The trophy of the World Rapid and Blitz 2025 – details and information
The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2025 are taking place in Doha, Qatar, from December 26 to 30, 2025. The event will be daily live on Chessdom.com with live games, interviews, video coverage, and more. The World Rapid and Blitz 2025 is held at the Qatar University Sports and Events Complex, featuring both Open and Women’s sections in Rapid and Blitz formats, with a massive prize fund exceeding €1,000,000.
Follow: World Rapid and Blitz 2025 live / Press conference with Carlsen and Gukesh / Participants
World Rapid 2025 (December 26–28): 13 rounds Swiss in Open (15+10 time control), 11 rounds in Women’s. Playoffs on December 28 if needed.
World Blitz Section (December 29–30): Swiss qualifier followed by a 4-player knockout final in each category.
Presenting to you the trophy of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2025
This trophy is inspired by the wild desert flowers of Qatar. When an idea grows and blossoms, it reconnects us with the nature of Qatar.
This trophy was not designed merely as a prize, but as a sculptural work — a tangible embodiment of the memory of our country’s natural landscape. Its design draws inspiration from Qatar’s wild flowers: silent forms of life that grow amid harsh conditions, withstand scarcity, and assert their presence without noise. These flowers do not simply display their beauty; they impose it with quiet confidence, much like the human mind in the game of chess.
The sculptural volumes and surfaces rise upward in a spiral motion, as if a flower were growing from the earth in search of light. At the same time, this movement mirrors the logic of chess — gradual advancement, balance, and precision in every move. Every curve of the trophy represents a calculated decision, and every edge serves as a reminder that beauty can emerge from competition and the pursuit of victory.
The diversity of Qatar’s wild flowers, in their forms and colors, inspired this design, just as the chess pieces differ in their roles while sharing a single objective.
The reflective surfaces capture light in the same way the black and white chessboard reflects the countless possibilities of the game — a symbol of an eternal duality: victory and defeat, silence and intensity, anticipation and resolution.
This trophy celebrates the human mind when it works with the patience of nature — and nature when it resembles the most intelligent game practiced by humankind.
Trophy designer: Ahmed AI Bahrani
Photo: Lennart Ootes