Doha to host 2025 edition of FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in December

The 2025 edition of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships will be held in Doha, Qatar, between 25 and 31 December, the International Chess Federation confirmed on Thursday. “The event is scheduled from December 25 to December 31, 2025, with the Rapid Championships taking place from December 26 to 28, followed by the Blitz Championships on December 29 and 30,” the FIDE said in the statement.

This will be the second time that Qatar hosts the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships, having done so previously in 2016. The 2024 edition of the competition was held in New York. Volodar Murzin won the Open section of the World Rapid Championship whereas India’s Koneru Humpy won the Women's competition . In the Open tournament, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi were declared joint winners of the World Blitz Championship for the first-ever time, whereas China’s Ju Wenjin won the women’s competition.

D Gukesh, who had clinched the World Chess Championship title earlier in December by beating China’s Ding Liren, opted to skip the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

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The last time the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships was held in Doha 

Vassily Ivanchuk won the Rapid competition in the Open section when the tournament was last held in Doha, whereas Sergey Karjakin clinched the Blitz competition. Anna Muzychuk won both the Rapid and Blitz Championship titles for women.