The 2022 World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships take place in Almaty (Kazakhstan) between Sunday, the 25th of December and run through until Friday, the 30th of December. The event will boast a 1 million USD prize fund and gathers some of the best players in the world including World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 2859), Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2768), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2766), Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2793), Anish Giri (NED, 2764), Alexander Grischuk (FIDE, 2745), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, 2740), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL, 2729), Yu Yangyi (CHN, 2728), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2737).

Hikaru Nakamura wished happy holidays to his fans from frozen Kazakhstan and announced a live stream of the event through his twitch channel. The hosts of the stream are WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni, GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, and GM Jeffery Xiong!