The 48-year-old former world champion scored 10.5/15 at the three-day event which was mired in controversy over the visa problems experienced by some of the competitors

India’s former world champion Vishy Anand, now a veteran aged 48, rolled back the years on Thursday at the controversial world rapids in Riyadh. In his youth Anand was the speediest grandmaster on the planet and he produced a vintage performance for the $750,000 15-round, three-day event in scoring 10.5/15 to take the gold medal.

His win over Norway’s world No1, Magnus Carlsen, is featured in this week’s puzzle and ultimately proved a decisive moment. In a final tie-break Anand easily defeated Vladimir Fedoseev, a rising Russian star half his age.

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Carlsen was the hot favourite for the crown, and despite a wobbly start came on strong in the middle rounds to take a clear lead on 9/12. Then he uncharacteristically faded with two nondescript draws and a bad final round loss to Russia’s Alexander Grischuk.

Overall, the significant winners were the experienced Chinese and Russia’s new generation in their teens and 20s. A little-known 15-year-old, Andrey Esipenko, beat several GMs and played what may become the move of the year, an elegant queen sacrifice against the 2016 world title challenger Sergey Karjakin.

China dominates women’s chess,and although the world No1, Hou Yifan, did not compete, they still took gold and silver through Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie in the $250,000 women’s championship.

The 21-round world blitz started on Friday and continues on Saturday, commencing at 11am. Blitz is three minutes on the clock for all your moves, plus a two seconds increment after each move, so is action-packed free internet spectator entertainment, Every game will be shown live, while a video stream from the playing hall will focus on close-ups of Carlsen and his opponents.

Offboard, it remains unclear how the tournament’s well publicised problems will play out. Its $2m total prize fund is the largest in chess history outside matches for the classical world championship. Fide, the global chess body, takes a 20% cut, meaning that if the rapid/blitz also takes place in Riyadh in 2018 and 2019 as contracted, Fide will collect $1.2m, which for a cash-strapped organisation would be a gold mine.

However, Fide’s statute 1.2 says unequivocally that its events must be open to all member federations. Players from Qatar have belatedly acquired visas and will compete in the blitz. Israelis, who remain barred, claim the tournament is illegal and will take their case to the Fide’s next congress in autumn 2018 and possibly to the court of arbitration for sport in Lucerne.

Is there a way out? One idea discussed informally between Fide and the Saudis was for Israelis to play under the Fide flag, as do individuals from countries like Bulgaria, whose membership is suspended. But this construction would only work for Israelis with a second passport. Fide has promised a statement after the end of the current tournament as it seeks to escape what seems at the moment an insoluble impasse.

Carlsen won this game by simple yet impressive strategy against China’s Wang Yue. His 9 Ng5! acquired the bishop pair in a position where White also controlled the only open file with Alekhine’s Gun, tripled queen and rooks, Black’s pieces became comically passive and 25 Qa5! set up the finish 27 Rd8 Rxd8 28 Qxd8+ Kg7 29 Bf6+ Kh8 30 Qf8+ and mate.

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Magnus Carlsen v Wang Yue

1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 d3 c6 4 Nf3 d5 5 Bb3 Qc7 6 Nc3 dxe4?! 7 Nxe4 Nxe4 8 dxe4 Be7 9 Ng5! Bxg5 10 Bxg5 Na6 11 Be3 O-O 12 Qd2 Qe7 13 Qc3 Re8 14 O-O-O Nc7 15 Rd3 Qf6 16 f3 Ne6 17 Rd6 g6 18 Rhd1 Qg7 19 Qd2 h5 20 g3 Nc7 21 Bh6 Qh7 22 Rd8 Bh3 23 Rxa8 Nxa8 24 Bg5 Nc7 25 Qa5! Ne6 26 Bxe6 Bxe6 27 Rd8 1-0

3527 1 Nc5?? (1 Nf4 is level) Rxc5! 2 Qxc5 Qe4! and Carlsen resigned in view of 3 Kf1 Qh1+ 4 Ke2 Bf3+ 5 Kd2 Ne4+ and Nxc5 winning the queen.