[EDITORS NOTE: An earlier version of this article showed an incorrect start time for the finals]

There were plenty of opportunities this past weekend to play elite bullet chess with more than $10k in prizes up for grabs, and the action will continue this Wednesday with the Knockout Final of the Katara International Tournament 2021 featuring World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

First, on Saturday, came the Lichess Bullet Titled Arena won by IM Minh Le. After the first hour, Minh had built up a 20 point lead. He stumbled a bit in the second half and the lead shrank to as little as 3 points. Le won a wild game vs. GM Haik Martirosyan that would have knocked him out of the lead if he'd lost with 15 minutes left and went on to win comfortably.

On Sunday, the action continued with The Katara International Tournament 2021 qualifiers. The top seven finishers in two arena qualifiers (#1, #2) battled for the right to join GM Magnus Carlsen and another currently unnamed wildcard in the 16 player knockout on Wednesday. The star power in both events was off the chart. GM Alexander Grischuk, GM Andrew Tang, GM Ray Robson, GM Nihal Sarin, GM Praggnanandhaa, GM Dimitry Andreikin, GM Vladislav Artemiev, and many others participated. However, as we've learned, the biggest names from OTB classical chess are not necessarily the best at online bullet. After the dust settled, the 14 qualifiers were:

1. IM Thomas Beerdsen

2. IM Yoseph Taher

3. GM Rasmus Svane

4. GM Pap Gyula

5. GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan

6. GM Sergei Zhigalko

7. GM Ray Robson

8. GM Vladislav Artemiev

9. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk

10. IM Artyom Zubritskiy

11. GM Andrew Tang

12. GM Vugar Rasulov

13. GM Dmitry Andreikin

14. FM Jose Cardoso

* GM neslraCsungaM77 qualified but elected not to play in the final, they were replaced with the 8th place finisher.

The final will be be live on our YouTube and Twitch channels on Wednesday at 15:00 UTC. Commentary will be provided by IM Alex Astaneh and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni.