Pranesh Tops Swiss Qualifier, 8 Players Move On To Knockout Stage

GM M Pranesh finished with the highest score, 9.5/11, in the Swiss stage of the 2024 Speed Chess Championship Play-in. He and seven other players advance to a double-elimination Knockout. Just one player will earn the last qualifying spot available in the SCC main event.

The other players in the Knockout are (in order of score) GMs Denis Lazavik, Yuriy Kuzubov, Alexander Zubov, Matthias Bluebaum, Dmitry Andreikin, Andrew Hong, and Daniil Dubov.

The Knockout takes place on Friday, June 28, starting at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.

Swiss Standings | Top 16

(See full Swiss results here.)

Fasten your speed belts; the Speed Chess Championship is back. 16 players (still to be determined) will fight to decide who's the best speed chess player in the world. The main event concludes with the first-ever live Final and will take place in Paris, France on September 6-8.

Seven invited players are already known:

Six more players will join the event through the Titled Cup leaderboard, which you can see here. They are, in order of their top scores, GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alexey Sarana, Tuan Minh Le, Jose Martinez, Alexander Grischuk, and Hans Niemann. (The players are eligible to play but not all have confirmed their participation at this time.)

One more player will enter through the two-day qualifier that began on Thursday, while the remaining spots will be filled by invitation. The qualifier starts with an 11-round Swiss, open to all titled players from NM to GM, after which the top-eight play in a double-elimination tournament the following day.

Qualifier Format

Pranesh's only draw across the 11 rounds came in the last round, when he and Lazavik both qualified for day two with a Berlin draw. Before that, he won every single game except for a round-three loss against GM Luca Moroni.

His most esthetic win came in round eight. The 18-year-old grandmaster was down a rook against GM Rinat Jumabayev, yet he sacrificed another one to reach a position where two pawns outweighed two rooks. 

Top-seed Lazavik nearly suffered an upset in the very first round against FM Allahverdi Hamidov. 25...Rxf2!! would have been lights out, though even the commentators struggled to see the follow-up live. Lazavik survived the scare and went on to "pin and win" later on.

Lazavik also suffered just one loss, against GM Victor Bologan in round four, but won eight and drew two to finish second.

Meanwhile, Dubov played what commentator GM Robert Hess called "one of the sickest blitz games I've seen in a long time." The name of the game was Power Pawn Play, and 13.f4! was the first of several powerful pawn sacrifices, followed by 17.g3! and 18.h4!. 

After playing the brilliancy, Dubov was still fortunate to make it into the Knockout. In round 10, he over-pressed and lost a game he tried too hard to win, against GM Aram Hakobyan.

But bravery was rewarded, and he finished his tournament with a win against GM Nodirbek Yakubboev to squeeze into the eighth and last qualifying spot for the Knockout. He was one of seven players on eight points, but he had the best tiebreaks.

On Friday, we will witness eight players giving their all for the last qualifying spot in this year's SCC. Players in the Winners Bracket have the advantage of having two lives, while those starting in the Losers Bracket are eliminated after a single match loss.

Knockout Bracket

The Speed Chess Championship is Chess.com's most important speed chess event, with some of the biggest names in chess competing to see who's the best speed chess player in the world. The main event starts with qualifiers on June 27 and 28 and concludes with the first-ever live Final, on September 6-8 in Paris. The games are played with time controls of 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1. The prize fund is $173,000. 

Previous coverage:

• Paris To Host Live Final Of 2024 Speed Chess Championship: Nakamura, Carlsen Confirmed