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, 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.
This is a flash report—come back later for full coverage of the day’s action!
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
| 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
Our Game of the Day is GM Levon Aronian’s win over GM Wei Yi as Hexamind inflicted a first loss of the tournament on Dragon Chilling. GM Rafael Leitao will analyze the game below.
How to watch?
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.
Previous coverage:
