two matches, with Mr Birdie and friends (GM Vladislav Artemiev) entering the last round in the sole lead before losing by the finest of margins to miss out on the podium.

Pre-tournament favorites WR Chess finished 17th, with GM Magnus Carlsen sacrificing a queen as he lost to GM Javokhir Sindarov, then losing again to GM Aydin Suleymanli, as he suffered four over-the-board losses in a row for the first time since he was 12.

The 2026 FIDE World Blitz Team Championship starts Saturday, June 20, at 2 a.m. ET / 08:00 CEST / 11:30 a.m. IST.

The medals were decided by the smallest of possible margins as the top three all finished on 18 points. They were separated by the Olympiad Sonneborn-Berger Tiebreak, which wasn't clear until all the games in the playing hall were over.

FIDE World Rapid Team Championship Final Standings (Top 22)

Rank Seed Team Matches + = - Score Tiebreak 1 4 Dragon Chilling 12 8 2 2 18 647.5 2 6 Team MGD1 12 8 2 2 18 632 3 2 Hexamind Chess Team 12 8 2 2 18 611.5 4 7 Mr Birdie and friends 12 7 3 2 17 584.5 5 11 Chessgurukul 12 8 1 3 17 561.5 6 5 Endgame.AI 12 6 4 2 16 544.5 7 3 Kazchess 12 7 1 4 15 567 8 12 Uzbekistan 12 7 1 4 15 512 9 9 Barys 12 7 1 4 15 475 10 20 Interstellar Club 12 7 1 4 15 474.5 11 16 Odlar Yurdu (Azerbaijan) 12 7 1 4 15 445.5 12 8 Chess United 12 7 1 4 15 443 13 15 Sky Chess 12 7 0 5 14 485 14 19 Shenzhen Qiyu Chess Club 12 6 2 4 14 440.5 15 28 The MongolZ 12 7 0 5 14 416 16 22 Mongolia-Aldar 12 6 1 5 13 491.5 17 1 WR Chess 12 6 1 5 13 483.5 18 13 Chessnut Nova 12 6 1 5 13 473.5 19 10 Global Ramblers 12 3 7 2 13 448 20 32 May Wind Newbies 12 5 3 4 13 441 21 21 Red Pseudodragon 12 6 1 5 13 421.5 22 18 Qatar Chess Team 12 6 1 5 13 364.5

Full games and standings

Dragon Chilling took gold. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Dragon Chilling entered the final day of the event with a one-point lead, but had a dream first round of the day. Second-place Team MGD1 were beaten 3.5-2.5 by Hexamind Chess Team (with wins for GM Levon Aronian and Volodar Murzin), while Dragon Chilling itself took care of third-place Barys with a 5-1 win.

Young Zihao Wang starred for Dragon Chilling on bottom board. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That gave Dragon Chilling a huge three-point lead over a five-team chasing pack, and the sense that everything was going the Chinese stars' way was boosted when GM Yu Yangyi, not for the first time in the event, won a game where he was completely losing. GM Denis Makhnev's 88.d6?? had a fatal flaw.

Dragon Chilling's smooth ride came to an end in round 10, however, when they suffered their first defeat, to Hexamind Chess Team.

In hindsight, it was a serious mistake for Ding and Yu to concede quick draws with White on boards one and three.

Divya checks out Murzin's board. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Murzin turned around a tricky position to score a sixth win in a row, while Aronian impressively beat GM Wei Yi, spotting a beautiful tactic at the end. That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.

"We're back in business!" said Aronian. However, he also noted, while referring to comments he'd made in the opening press conference: "Just generally the tournament got so much stronger, there are so many more strong teams, that our expectation to finish better than last year [silver medals] has been crushed by reality—but we're fighting!"

Dragon Chilling were back to the one-point lead they'd had at the start of the day, but it didn't last long, as in the penultimate round they lost a second match in a row, this time to Mr Birdie and friends.

GM Awonder Liang had been on the ropes against GM Bai Jinshi, but turned things around, won a pawn, and was pressing when his opponent blundered with 64.Kc4?.

Awonder's team congratulate him—they came incredibly close to medals. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Usually a one-point deficit for Dragon Chilling would be canceled out on the recreational board, but Yunlong Ning inflicted his opponent's only loss of the event, so that IM Carissa Yip's loss of a winning position to GM Ju Wenjun made no difference.

"Mr Birdie was my best friend's pet bird, who died a year ago today," said Yip, and the team's performance was a fitting tribute, since they leapfrogged over Dragon Chilling into the sole lead going into the final round.

There was some good news for Dragon Chilling, however. They could easily have been overtaken by two more teams, but instead they were only caught by Hexamind, who drew 3-3 with Barys, and Team MGD1, who needed a late twist to make a 3-3 draw against Endgame.AI. GM Hans Niemann had a completely drawn position vs. Arjun, but lost on the spot with 33...c6?, overlooking the brutal reply.

The other piece of good news for Dragon Chilling was that after playing all their closest rivals, they faced the lower-rated Interstellar Club in the final round, and duly dispatched them 5-1, with Ding winning his first game in 10 rounds.

