MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Norwegian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE World Rapid Championship in Moscow on Saturday.

The second place went to Iran’s 16-year-old prodigy Alireza Firouzja (10.5 points), competing under the flag of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). He was placed ahead of Japan’s Hikaru Nakamura and Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev in the final rankings as he had better tiebreak indicators. Daniil Dubov, who won the last year’s World Rapid Championship in St. Petersburg, gained 10 points (together with six other contenders) and was placed eighth.

Carlsen remained undefeated throughout the entire tournament, gathering 11.5 points in total after 15 rounds.

"Glad that I won. Actually I was not playing so good today, and everything was decided on last moment," he told reporters.

"Now I’d love to play football. And I think that I would’ve played football even if I lose in chess tournament," he added. "I’m Real Madrid fan. Glad that they are playing better now than last season."

After the victory, Carlsen headed to a football field near the Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow, where he took part in a football friendly together with FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and former Russian national football team members Andrei Karyaka and Dmitri Bulykin.

Carlsen became World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand. He became the world’s first absolute chess champion, winning the titles in the three categories - classic chess, rapid and blitz.

Saturday’s triumph in Moscow was Carlsen’s third victory in the World Rapid Championship. He also has four World Blitz Chess Championship titles.

The World Blitz Chess Championship will begin in Moscow on Sunday to be over on Monday.