World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2012 started in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana (15-15 minutes for each match, 10-10 seconds are added per move in rapid chess, 3 minutes+2 seconds in blitz). There are 30 participants in this tournament, one of them is Georgian- Merab Gagunashvili (2570) champion of Georgia 2010 fights for the decisive match.
According to the regulations, rapid tournament will be held according to the Swiss system in 9 rounds, blitz – 11. 5 rounds were held in rapid chess and Russian Igor Kurnosov (2663) advanced with 4.0 points. He beat Gagunashvili in the sixth round, in case of win Georgian chess player would become a leader. But now he has 3.0 points and with other four players, he shared the seventh-twelfth places. On July 3, 4 round matches will be held in rapid chess and it is already known that in the 6^th round Gagunashvili plays against Kazakh Kiryl Kuderinov (2493) with black pieces. Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Teimur Rajabov, Shahrian Mamediarov (both of them from Azerbaijan), Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grishchuk, Peter Svidler (all of them from Russia), Vassil Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) are special guests at this tournament.