Top 10 Best Blitz Chess Players in the World

All around the globe, chess players enjoy playing blitz. To get better at chess is the goal for some players, while other ones are just getting fun. But, who are the best blitz chess players in the world?

The best blitz chess players in the world use special selected openings. When they play classical chess, they switch to a different set of openings.
This tells you that opening preparation is fundamental to win more chess games.
☉ That is why we strongly suggest you to take a deep look at the Best chess openings and how to pick one for you

By the way, if you want to play blitz chess games against players from other countries, check the Top 5 Platforms to Play Chess Online.

Blitz events are increasing in numbers fast when it comes to over-the-board chess tournaments.

This has even seen the implication of the World FIDE Blitz World Championship, which is held annually in December.

There are still some players who haven’t reached their peak ratings due to the lack of enough blitz tournaments available.

Some players at the top have managed to reach their peaks, and we will make a list of the top 10 elite players who have managed to do so, and their repertoires.

Chess players prepare special opening repertoires for blitz games. We will learn here what openings they play.

10. Anish Giri (2766)

Born in Russia, but has changed federations to the Dutch federation, Anish Giri is a chess prodigy and an all-around elite chess player in all formats.

He is famously known for drawing games with the most notable draws coming from the 2016 Candidates Tournament, where he drew 14 games.

His recent Blitz Tournament occurred in the 2021 Warsaw World Blitz Championship.

In this tournament, he managed to score wins against Fedoseev Vladimir and the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

You can see Anish Giri in action, by watching the video Anish Giri vs Ding Liren | FIDE Candidates 2021.

What makes it difficult to defeat Anish in any format is his ability to play solid chess. We can see him playing fewer mistakes and rarely being stuck in worse positions.

His recent repertoire mainly focuses on the following openings:

White

Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3
Catalan, Closed, 5.Nf3
Gruenfeld, Exchange Variation
King’s Pawn Game

Black

Sicilian, Najdorf
Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ragozin Variation
Petrov’s Defense
Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense, Open Variation

In the video lesson below, GM Igor Smirnov will share with you a powerful chess opening for Black, called Owen’s Defense, where Black responds with 1…b6

9. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2769)

Even at the age of 36, Shakh is still considered to be Azerbaijan’s golden boy as he is ranked number 1 in the country.

He has been consistently ranked in the top 10 in classical, and this ranking has also translated to his blitz as he is ranked number 9.

While he hasn’t replicated the consistency of being top 10 in rapid, he is a former Champion of the format after he won the 2013 World Rapid Championship.

What makes Mamedyarov scary is his level of consistency, as he has been performing at an elite level since 2003.

This makes him a difficult opponent as his experience will always kick in when he is in trouble, giving him an opportunity to save lost games.

This type of experience has also seen him ranked at a peak world number two behind Magnus on the FIDE rankings at some point in time.

He recently took part in the 2021 World Blitz Championship, winning games against the “Minister of Defense”, Sergey Karjakin.

He also scored a win against the World Champion Magnus Carlsen, just like our tenth-ranked Anish Giri.

His recent repertoire shows him playing the following openings:

White

Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3
King’s Indian Defense
Queen’s Pawn Game
Queen’s Gambit Declined Slav, 3.Nf3

Black

King’s Pawn Game
Caro-Kann Defense
Petrov’s Defense
Gruenfeld, Exchange Variation

8. Levon Aronian (2773)

At 39 years old, Levon Aronian is still ranked amongst the elite chess players.

While he has played for Armenia most of his chess life, he has now switched Federations to the American Federation in 2021.

This decision was mainly based on the decline of financial support from the Armenian Government towards chess.

The switch also shows us that Levon is probably not planning to retire from the sport anytime soon.

With his consistency even at his age, it’s hard to determine when we will start to see a decline in his performance.

His recent performance in the World Blitz Chess Championship saw him defeat elite players like Daniil Dubov and Anish Giri.

The performance he was putting on shows him as the sole leader of the tournament until he tilted, losing his last four rounds and the title.

As of recent, his repertoire primarily focuses on the following openings:

White:

Queen’s Pawn Game
Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3
English, Four Knights, Kingside Fianchetto
Queen’s Indian, 4.g3

Black:

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense, Open Variation
Ruy Lopez, Closed

It’s usually predictable as to which opening he will play especially with the black pieces, where he always opts for the Ruy Lopez.

This makes it easy to prepare for him, but also hard to actually defeat him, as he would have probably looked into the variation you might play and all the possible tricks that might arise.

7. Daniil Dubov (2791)

The Russian-born 25-year-old GM is 2700+ in all three formats(blitz, rapid, classical). But it’s only in the blitz format where he is ranked in the top 10.

This shouldn’t mean he can be underestimated as he has previously won the World Rapid Championship in 2018.

Dubov has served as Magnus Carlsen’s second twice, during both the 2018 and 2021 World Chess Championship matches.

This shows that his coaching skills are on another level to be trusted by the best chess player in the world on the most important occasions.

His recent performance in the World Blitz Championship saw him defeating Africa Number One, Bassem Amin, and also the talented Jan Krzysztof Duda.

