News
Anton, Maghsoodloo Winners In Double Speed Chess Grand Prix

Anton, Maghsoodloo Winners In Double Speed Chess Grand Prix

CoachJKane
| 16 | Chess Event Coverage

On Tuesday, August 4th, a day of two Speed Chess Grand Prix events, Grandmasters David Anton and Parham Maghsoodloo emerged victorious.

The first event featured 875 participants. Grandmasters Vladimir Onischuk and Haik Martirosyan tied for first in the Swiss section with impressive 9/10 scores. Joining them in the knock-out playoffs were Grandmasters Aleksandar Indjic, Peter Svidler, Sam Sevian, David Antón Guijarro, Alexander Grischuk and Christopher Repka.

The next Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix will be played on August 11th at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.

Some of the top contenders in most Grand Prix events like GMs Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave all failed to qualify. Nakamura and MVL drew a hard-fought game which ended up helping neither of them.

August 4 First Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (8+)

Place Seed Fed Title Username Name Score SB
1 1 GM Onischuk_V Vladimir Onischuk 9 56.75
2 2 GM Micki-taryan Haik Martirosyan 9 56
3 3 GM Beca95 Aleksandar Indjic 8.5 55.75
4 4 GM PSvidler Peter Svidler 8.5 55.25
5 5 GM Konavets Sam Sevian 8.5 53.75
6 6 GM tptagain David Anton Guijarro 8.5 51.25
7 7 GM Grischuk Alexander Grischuk 8.5 51
8 8 GM bubacik Christopher Repka 8.5 49.25
9 9 GM Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 8.5 47.5
10 10 GM Azerichess Shakhriyar Mammadyarov 8.5 44.75
11 11 GM OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 8.5 44.5
12 12 GM Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 8 52.5
13 13 GM tigra Boris Savchenko 8 48
14 14 GM GigaQuparadze Giga Kuparadze 8 46.25
15 15 GM BilodeauA Kirill Alekseenko 8 45.25
16 16 GM erichansen Eric Hansen 8 44.75
17 17 GM rpragchess Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 8 44.5
18 18 GM abhidabhi Abhimanyu Puranik 8 43.5
19 19 IM kakarot_001 Harikrishnan A Ra 8 42.75
20 20 GM BocharovD Dmitriy Bocharov 8 42.5
21 21 GM SergeyKarjakin Sergey Karjakin 8 42
22 22 GM Zkid Steven Zierk 8 41.5
23 23 IM Manbunovich Alex Ostrovskiy 8 39.5

In the playoffs, Peter Svidler managed to defeat Sam Sevian, who missed a sneaky mate threat.

In the semi-finals Svidler won again, dominating on the clock and getting past Onischuk. On the other side of the bracket, Martirosyan faced Antón Guijarro and their first game was tense!
The first game of the finals was exciting and gave Antón Guijarro a lead he wouldn't give up.

David Antón Guijarro won the second game as well to take the title. 

Shortly after the end of the first tournament, 353 players competed in the afternoon addition. The very first round featured an opportunity for FM Gahan M G to take a half point off the higher rated GM Sam Sevian. Can you spot a draw for White in the position below?

In round eight, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov missed a similar opportunity to stay in the game against IM Oleg Vastrukhin.

GM Robert Hess took commentary duties for the event, which allowed IM Danny Rensch to play. He finished with an even score and a huge upset win in round two.

After the Swiss tournament, the top finisher was American GM Steven Zierk with 9/10. He was joined in the playoffs by Haik Martirosyan, who won a bonus for reaching the playoffs in both events, Oleg Vastrukhin, Parham Maghsoodloo, Andrew Tang, Arjun Erigaisi, Kirill Alekseenko and Maksim Chigaev. 

August 4 Second Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (7.5+)

Place Fed Title Username Name Score SB
1 GM Zkid Steven Zierk 9 54.25
2 GM Micki-taryan Haik Martirosyan 8.5 51.25
3 IM kuban1991 Oleg Vastrukhin 8.5 50.5
4 IRN GM Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 8.5 47.75
5 GM penguingm1 Andrew Tang 8 47.5
6 GM ArjunErigaisi2003 Arjun Erigaisi 8 41
7 GM BilodeauA Kirill Alekseenko 8 37.5
8 GM Fandorine Maksim Chigaev 8 36.5
9 GM Hrant_ChessMood Hrant Melkumyan 8 35.5
10 IM IMHansNiemann Hans Niemann 7.5 47
11 GM LyonBeast Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 7.5 43.25
12 DEU GM rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 7.5 41.75
13 DEU GM VincentKeymer Vincent Keymer 7.5 39.75
14 GM Bigfish1995 Vladimir Fedoseev 7.5 39
15 GM ChessWarrior7197 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 7.5 38.75
16 GM Alexander_Moskalenko Alexander Moskalenko 7.5 37.25

In the playoff, the story was Parham Maghsoodloo's wild games. He reached the semi-finals by defeating Tang and then won a convincing opening game against Zierk. However, needing only a draw to reach the finals, Maghsoodloo fell into a lost position and way behind on the clock. Yet, somehow he kept his cool, complicated the game, and his opponent was the one who lost on time!

In the finals against Alekseenko, Maghsoodloo again started with a win as Black before running into trouble when he only needed to draw as White. 

The win brought Maghsoodloo tournament victory at right around 5 a.m. for him in Iran!

Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Standings After August 4 (Top 20)

# Fed Title Name Username Swiss
Points
Bonus
Points
Overall
Points
1 GM Haik Martirosyan @Micki-taryan 51.5 28 79.5
2 GM Hikaru Nakamura @Hikaru 51 28 79
3 GM Vladislav Kovalev @vladislavkovalev 65 8 73
4 GM Parham Maghsoodloo @Parhamov 51 20 71
5 GM Vladislav Artemiev @Sibelephant 33.5 24 57.5
6 GM Sergey Karjakin @SergeyKarjakin 41.5 10 51.5
7 GM Grigoriy Oparin @OparinGrigoriy 34 16 50
8 GM Dmitry Andreikin @2Vladimirovich90 33.5 14 47.5
9 GM Vladimir Fedoseev @Bigfish1995 33 14 47
10 GM Alexander Grischuk @Grischuk 41 4 45
11 GM Alireza Firouzja @Firouzja2003 32.5 10 42.5
12 IM Hans Niemann @IMHansNiemann 40 2 42
13 GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave @LyonBeast 25 16 41
14 GM Giga Kuparadze @GigaQuparadze 40.5 0 40.5
15 GM Fabiano Caruana @FabianoCaruana 34 6 40
16 GM Nordibek Abdusattorov @ChessWarrior7197 33 6 39
17 IM Tuan Minh Le @wonderfultime 33.5 4 37.5
18 GM Rasmus Svane @rasmussvane 32 4 36
19 GM Raunak Sadhwani @RaunakSadhwani2005 32 4 36
20 GM Alexander Moskalenko @Alexander_Moskalenko 31.5 2 33.5

 

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.

CoachJKane
NM Jeremy Kane

Jeremy Kane is a National Master and three-time Wisconsin state champion. He is the Director of Training Content for Chess.com. He has been teaching chess in person and online for over 15 years and has designed hundreds of lessons, available on chess.com/lessons. He is the author of Starting Out The Trompowsky on Chessable and The Next To Last Mistake, a book on defensive ideas in chess.

He is the developer of the Caro-Kane Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense.

email: jeremy@chess.com

Twitter/X: @chessmensch

More from NM CoachJKane
Rasulov Wins Competitive Titled Tuesday

Rasulov Wins Competitive Titled Tuesday

Tang Wins Titled Tuesday While Naroditsky Suffers Turbulence

Tang Wins Titled Tuesday While Naroditsky Suffers Turbulence