Nakamura Wins 2020 Speed Chess Championship Final Presented By OnJuno

On Saturday GM Hikaru Nakamura won the 2020 Speed Chess Championship final presented by OnJuno. The American grandmaster decided matters in the bullet segment as he defeated GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 18.5-12.5 to win his third Speed Chess title in a row.

The live broadcast of the match.

Early in the competition, Nakamura stated that his half of the bracket was tougher than Carlsen's. You could say that MVL, after eliminating Carlsen, was actually the one having survived the toughest half. The big question was: could he do it again in the final?

Until the third bullet game, the answer was "yes" as the Frenchman with three names was actually leading by a point. That's how close the match was.

However, while Carlsen clearly had an off-day, Nakamura didn't. The American GM got himself together, rose to the occasion, and won five games in a row then to decide the match in his favor and claim his third title in as many years. 

"It was a very tense and very difficult final match," Nakamura said afterward. "I think there were a few critical moments where both Maxime and I had a chance to maybe take a big advantage, which could have perhaps been insurmountable. But it remained very close and in the end, I was just able to keep it together and play a couple of good bullet games."

Nakamura pointed out that Vachier-Lagrave was basically an equal opponent until just a few games before the end: "It was very evenly balanced. Maxime played extremely well, so a lot of credit to him for playing a fantastic match."

The match started with an atrocious blunder by Vachier-Lagrave that normally isn't seen in a five-minute game. Perhaps the fact that he started with two losses against GM Magnus Carlsen in the semifinal before beating him helped MVL to get over this:

After two draws, MVL leveled the score and then took the lead right away with another win. He showed great calculation, as he would do throughout the match:

Then it was Nakamura's turn again. He won games seven, eight, and nine. MVL then took the last five-minute game, meaning that into the first break, Nakamura was leading 5.5-4.5.

The first of Nakamura's three wins was remarkable for the middlegame that appeared. This was surely a Breyer Ruy Lopez, right? Well, no, it arrived from a Sicilian!

Nakamura had himself to blame for dropping to plus-one instead of making plus-three before the break. He was completely winning and then spoiled a drawn rook endgame:

In the middle of the three-minute segment, with 8-8 on the scoreboard, MVL made a rare error in his calculations. Instead of winning prosaically, he went for the brilliancy prize but lost material and the game:

The three-minute segment ended in a tie, so Nakamura was still leading by a point at the start of the bullet. Even though this is his natural habitat, he lost the first two 1|1 games.

Here's the first, one that Nakamura afterward admitted was an extraordinarily good game by the Frenchman for this time control.

"This first bullet game was insane when he found this 22...Bd6 move," Nakamura said. "I calculated this whole tactic with this Ne5, Nf5 idea, and then Maxime found 21...Rxc1 and 22...Bd6, which was amazing. It was an incredible find in a bullet game especially."

The turning point of the match came after those two bullet wins by MVL. On camera, you can really see Nakamura telling himself in his head: "This is enough, come on!"

The turning point. 👀@GMHikaru physically shakes off a tough loss and brings complete focus. After this moment, he went 8/9, only conceding two draws, to win the match. pic.twitter.com/mX8hj5erTi

— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 12, 2020

At one point, Vachier-Lagrave even tried the King's Gambit (with a Vienna Game move-order) with a quick Bxf7+ sacrifice. He had done the same against Nakamura in their 2016 Grandmaster Blitz Battle semifinal when it was good for a quick win, but this time Nakamura ended on top:

Vachier-Lagrave earned $4,032.26 based on win percentage; Nakamura won $10,000 for the victory plus $5,967.74 on percentage for a total of $15,967.74. 

"First of all, congrats to Hikaru," said Vachier-Lagrave. "Of course, there were moments where I put up a great fight, but in the end, I think he deserved to win and played more consistently."

MVL wasn't surprised that he took an early lead in the bullet phase: "I am nowhere near Hikaru's level in 1|0, but in 1|1 I can give it a fight, even though at the end I sort of started drifting away."

Nakamura praised his opponent: "First of all, a lot of credit has to go to Maxime, not just in the bullet but throughout the match because he defended extremely well. It felt like he was defending a lot better than traditionally he has in a lot of games."

3 in a row. Congrats #SpeedChess Champ @GMHikaru. We are so excited to partner with you. A record viewership of 100,000 concurrent fans across platforms.

We were the proud sponsors for this event by @chesscom. Chess won tonight! pic.twitter.com/R9SCErJqSO

— OnJuno (@OnJunoHQ) December 12, 2020

All Games

The post-match interview finished with a funny moment about MVL's consumption of a persimmon during the match. We won't keep that from you:

The 2020 Speed Chess Championship Main Event was a knockout tournament among 16 of the best grandmasters in the world who played for a $100,000 prize fund, double the amount of last year. The tournament ran November 1-December 12, 2020 on Chess.com. Each individual match featured 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet chess.

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See also:

• All information about the Speed Chess Championship