The World Rapid & Blitz Championships get underway, starting today, in Warsaw Poland. It's always a great way for the chess and calendar year to come to an end, and it features most of the usual suspects - Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, etc. The two most prominent absentees that come to mind are Alireza Firouzja and Wesley So. It's a pity not to have them there, but it's still immensely strong and a great way for chess fans to ride out 2021.
**UPDATE** Happy to report that I was mistaken about Firouzja; he is playing.