Daniil’s recent repertoire sees him playing the following chess openings:

White

Reti Opening
English, Four Knights, Kingside Fianchetto
Catalan, Closed, 5.Nf3
Reti, King’s Indian Attack (Barcza System)

Black

Sicilian Defense
Robatsch (modern) Defense
Reti Opening
Sicilian, Nimzovich-Rossolimo Attack

6. Alireza Firouzja (2791)

At just the age of 18, Alireza Firouzja is one of the most famous chess players in the world right now due to his talent.

His fame started due to the Covid-19 lockdown as he showed that he could go blow for blow against Magnus and Hikaru, when it comes to online chess.

The strength he showed online has translated to his over-the-board strength as he is currently ranked number two in classical chess, just behind Magnus Carlsen.

After the 2021 World Classical Chess Championship, Magnus stated that he is only keen on facing the young champ as he is the only one who can probably provide a challenge for the World Title.

In the World Blitz Championship, he finished tied first, but due to the tie-breaks, he was ultimately placed third.

In the tournament, he managed to score wins against Dubov Daniil, and also Aronian Levon during the penultimate round.

The young champs repertoire focuses on the following openings:

White

Queen’s Pawn Game
Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
Giuoco Piano
Sicilian, Najdorf

Black

Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Nimzovich-Rossolimo, Moscow) Attack
Caro-Kann Defense
Sicilian, Najdorf
Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3

5. Artemiev Vladislav (2799)

The 23-year-old Russian grandmaster is amongst the discussion when it comes to players who will become the Classical World Champion in the future.

While his classical rating has dropped by almost 50 points in ELO, as he now stands with a rating of 2700 on the dot, the same can’t be said about his blitz rating.

He is currently number five in blitz and this strength is no fluke as in his online rating on lichess.org. He is ranked number two just behind Magnus.

The recent Blitz World Championship saw him scoring wins against Vladimir Fedoseev and Levon Aronian.

Vladislav’s recent opening repertoire mainly sees him playing the following openings:

White

Reti Opening
Nimzovich-Larsen Attack
Reti, King’s Indian Attack (Barcza System)
Queen’s Pawn Game

Black

Sicilian, Najdorf
Gruenfeld, Exchange Variation
Sicilian, Kan, 5.Bd3
Caro-Kann Defense

4. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2813)

The Frenchman is the current World Blitz Champion. This is enough to show how elite his skills are when it comes to blitz.

He has also been previously ranked number two on the classical rankings, showing that he is an all-around elite player.

On his way to winning the World Blitz title, he defeated Magnus Carlsen, dethroning him from the title.

He also went into a tiebreak with Jan Krzysztof Duda, where he won the tiebreak after 3 blitz games.

His current repertoire currently focuses on the following openings:

White

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense, Open Variation
Giuoco Piano
Caro-Kann Defense
Petrov’s Defense

Black

King’s Indian Defense
Sicilian, Najdorf
Gruenfeld, Exchange Variation
English, 1…Nf6 (Anglo-Indian Defense)

3. Wesley So (2814)

The 28-year-old current US Champion was dubbed as Magnus Carlsen’s kryptonite as of recent.

He has managed to defeat Magnus in multiple events, including on one of the World Champions’ previous birthdays.

Wesley is solid overall and on any time format. On his good days, he can go blow for blow with both Magnus and Hikaru, when it comes to blitz.

Unfortunately, Wesley didn’t part-take in the World Blitz Championship and we can mainly blame this on Covid-19, which is still lurking around.

Wesley’s current repertoire includes the following openings:

White

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3
Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense, Open Variation
Giuoco Piano

Black

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense, Open Variation

Wesley also has Levon Aronian’s tactics of using the same opening, especially with the black pieces.

But as stated previously, it’s hard to score wins against them. Players within Wesley’s rating range rather opt to play into a quick Ruy Lopez draw when playing against him.

2. Hikaru Nakamura (2850)

Currently ranked number one in blitz, Hikaru is an American-based Grandmaster aged 34 currently.

Hikaru has been ranked World Number 2 previously, but he is now inactive according to FIDE as he hasn’t played a classical match in over 2 years.

When it comes to rapid and blitz, however, he is on the topic of G.O.A.T with Magnus.

While Hikaru has been World Number 1 in both formats, the only problem is that he hasn’t held any of the World Championship titles.

He took part in the 2021 World Blitz Championship, but was forced to retire because he had contracted Covid-19.

Nakamura’s current repertoire includes the following openings:

White

Queen’s Pawn Game
Reti Opening
Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense

Black

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3
Giuoco Piano

1. Magnus Carlsen (2832)

When considering who the best player is in any format, it’s very hard to remove Magnus from the number 1 spot.

Magnus Carlsen (the GOAT) has previously held all three titles simultaneously, and has also been ranked number one in all three formats.

Magnus is a complete player; t’s very hard to play against him. Though the current Rapid and Blitz Championship was a disappointment for him.

The tiebreak used for the tournament is what threw him off as he lost his Rapid title because of his tiebreak.

His performance was only good enough for a third-place finish, although he had the same points as the top 2, meaning he didn’t qualify for the tiebreak.

His frustrations showed in the blitz format as he performed badly even dropping to world number 2 behind Hikaru in the rankings.

Carlsen’s opening repertoire includes the following openings: