Dragon Chilling completed a commanding campaign in Hong Kong by adding the blitz title to the rapid gold it had already secured at the World Rapid and Blitz Team Challengers Championship. The Chinese team, led by Ding Liren, defeated Endgame.AI convincingly in the final and produced one of the most dominant results of the event, while Uzbekistan claimed bronze after overcoming Hexamind.
Dragon Chilling Caps a Golden Week in Hong Kong
The conclusion of the World Team Challengers Championship confirmed Dragon Chilling’s competitive dominance across both formats. After winning the rapid section, the Chinese squad delivered again in blitz, where the event featured an initial group stage followed by a knockout phase for the top teams.
The final proved to be the most one-sided stage of a day that had previously included several difficult moments for the eventual champions. Dragon Chilling defeated Endgame.AI 5-1 in both matches of the final, an unusually emphatic margin for a gold-medal contest and especially notable in such an unpredictable time control as blitz.
Ding Liren, Wei Yi, Lu Shanglei and Zihao Wang all played key roles in the victory. Wei, Lu and Zihao won both of their games in the final, while Ju Wenjun, after taking a very quick draw against Zhu Jiner in the first game, scored an important win in the second. The result left Endgame.AI with no realistic path back into the match and underlined Dragon Chilling’s superiority in the title decider.
Ding Liren Delivers at the Crucial Moment
Ding Liren’s performance carried particular symbolic weight within Dragon Chilling’s triumph. His tournament had included some uneven moments in the decisive phase, with missed chances and a loss to Nodirbek Abdusattorov on the final day. Yet the former world champion found his best moment when his team needed it most.
In the final against Endgame.AI, Ding scored his first win of the knockout stage by defeating Hans Niemann. That victory came under maximum pressure and strengthened Dragon Chilling’s control of a match it would go on to win with authority.
For Dragon Chilling, the double gold also had a strong collective dimension. Captain Ni Hua highlighted the team’s preparation and the bond among its members, an idea also emphasized by Ju Wenjun when she pointed to team spirit as an important factor behind the result.
A Tougher Road Than the Final Score Suggested
Although the final was settled emphatically, Dragon Chilling’s path to gold was far from straightforward. In its first match of the day, the Chinese team lost 2.5-3.5 to Mr Birdie and Friends. Ding missed a winning chance against Vladislav Artemiev, while Yu Yangyi went from a winning position to defeat against Sam Sevian after promoting a second queen.
Dragon Chilling responded in the second match with a 3.5-2.5 win of its own, then secured progression to the semifinals with a 4-2 result in the first tiebreak. Even at that point, there was still suspense: Yunlong Ning could have levelled the contest had he found a mate in one on the final board.
The semifinal against Uzbekistan also followed an unusual pattern. All three matches ended by the same 4.5-1.5 score, but Dragon Chilling won the first and the third, the latter in sudden death. That victory opened the way to the final against Endgame.AI.
Endgame.AI Takes Silver After a Strong Knockout Run
Endgame.AI, led by Hans Niemann, finished with the silver medal after a high-level day, although it could not maintain in the final the form it had shown in the previous rounds. The team had advanced through the quarterfinals without needing tiebreaks against Team MGD1, in a narrow match in which it won the first encounter 3.5-2.5 and drew the second.
In the semifinals, Endgame.AI faced Hexamind. Volodar Murzin decided the first match in Hexamind’s favor by 3.5-2.5, but Endgame.AI answered with a commanding 5-1 win in the second. In the tiebreak, despite victories for Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian on the top boards, Endgame.AI prevailed thanks to its results on the four lower boards and secured a place in the final.
The silver medal confirmed the team’s progress during the tournament. After finishing sixth in rapid, Endgame.AI raised its level in blitz and reached the final match for the title.
Uzbekistan Gets Its Revenge and Wins Bronze
The match for third place repeated the previous year’s pairing between Uzbekistan and Hexamind, but this time the outcome was different. Hexamind began with a 4-2 victory and moved close to retaining bronze, but Uzbekistan responded in the second match with a narrow 3.5-2.5 win that forced a tiebreak.
The series was shaped by critical moments. Firouzja accepted a draw by repetition in a promising position against Abdusattorov, while on the lower board Murat Omarov let a winning position slip before falling to a tactical resource from Akjol Rakhmatullaev.
In the tiebreak, Uzbekistan was far superior and won 5.5-0.5. The result secured the bronze medal and confirmed another strong tournament for the team, with Abdusattorov once again among its main reference points.
WR Chess Falls Short in the Title Race
WR Chess, the defending champion and a contender to win a third consecutive blitz title, was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Uzbekistan. The first match was decided 3.5-2.5 in favor of the Uzbek team, despite wins by Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana on the top two boards.
The second match ended 3-3, a result that knocked WR Chess out of medal contention. Carlsen, who needed half a point to force a tiebreak, lost a complex position against Abdusattorov while pressing for victory.
The team still contested the playoff for fifth place. It first survived a demanding series against Mr Birdie and Friends before defeating Team MGD1. In that final placement match, WR Chess won the first encounter 3.5-2.5 despite Arjun Erigaisi’s 119-move victory over Carlsen, lost the second, and eventually prevailed 4-2 in the tiebreak thanks to wins by Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Wesley So.
A Team Format Defined by Squad Depth
The World Rapid and Blitz Team Challengers Championship was held in Hong Kong from June 17 to 21, with nearly 50 six-player teams taking part. Each team was required to include at least one female player and one recreational player who had never reached 2000 in any official rating list.
The rapid section was played as a 12-round Swiss tournament, with a time control of 15 minutes for the entire game plus a 10-second increment per move. The blitz event, played at 3+2, began with round-robin groups before moving into a knockout stage featuring the top 16 teams.
Within that format, Dragon Chilling proved to be the most consistent team of the event. Its double gold in rapid and blitz capped a campaign built on squad depth, solidity on the lower boards and the ability to respond under pressure at the most critical moments.
