- Hong Kong became the first East Asian city ever to host the FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships

- World’s greatest player makes his Hong Kong debut alongside American star Fabiano Caruana, Mongolia’s 34th Prime Minister H.E. Mr Zandanshatar Gombojav, WR Chess founder Wadim Rosenstein, and special guest World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov, opening the first East Asian edition of the FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships and turning Hong Kong into the global capital of chess this week.

"VAN" (Hemant Kumar Sharma - Sports Desk - 17.06.2026) :: The greatest chess player of all time has touched down in Hong Kong. Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian grandmaster and undisputed World No. 1, today made his first official appearance in the city, headlining a star-studded press conference at Rosewood Hong Kong, Gallery 304, just 24 hours before the opening move of the FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2026 — the first time in history this prestigious global event is being staged in East Asia.

Carlsen took the stage alongside the sport's most magnetic names — American grandmaster and former World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana; Uzbek prodigy Javokhir Sindarov, the official Challenger in the upcoming World Championship match; and H.E. Mr Zandanshatar Gombojav, the 34th Prime Minister of Mongolia — all teammates on WR Chess, the German-founded super-team competing this week at Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

It is a line-up the chess world has never seen sit shoulder to shoulder on one stage. And it is happening in Hong Kong this time.

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