BLITZ

From the German Blitz – lightning, a play with moves made in a rapid manner under a short time limit.

In the late 19th century such games are said to be played in London: each player had 30 seconds for one move, later it was reduced to 5 seconds. As the clock technology progressed, another time condition came to popularity: each player had 5 minutes for the whole game. Rules used for such games are almost the same as for a regular one, except for some minor alternations.

FIDE started to published a blitz rating list a couple years ago, before that some tries where made by Walter Browne in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Before 2006, two unofficial world championships were organized: the first won by Mikhail Tal in 1988 and the second by Robert Fischer in Herceg Novi in 1970, both tournaments included the best world players. More recently, in 2016, Sergey Karjakin was crowned World Blitz Champion in Doha.