Anton, Maghsoodloo Winners In Double Speed Chess Grand Prix

NM CoachJKane

Updated: Aug 11, 2020, 2:09 AM | 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.

NM Jeremy Kane

Jeremy Kane is a National Master and three-time Wisconsin state champion. He is the Curriculum Director 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

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