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‘Every day is different’, people like to say about their jobs. For the world’s best chess players, that’s only partly true. The game will be different, but the day will look much the same, and so will the international hotel room. In fact, professional players love a routine: they keep their energy for the game, not on deciding where to eat.

That monastic focus can’t be taken for granted, especially when you’ve already achieved the highest goals. When Vladimir Kramnik, the former world champion who defeated Garry Kasparov in London in 2000, announced his retirement from chess last year, he put it down to a drop in motivation. The results of his games had stopped mattering quite so much to him.

I’m glad that Kramnik hasn’t forsaken the game altogether. He threw his hat in the ring at the World Blitz Championships, held in Moscow in the days after Christmas, where games were played with three minutes each, plus an increment of two seconds per move. Remarkably, Kramnik got the bronze medal, despite declaring before the tournament that a top 3 finish would be a completely unrealistic goal. That was no false modesty, coming from a rusty 16th seed. But speed chess, where intuition and instinct trump stamina and memory, often brings out the best in older players.

Kramnik demonstrated his magnificent judgment in the game below, against Firouzja — a young player tipped as a future challenger to Carlsen. Kramnik’s exchange sacrifice 29 Rxe6!! leaves Black’s kingside riddled with weaknesses. The position may be tenable in theory, but defending it is a thankless task in a blitz game. One pawn drops, and then another, and Kramnik is soon winning.

First place was taken by Magnus Carlsen, who won a playoff against Hikaru Nakamura.