4 Speed Chess Qualifiers Advance From Grand Prix As Nakamura Wins Final Leg
GM Hikaru Nakamura won the 20th and final Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix, his fifth victory in the series. The American grandmaster beat GM Vidit Gujrathi in the knockout final.
With five individual tournament wins, it's no surprise that Nakamura ended up winning the overall Grand Prix convincingly. He scored 32.5 more points than runner-up GM Vladislav Artemiev, who qualified for the Speed Chess Championship Main Event together with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, GM Parham Maghsoodloo, and GM Haik Martirosyan.
GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who finished third in the Grand Prix, had already qualified by finishing in second place in the Super Swiss. The Main Event of the SCC will run October 26-December 13, 2020, and has a prize fund of $100,000.
Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Final Standings (Top 20)
| # | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Swiss Points |
Bonus Points |
Overall Points |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | @Hikaru | 69.5 | 68 | 137.5 | |
| 2 | GM | Vladislav Artemiev | @Sibelephant | 67 | 38 | 105 | |
| 3 | GM | Vladimir Fedoseev | @Bigfish1995 | 67 | 32 | 99 | |
| 4 | GM | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | @ChessWarrior7197 | 68.5 | 28 | 96.5 | |
| 5 | GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | @Parhamov | 68 | 28 | 96 | |
| 6 | GM | Haik Martirosyan | @Micki-taryan | 59.5 | 28 | 87.5 | |
| 7 | GM | Dmitry Andreikin | @FairChess_on_YouTube | 66 | 18 | 84 | |
| 8 | GM | Maksim Chigaev | @Fandorine | 65.5 | 14 | 79.5 | |
| 9 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | @Firouzja2003 | 65 | 14 | 79 | |
| 10 | GM | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | @LyonBeast | 49 | 28 | 77 | |
| 11 | IM | Le Tuan Minh | @wonderfultime | 66.5 | 10 | 76.5 | |
| 12 | GM | Sergey Karjakin | @SergeyKarjakin | 65 | 10 | 75 | |
| 13 | GM | Vladislav Kovalev | @vladislavkovalev | 66 | 8 | 74 | |
| 14 | GM | Aleksandar Indjic | @Beca95 | 65.5 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 15 | GM | Grigoriy Oparin | @OparinGrigoriy | 50.5 | 20 | 70.5 | |
| 16 | GM | Raunak Sadhwani | @RaunakSadhwani2005 | 63.5 | 4 | 67.5 | |
| 17 | GM | Boris Grachev | @Guenplen | 55.5 | 12 | 67.5 | |
| 18 | GM | Rasmus Svane | @rasmussvane | 63 | 4 | 67 | |
| 19 | GM | Giga Kuparadze | @GigaQuparadze | 64 | 2 | 66 | |
| 20 | GM | Peter Svidler | @PSvidler | 50 | 14 | 64 |
The 20th and final Speed Chess Grand Prix tournament was held on Tuesday, October 13, with 636 participants. Exactly eight players scored 8.5/10 and tied for first place in the Swiss part this time.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
One player who did quite well in this last edition is the Dutch IM Liam Vrolijk, who just missed out on the top eight as he finished on 8/10. In the final round, he defeated GM Sergey Karjakin.
Earlier in the tournament, he was the victim of a beautiful queen sacrifice by Nakamura:
There are always some ups and downs in these tournaments for any player. For Nakamura, it could have been a "downer" if GM Gata Kamsky had converted his virtually winning position out of the opening. Instead, he blundered terribly in what was the final round:
Besides Nakamura and Vidit, the other players who qualified for the knockout were GMs Maghsoodloo, Aleksei Pridorozhni, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levan Pantsulaia, Pavel Smirnov, and Aleksandar Indjic.
October 13 Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Score | SB |
| 1 | GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | @Parhamov | 8.5 | 56.5 | |
| 2 | GM | Aleksei Pridorozhni | @Alexsur1981 | 8.5 | 54.25 | |
| 3 | GM | Shakhriyar Mammadyarov | @Azerichess | 8.5 | 53.5 | |
| 4 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | @Hikaru | 8.5 | 52.75 | |
| 5 | GM | Levan Pantsulaia | @GM_Levan_Pantsulaia | 8.5 | 51.75 | |
| 6 | GM | Pavel Smirnov | @Smirnov_Pavel | 8.5 | 45.25 | |
| 7 | GM | Vidit Gujrathi | @ViditYT | 8.5 | 43.75 | |
| 8 | GM | Aleksandar Indjic | @Beca95 | 8.5 | 43 | |
| 9 | GM | Vugar Rasulov | @vugarrasulov | 8 | 49.25 | |
| 10 | GM | Alvar Alonso Rosell | @iwanyu | 8 | 48.25 | |
| 11 | GM | David Anton Guijarro | @tptagain | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 12 | GM | Boris Grachev | @Guenplen | 8 | 45.25 | |
| 12 | GM | Steven Zierk | @Zkid | 8 | 45.25 | |
| 14 | IM | Maly Alexey | @Supernotar | 8 | 44.5 | |
| 15 | GM | Gata Kamsky | @TigrVShlyape | 8 | 43.5 | |
| 16 | IM | Liam Vrolijk | @LiamVrolijk | 8 | 41.5 | |
| 17 | GM | Maksim Chigaev | @Fandorine | 8 | 40.5 | |
| 18 | IM | Alexandr Triapishko | @AlexTriapishko | 8 | 38 | |
| 19 | GM | Pavel Eljanov | @eljanov | 7.5 | 46.25 | |
| 20 | GM | Sanan Sjugirov | @Sanan_Sjugirov | 7.5 | 45 |
Nakamura (@GMHikaru) defeated @GM_Levan_Pantsulaia and Maghsoodloo (@Parhamov) to reach the final. Vidit first defeated Indjic (@Alexsur1981) and then knocked out Mamedyarov (@Azerichess), who had a free round in the quarterfinal as Smirnov went offline and forfeited.
Vidit won his white game with Mamedyarov with a cunning trick:
Huge blunder by GM Mammadyarov and @viditchess wins the game! 🤯 #SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/H94G23Of8t
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 13, 2020
In the final, Nakamura held the first game to a draw as Black and then went for a quick move repetition as White—he didn't mind deciding things in the bullet. And he did, despite blundering early:
When the commentator and the tournament winner make the same sound. 😂#SpeedChess@GM_Hess @GMHikaru pic.twitter.com/MJRqCt4l6z
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 14, 2020
Nakamura won the $1,000 first prize and 12 GP points. Vidit took second ($500 and eight GP points). Maghsoodloo and Mamedyarov both won $200 and four GP points, while the losing quarterfinalists each earned $100 and two GP points.
The Polish WIM Anna Kubicka (@Savagelittlemole) won the $100 prize for being the top-scoring female player.
Games final eight
The Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix is presented by Gambit, where you can play classic games like Reversi, Backgammon, and Oh Ship with players from around the world.
More information about the Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix can be found here.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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