Ding hadn't won since round two, but picked a good time to change that! Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

He also boosted team morale by scoring the win fast, after GM Zhao Jun made the last mistake on move 17.

Team MGD1 kept pace with Dragon Chilling with a 5-1 win over Barys, but those wins would have been irrelevant for first place if Mr Birdie and friends had won the top match to clinch the title. They didn't, but it was incredibly close!

The top-board win for Firouzja, who was a star performer after a difficult first day, was based on merit as he was on top and applying pressure, but Artemiev still had a holdable position when his risky time management finally caught up with him—he lost on time.

Firouzja still had three minutes on his clock at the end—the players stuck around to watch the action elsewhere. Image: FIDE.

It seemed GM Sam Sevian might hit back on second board against his fellow U.S. Armenian Aronian, but 26.Qb5? allowed Black to completely turn the tables.

Still, the match wasn't over, since on bottom board Yunlong did his thing, winning a pawn in style...

...and later the game. In fact, it all came down to one clash, where GM Liem Le was agonizingly close to winning and putting his team on the podium.

Very mixed emotions, after Giri rescued a vital draw—and ended on 50 percent. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

GM Anish Giri escaped, however, finally pouncing on the last mistake 46...Rca6?—a black rook had to stay on the c-file to make the black c-pawn immune to capture.

That win meant Hexamind joined Dragon Chilling and Team MGD1 on 18 points, with Mr Birdie and friends missing out on 17 points, where they were joined by GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu-led Chessgurukul.

In the end, the tiebreaks, which depended on the margin of each team win and the performance of the team beaten (or drawn against), fell in favor of the leaders for most of the event, Dragon Chilling.

🏆 The winners are CHILLING! 😎

🐉 Dragon Chilling has won the FIDE World Team Rapid Chess Championship 2026 in 🇭🇰 Hong Kong!#HongKong #FIDERapidBlitzTeams pic.twitter.com/qHjOpCSb84 — International Chess Federation ( @FIDE_chess ) June 19, 2026

2025 winners Team MGD1 this time took silver, while last year's silver medalists, Hexamind, took bronze. "Disappointing," said Aronian when hearing that news, but the team had still fought back in style after a tough first day.

Magnus Carlsen signing autographs before another tough day at the office. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That leaves one team that will be looking to erase the 2026 FIDE World Team Rapid Chess Championship from their collective memory as soon as possible—WR Chess. The pre-event favorites crashed and burned, losing five matches to finish 17th, and the headline performance was by world number-one Carlsen, who lost the two games he played on the final day to make it an astonishing four losses in a row. It seems he last did that in an over-the-board event in rounds five-eight of the Gausdal tournament in Norway as a 2315-rated 12-year-old in 2003.

The first game of the day was one you couldn't expect Carlsen to do anything but put up a fight in—a showdown with world championship challenger Sindarov. Carlsen went for a line where he needed to give up his queen, and though there was compensation, it was always an uphill struggle. A few inaccuracies later and he found himself lost.

The win did no harm to Sindarov's bid to become the king of chess this year. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The game that followed looked like tilt, as Carlsen played the Dutch and almost got blown off the board by Suleymanli. 24.Ne6! was winning an exchange, and although the 21-year-old from Azerbaijan was in perpetual time trouble and let Carlsen right back into the game, he still managed to go on to win.

That feeling when you're beating perhaps the greatest chess player of all time. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That's when Carlsen decided it wasn't his day and hung up his rapid boots, at least remaining above 2800 on the rapid live rating list.

Firouzja and Arjun both edged above Nakamura, while Aronian entered the top five.

Caruana and So won to rescue a draw in that match, but if a team can go on tilt, that's what we saw in what followed.

For the penultimate round, WR Chess, which operates with the self-imposed burden of not using seriously underrated "recreational players," fielded two of them against a team from Mongolia, with So and Carlsen absent.

In fact, it was appropriate that Gombojav Zandanshatar faced a Mongolian team, since from June 2025 to March this year he served as the Mongolian Prime Minister! On the chessboard, however, he made one draw in six games in Hong Kong, while team owner Wadim Rosenstein scored 2.5/7.

Even Caruana didn't prove immune to the curse on WR Chess in the rapid section. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

On another day that might not have mattered for this particular match, but shockingly WR Chess lost on both top boards. Caruana's loss was bewildering, since the world number-two had built up a completely winning position when, with plenty of time on his clock, he went for a "forced checkmate" which saw him resign a move later.

By this stage, all hopes of even gaining a medal had gone, however, so no real harm was done.

WR Chess will be hoping to regroup, since their goal in the blitz that starts Saturday is nothing other than to win the event for a third year in a row!

How to watch?

You can follow the 2026 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championship on our Events page . It's also available to watch on the FIDE YouTube channel.

The 2026 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships run June 17-21 in Hong Kong, with almost 50 teams of six players competing. Each team must feature at least one female player and one "recreational player," who has never been rated 2000+. The Rapid is 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) begins with teams playing a round-robin in pools, before the top 16 play a knockout, where each clash features two mini-matches.

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