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Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Fedoseev and Yu Yangyi are sharing the lead in the open section of the World Rapid Championship after nine rounds. Carlsen and Fedoseev could have gone into the third and final day of action a half point ahead of Yu had them converted superior endgame positions in round 9. In the women’s tournament, Anastasia Bodnaruk climbed to sole first place after scoring 3½/4 points on Wednesday. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

Yet another stunning performance, yet another title! Magnus Carlsen scored 10/13 points throughout three days of play to grab his fifth World Rapid Championship title in Samarkand. The Norwegian obtained two wins in a row at the start of day 3 and managed to win the tournament outright with draws in the final two rounds. In the women’s tournament, Anastasia Bodnaruk beat Humpy Koneru in a blitz playoff to claim the title. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

Five players ended day 1 of the World Rapid Championship sharing first place with 4½/5 points. Magnus Carlsen, who assessed his play on the first day as “so-so”, heads the leading pack, which also includes Yu Yangyi, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi and Ivan Cheparinov. In the women’s section, Zhu Jiner and Nurgyul Salimova are sharing first place with perfect 4/4 scores. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

For its December list FIDE has not yet rated the tournaments in St. Louis and Zagreb, so Alireza Firouzja's rating loss is still quite moderate. The 30 Elo-points Hans Niemann gained in the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb do not appear in the list either. But Carlsen remains the clear number one.

The Candidates Tournament and the Women’s Candidates Tournament will be played simultaneously next year in Toronto. Four spots are still up for grabs in the open event, while three participants remain to be decided among the women. In both cases, two spots will be decided in the upcoming Grand Swiss tournaments. Let us recap who already qualified, and who are the frontrunners to get the remaining spots. | Pictured: Elite grandmasters apparently discussing a position during the Grand Swiss opening ceremony. | Photo: Anna Shtourman