2021 Bullet Chess Championship Presented By SIG: Erigaisi, Artemiev, Hansen, Nihal Through
GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Vladislav Artemiev, GM Eric Hansen, and GM Nihal Sarin have advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2021 Bullet Chess Championship Presented By SIG. The four players on Monday defeated GM Levon Aronian, GM Raunak Sadhwani, IM Le Tuan Minh, and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk respectively.
The live broadcast of Monday's matches.
The next round is set now as the top four seeds were scheduled to enter the tournament starting at the quarterfinals. On Tuesday, April 6, the action continues on Chess.com/tv with these pairings, in order of starting times and with pairing numbers:
- GM Andrew Tang (3) vs. Nihal (6) at 12:40 p.m. Pacific (21:40 Central Europe)
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (1) vs. Erigaisi (8) at 1:30 p.m. Pacific (22:30 Central Europe)
- GM Alireza Firouzja (4) vs. Artemiev (5) at 2:20 p.m. Pacific (23:20 Central Europe)
- GM Daniel Naroditsky (2) vs. Hansen (10) at 3:10 p.m. Pacific (0:10 Central Europe)
Aronian-Erigaisi
The first match on "Wild Card Day" between Aronian and Erigaisi was very close. The big question was how the Armenian's better general chess skills would fare against the bullet magic of the 17-year-old Indian player. As it turned out, those differences in "style" led to kind of a dynamic equilibrium that was only disturbed in the very last game.
A key moment was game four, where Aronian seemed to be moving to a 3.5-0.5 lead. Instead, he blundered a queen and then lost the next game as well when the score was equal again.
Dropping a queen, all part of the game!#BulletChessChampionship pic.twitter.com/ZLxo79eb4S
— Chess.com (@chesscom) April 5, 2021
"I just wanted to learn something. It's such a pleasure playing against him in any format of the game," Erigaisi said afterward.
Artemiev-Sadhwani
Unlike his teenage compatriot, 15-year-old Sadhwani didn't manage to eliminate his world-class opponent, but he wasn't wiped off the board either. After taking the lead twice in the match, he was still level with Artemiev after 10 games, but then the Russian GM won three games in a row.
With four minutes and 20 seconds left on the match clock, 8-5 was too much to come back from. After winning three Titled Tuesday tournaments in four weeks, Artemiev again showed how strong he is online, apart from over-the-board.
"It was a very difficult match for me because my opponent was a very quick player," said Artemiev. "He is a very young player so before the match, I wanted to play more solid, but I understand that it's very difficult to control without increment."
Hansen-Le
Eric "Chessbrah" Hansen was a substitute for GM Dmitry Andreikin, who had to withdraw from the event at the last minute. Although Hansen had failed to qualify directly from one of last week's qualifiers, he did show consistency there, finishing in the top 10 in all of the four events.
Substitute or not, Hansen was in excellent shape. He won the first three games and, although Le closed the gap to one point a few times, the Vietnamese never really had a chance in this match.
Hansen agreed that it might have helped him that he heard only a few hours in advance that he would play: "I think, in general, that's healthier in chess to not stress about these things. I just came in without expectations."
Nihal-Bortnyk
The day ended as it had started with a very close final score between Nihal and Bortnyk. Like Aronian-Erigaisi, it ended in 8.5-7.5 but had developed differently as Nihal was leading 8.5-4.5 before losing the final three games.
♛ @NihalSarin is winning...then the queen takes a dangerous vacation to a1. #BulletChess pic.twitter.com/2I83oqSQ4w
— Chess.com (@chesscom) April 5, 2021
A big moment in this match was when Nihal blundered a bishop but right at that moment Bortnyk resigned, thinking he would lose being a piece down.
one shouldn't premove resignation
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) April 5, 2021
The format of these matches was 30 minutes of 1|0 games with a break at the 15-minute mark. The same format will be used in the quarterfinals, semis, and final. In the event of a tie, players enter sudden death. The higher seed gets White first, and players alternate colors until someone wins.
The 2021 Bullet Chess Championship is presented by Susquehanna International Group, LLP (SIG). SIG is a global quantitative trading firm founded with a growth mindset and an analytical approach to decision-making. As one of the largest proprietary trading firms in the world, SIG benefits the financial markets by providing liquidity and ensuring competitive prices for buyers and sellers. SIG brings together the brightest minds, the best technology, and an expansive library of industry data to design and implement qualitative trading strategies that make it leaders in the financial markets. Beyond trading, SIG is active in global private equity, structured capital, and institutional brokerage.
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