Less than a week to go until the excitement of the 21st World Blitz Championship! Whenever we talk about a blitz tournament and HE is competing, HE automatically becomes the ultimate favorite. That “HE” is, of course, Alexander Schwarzman. He has competed in the World Blitz Championship 16 times and finished on the podium 15 times, including 11 gold medals around his neck! And all of this over a span of 27 years. Many people say that you get worse at blitz with age… maybe that’s true for most, but not for Alexander! He won the first World Championship in The Hague in 1998 when he was just under 32 years old, and he won in 2024 in Lishui at the age of 57. Last year he took silver, with the gold going to G. Valneris, who is less than two weeks older than Schwarzman. Some draughts players are just incredible! It’s going to be exciting… it makes you just want to fly to Riga to cheer them on!
There are only 8 names on the list of World Blitz Champions. In order of winning their titles, they are:
#1 1998 Alexander Schwarzman x11
#2 1999 Guntis Valneris x3
#3 2014 Alexander Georgiew
#4 2016 Murodullo Amrillaev
#5 2017 Jean Marc Ndjofang
#6 2020 Ainur Shaibakov
#7 2022 Aleksej Domchev
#8 2023 Artiom Ivanov
A total of 488 players have participated across all 20 championships. G. Valneris has the most appearances, with 17 times. Those who have played at least 10 times include: A. Schwarzman (16), A. Getmanski (14), M. Amrillaev and A. Shaibakov (13 each), A. Georgiev (11), I. Trofimov and Y. Bobkov (10 each). Of course, in Riga, Alexander will once again be among the top contenders for the title. However, Riga is a place that favors surprises. It is worth recalling the year 2022, when Aleksej Domchev, seeded 14th in the tournament, became the champion.
Take a look at the head-to-head history of selected players in the World Blitz Championships:
And here is the head-to-head record of these gentlemen across all rated blitz tournaments:
All results and the full table of World Blitz Championship participants can be found in the PDF file attached at the end.
Women’s Tournament
The absence of the Chinese players narrows down the field of favorites. In this situation, the tournament has, in my opinion, two clear favorites: V. Motrichko and N. Sadowska. Anyone else winning would be a massive surprise.
Both favorites have already been World Blitz Champions. Natalia won in 2024, and Viktoria won in 2022 in… Riga! They have played as many as 15 games against each other in the World Blitz Championships, and the record is perfectly tied: one win each and 13 draws.
Viktoria won their encounter in 2009 in Berlin, while Natalia won in the last Championship in Hoogeveen. Taking into account all rated blitz events, the ladies have played 40 games against each other, and the overall balance here favors Natalia 42:38.
Natalia has been on the podium for the last 4 consecutive years! Only Tamara T. can boast a similar achievement, though Natalia’s medal streak is even more impressive as it includes gold:
2022 Riga – bronze, 2023 Lishui – silver, 2024 Lishui – gold, 2025 Hoogeveen – silver.
Natalia’s main rival for the gold, Viktoria, won her first blitz medal (bronze) in Bergamo in 2018. She repeated this result a year later in Riga, won gold in 2022 in… Riga, and took bronze last year after losing the semifinal match to Natalia. Will she claim a third medal in Riga?
It’s going to be an absolute thriller!
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