FIDE recently announced the teams which will compete in the 2026 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships. This means that the chess community is set to gear up for one of the biggest tournaments of the year.
The tournament will establish a new global centre for playing speed chess, featuring world champions, top-ranked Grandmasters, young superstars, and many fan-favourite stars from around the world.
Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu are among some of the very best players from around the world competing in this tournament.
These tournaments will be among the highest-level team competitions in the history of chess.
When And Where Will The Tournament Take Place?
The 2026 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championships will be held from June 17 to June 21 at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong.
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The tournament will feature 43 teams and more than 300 players from around the world.
What Is The Prize Pool?
The total prize fund for the tournament stands at €500,000.
Out of that:
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- €310,000 will be awarded in the Rapid section
- €190,000 will be distributed in the Blitz event
The Rapid competition will be played for three days in a 12-round Swiss format with 15+10 time control.
Talking about the blitz event, it will then shift into a 16-team knockout format with a 3+2 time control in the final two days.
Full Star Lineups Announced For Major Teams
Team WR
Defending powerhouse Team WR once again looks like the team to beat.
Lineup:
- Magnus Carlsen
- Fabiano Caruana
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
- Wesley So
- Jan-Krzysztof Duda
- Hou Yifan
- Alexandra Kosteniuk
Team WR won the 2023 rapid title and the blitz championship in both 2024 and 2025.
Hexamind
After narrowly missing out on titles last year, Hexamind returns with another dangerous roster.
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Lineup:
- Levon Aronian
- Anish Giri
- Alireza Firouzja
- Vidit Gujrathi
- Kateryna Lagno
- Volodar Murzin
Hexamind finished with rapid silver and blitz bronze in 2025.
Team MGD1
India’s top squads are once again arriving with massive expectations.
Lineup:
- Arjun Erigaisi
- Nihal Sarin
- Pranav Venkatesh
- Leon Luke Mendonca
- Harika Dronavalli
MGD1 won rapid gold in 2025 and remains one of the strongest Indian teams in the competition.
Chessgurukul
Another Indian powerhouse is entering the event with serious title ambitions.
Lineup:
- Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
- Vaishali Rameshbabu
- Aravindh Chithambaram
- Pranesh M
The presence of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali once again makes Chessgurukul one of the most talked-about teams in the tournament.
Dragon Chilling
One of the biggest stories this year is the arrival of the Chinese side Dragon Chilling.
Lineup:
- Ding Liren
- Wei Yi
- Yu Yangyi
- Ju Wenjun
- Lei Tingjie
The event marks one of Ding Liren’s biggest team appearances since losing the world championship crown in 2024.
Team Chess United
Indian legend Viswanathan Anand is also back in action.
Lineup:
- Viswanathan Anand
- Humpy Koneru
- Jorden van Foreest
- Faustino Oro
Faustino Oro enters the event after becoming the second-youngest grandmaster in chess history.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan once again arrives with one of the most exciting young teams in world chess.
Lineup:
- Javokhir Sindarov
- Nodirbek Abdusattorov
- Nodirbek Yakubboev
- Shamsiddin Vokhidov
- Rustam Kasimdzhanov
The growing India vs Uzbekistan rivalry is expected to become one of the tournament’s biggest talking points.
FIDE Introduces New Amateur Team Event
FIDE has officially added the inaugural World Team Amateur Rapid Chess Cup to the FIDE World Championship series this fall, along with its annual elite World Chess Championships, as a way to create an environment of inclusiveness between amateur and professional participants in the same global festival format.
Thus, these FIDE World Championships will be among the world’s largest mixed celebrations of chess in 2026.
Also, along with Magnus Carlsen returning to Team WR, Ding Liren returning to the world’s chess scene after five years, and India’s elite quartet sending teams to all four divisions, two prominent young players – Faustino Oro (Italy) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and one new name entering the spotlight – WCM Nastya Shulga (Russia), the 2026 edition of FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships has all the characteristics to be one of the best-ever versions.
Also Read: India’s Tamizh Amudhan Bags FIDE Commonwealth Youth Rapid Under-10 Open Title
