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.
A Historic First for East Asia
From 17–21 June at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai, the FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2026 bring together over 300 elite players from more than 50 countries, all chasing a share of a
It is the first time the championship has ever been held in East Asia, an inflection point that places Hong Kong squarely at the centre of the global chess calendar and underscores the city’s standing as Asia’s premier host of world-class sporting and intellectual spectacle.
A Founder Who Plays His Own Game
The afternoon’s quietly extraordinary character was Wadim Rosenstein, the 35-year-old German entrepreneur behind WR Chess and Chairman of WR Group Holding, one of the fastest-rising private holding groups in the world. Having committed millions of euros of his personal wealth to elevating chess globally, Rosenstein is doing something almost unheard of at this level: he is playing himself, taking the U2000 board for WR Chess this week alongside Carlsen, Caruana, Sindarov, and H.E. Mr Zandanshatar Gombojav, the Prime Minister of Mongolia.
It is the kind of move that captures the spirit of WR Chess in a single gesture — world champions and a dedicated enthusiast, all in the same uniform, all under the same banner.
Headlines from the Press Conference
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A historic first — Hong Kong becomes the first East Asian city ever to host the FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships
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A first visit — Magnus Carlsen makes his official Hong Kong debut
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A homecoming — Ella Carlsen returns to the city of her birth
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A head of state at the board — Mongolia’s 34th Prime Minister, H.E. Mr Zandanshatar Gombojav, competes alongside the world’s elite
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A founder who plays — Wadim Rosenstein takes the U2000 seat for his own team
Four giants, one stage — Zandanshatar, Carlsen, Rosenstein, Sindarov and Caruana address the world’s media side by side
The WR Chess Roster — Ten Names, One Banner
WR Chess arrives in Hong Kong with a line-up few teams in the history of the sport could rival — current and former World Champions, World Championship challengers, a serving statesman, and the founder himself at the amateur board.
- Magnus Carlsen (Norway) — World No. 1 and the most dominant chess player in modern history. Five-time World Champion, multi-time World Rapid and World Blitz Champion, and the highest-rated player to ever sit at a board.
- Fabiano Caruana (USA) — The man who pushed Carlsen to twelve straight draws in the 2018 World Championship final and remains a permanent fixture at the very top of the world rankings. The strongest American grandmaster of his generation.
- Wesley So (USA) — Fischer Random World Champion and three-time U.S. Champion, celebrated for a positional clarity few in the world can match. One of the most respected technical players on tour.
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) — Former World Blitz Champion and one of the most feared attacking minds in elite chess. France’s standard-bearer at the top board for more than a decade.
- Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) — Chess World Cup winner and the player who famously ended Magnus Carlsen’s record-breaking 125-game unbeaten streak in classical chess. Poland’s first true superstar of the modern era.
- Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland) — Former Women’s World Champion and one of the most recognisable ambassadors the game has ever produced. A grandmaster whose career has spanned three decades at the top.
- Alexandra Goryachkina (Russia) — Women’s World Championship challenger and one of the most consistent forces in elite women’s chess. A grandmaster known for an iron will and ferocious end-game technique.
- H.E. Mr Zandanshatar Gombojav (Mongolia) — The 34th Prime Minister of Mongolia and a passionate competitive player, bringing the gravitas of statecraft to the board and underscoring chess’s reach into the highest corridors of public life.
- Wadim Rosenstein (Germany) — Team founder, Chairman of WR Group Holding, and one of the most committed private patrons in modern chess. This week, he occupies the U2000 board himself — the rarest sight in elite team chess.
- Jan Gustafsson (Germany) — Team Captain. Grandmaster, longtime second to Magnus Carlsen in multiple World Championship matches, and one of the most respected strategic minds and broadcasters in the game.
WR team with Goryachkina, Duda, Gustafsson, Gombojav, Carlsen, Rosenstein, Sindarov, Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave, Kosteniuk
What’s Next
Play begins tomorrow, 17 June, at Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Wan Chai, with the world’s strongest clubs and federations clashing across rapid and blitz formats through 21 June. WR Chess will field its full line-up from Round 1.
About WR Chess
WR Chess is the elite club team founded by German entrepreneur Wadim Rosenstein under the WR Group Holding umbrella. Built to showcase the best minds in modern chess, the team unites reigning world-class grandmasters, rising prodigies, and global public figures under one banner — and competes at the world’s premier rapid and blitz events.
FIDE World Team Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2026
Sanctioned by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the World Team Rapid & Blitz Championships gather the strongest chess clubs and federations on the planet for two of the sport’s most electrifying formats. The 2026 edition, held in Hong Kong from 17–21 June at Queen Elizabeth Stadium, features over 300 players from 50+ countries competing for a €500,000 prize fund.