From June 11 to 15, London hosted the World Team Championship in Rapid and Blitz Chess, featuring 52 teams from around the world. The Kazakhstan national team, KazChess, earned the silver medal in the blitz competition, forbes.kz reports.

The blitz tournament (time control 3+2) was held in two stages — group play and playoffs. In Group D, KazChess performed confidently, advancing to the next stage after losing only to Team MGD1. In the final stage, the Kazakh team took the runner-up title, conceding first place to tournament favorites WR Chess Team.

Another Kazakh team — Rookies, led by the head coach of Kazakhstan’s junior national teams, Evgeny Vladimirov, also made headlines by reaching the playoffs, outperforming several higher-rated opponents.