The year 2025 ended with the customary World Rapid and Blitz Championships. Here's what the public thought during the first two days of the World Rapid Championships.

Most commented during the FIDE World Rapid Championship 2025

One of the most anticipated chess events of the year is undoubtedly the FIDE World Blitz and Rapid Championships.

Spectators closely follow the progress of the games and often participate and show their interest by commenting in the live chat of FIDE’s YouTube channel.

In another article, we talked about what people commented in the chat of the Spanish broadcast offered by Chess24 during the first day of the FIDE World Rapid Championship.

In this article we dive into the topics that appeared most frequently in the chat during the FIDE live broadcast of the World Rapid Chess Championship in the first two days.

Topics mentioned during the FIDE broadcast of the World Rapid Chess Championship 2025 – Day 1

More than 3,100 comments from 660 different users were received in the YouTube chat during the day 1 of the FIDE broadcast of the World Rapid Chess Championship 2025.

The chat was highly engaged with the players’performances.

People talked about Magnus Carlsen’s dominance, Arjun Erigaisi’s rise, Gukesh’s performance, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja*, Nepomniachtchi, Hans Niemann, Praggnanandhaa, Levon Aronian, etc.

By far, the most mentioned player was Magnus Carlsen (+400 mentions), but many comments were seeing on Dommaraju Gukesh (+160), Arjun Erigaisi (+110), Hans Moke Niemann (+77), and Hikaru Nakamura (who was not playing in the event, +50).

The player with the most positive mentions is Magnus Carlsen (67%), and Gukesh had mixed mentions (40%-40%).

Broadcast issues and commentary quality drove significant discussion. There was a persistent requests for eval bars, better board views, and live standings. And viewers expressed their opinion on the trio of commentators (Peter Leko, Jovanka Houska, and Maurice Ashley).

Religious, philosophical, and political commentary was persistent but dominated by a few users.

Sarcasm and memes were common, especially around Magnus and Gukesh. The overall tone was passionate, critical, and at times humorous, reflecting a highly invested chess viewership.

The stream had significant viewership from India as there was a high volume of comments supporting Indian players (Gukesh, Arjun, Pragg).

Some viewers were upset and others expressed sarcastically on Magnus Carlsen’s late arrivals; and there was also time to expressed moral outrage at the prize fund inequality for the women and open categories.

The organic topics that showed broad interest were:

• Broadcast complaints and commentary quality (mic issues, camera angles).

• Player matchups and results (Pragg, Alireza, Nepo).

• Tournament delays and format confusion.

• Arjun vs Magnus game

• Candidates qualification debate

There were mentions of people not present at the event, as Levy Rozman (Gotham Chess), other streamers, Judit Polgar, Kramnik, past champions, and about “who is the best commentator/player”.

Topics mentioned during the FIDE broadcast of the World Rapid Chess Championship 2025 – DAY 2

Based on 3,091 comments, from 578 different users, that were received in the YouTube chat during the day 2 of the FIDE broadcast of the World Rapid Chess Championship 2025, we offer you a broad perspective of what chess followers commented during the World Rapid Chess Championship 2025.

Key complaints of the tournament organization and stream quality:

• Delayed/lagging live board

• No 2D board display

• Audio/video sync issues

• Poor camera angles

• Women’s section coverage forced

People discussed player performance, tournament standings and matchups. Particular topics were commented:

• Magnus Carlsen: Mixed reactions to draws/loss and camera incident

• Artemiev’s comeback win over Magnus

• Hans Niemann vs. Magnus Carlsen rivalry

• Gukesh performance

• Alireza Firouzja’s absence questions

Vladislav Artemiev received the highest percentage of positive mentions (74), the highest percentage of negative mentions were for Magnus Carlsen (52). And mixed feelings were for Gukesh (positive 46 - negative 36) and Hans Niemann (positive 45, negative 37).

Young player discussions also attracted attention from the viewers:

• Sina Movahed

• Faustin Oro vs. Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş debate

People also showed a genuine widespread interest about the following topics:

• Stream quality issues

• Artemiev’s win

• Magnus’ performance

• Commentary dynamics

• Hans Niemann’s games

Regarding point 4, even though most viewers really apreciated Peter Leko’s chess analysis, a feww complaint about his interruptions.

People had divided opinions on the following topics:

• Magnus Carlsen’s treatment (favoritism vs. deserved status)

• Commentary style preferences

• Importance of women’s chess coverage

Memorable quotes from English comments on the first two days of the 2025 World Rapid Chess Championship

“Magnus comes late but always latest.”

“Magnus is the eval bar.”

“Why is the women’s prize fund so low?”

“Maurice, is this game smooth enough?”

“This is why I come late, to avoid waiting.”

“Only 5k watching, how do they fund this?”

“Hans is moving up? Yes, this is what we need.”

“This is not just a tournament, it’s a global chess festival.”