By Leon Watson

The 2024 FIDE World Blitz Championships ended bizarrely with Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreeing to share the title for the first time in history.

The two heavyweight grandmasters took matters into their own hands after the new matchplay final in New York stretched to seven games in sudden death with the score tied on 3.5-3.5.

An armageddon tiebreak wasn’t available under the new format instituted by FIDE meaning a decisive result was needed to break the deadlock.

But as spectators waited for the eighth game to kick off, Carlsen and Nepo left the board to make an unorthodox joint request to be named co-champions. Footage suggests Carlsen made the initial suggestion.

FIDE officials accepted, rewriting the rulebook on the spot and allowing the match to end in a manner no-one in the arena was expecting.

Carlsen told the Norwegian TV network NRK: "It feels very good to share gold with Nepo. We reached a point where it had been a long day.

“We played many games, we had three draws and I felt that I could keep playing. But it was a nice solution to share the win, it was a good way to end it."

Carlsen now adds the shared title to his six previous World Blitz wins. Nepomniachtchi wins his first. The match was epic: In Carlsen’s homeland of Norway, the match started in 2024 and ended in 2025.

The drama followed another closely fought match in the $200,000 Women’s event between China’s Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie. No such agreement was made there, however, as five draws preceded a crushing win for Ju as she took the title outright for the first time.

Lei beat two-time World Blitz champion Bibisara Assaubayeva and three-time champion Kateryna Lagno on her way to the final. Ju, meanwhile, brushed aside defending champion Valentina Gunina and Vaishali Rameshbabu in the semi to set up an all-China encounter.

“The Chinese players came in force, they didn’t show up at the Olympiad, but they did here,” said FIDE commentator Maurice Ashley.

Ju’s win adds the Blitz crown to her four classical world titles and two Rapid titles.

Carlsen had put the controversy of this week’s “jeansgate” row behind him to power past Hans Niemann in the quarters, Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the semis and then race into a 2-0 lead against Nepomniachtchi. At that point, Carlsen had won seven games in a row and was in red-hot form.

But Nepomniachtchi, the two-time world title challenger and former World Rapid champion, hit back in style. The Russian number-one scored two wins on demand to take the match to sudden death and then wouldn’t buckle under pressure. Nepomniachtchi, who topped the leaderboard in the Swiss, may even have won it, but now we’ll never know.

The $90,000 first prize will now be split, although the details haven’t been announced yet. Carlsen leaves New York having lost his Rapid title to 18-year-old Volodar Murzin after pulling out of the event last Friday and he no longer has sole grip on the Blitz.

This edition featured a revamped format incorporating a matchplay Knockout on day two intended to ramp up tension as the winner is decided.

Prior to the day’s play the change of format was the subject of much comment. After what happened in the final, that debate is likely to continue.