Dobrov, Firouzja Qualify For Speed Chess Championship
Vladimir Dobrov of Russia and Alireza Firouzja of Iran have qualified for the 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship. Dobrov earned his spot as the winner of this month's Titled Tuesday, while Firouzja won yesterday's qualifier tournament for invited players.
This week saw two separate qualifiers for the Speed Chess championship bracket: the August Titled Tuesday tournament, and a special invitational qualifier.
On Tuesday, Dobrov (@VladDobrov) had the better tiebreak after finishing in a tie for first place with Junior Speed Chess Championship participant GM Anton Smirnov (@AntonSmirnov) of Australia. Below you can replay all of Dobrov's games. Among his victims was the Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (@Polish_fighter3000).
August 2019 Titled Tuesday | Vlad Dobrov's games
For more info about Titled Tuesday tournaments, see this guide.
The official coverage by GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and IM Danny Rensch.
A day later, a special invitational qualifier was held with the top eight blitz and bullet players on Chess.com who had not already qualified for the main bracket. These were GMs Dmitry Andreikin, Alireza Firouzja, Haik Martirosyan, Daniel Naroditsky, Shant Sargsyan, Nihal Sarin, Sam Sevian and Andrew Tang.
The format for the quarterfinals and semifinals:
- 2 games: 3+1 (2 points for a win, 1 for a draw)
- 4 games: 1+1 (1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw)
The final was played with the following structure:
- 4 games: 3+1 (2 points for a win, 1 for a draw)
- 8 games: 1+1 (1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw)
Firouzja (@Firouzja2003) ended up winning the event, first doing to Martirosyan (@Micki-taryan) what Bobby Fischer did to Bent Larsen and Mark Taimanov: winning 6-0. After that, Firouzja beat Sargsyan 4-2.
Meanwhile, Naroditsky had beaten Tang (@penguingm1) 4-2 and then did his own Fischer, beating Sevian (@Konavets) 6-0.
The final was a close affair with the young Iranian star ending on top: 8.5-6.5. Firouzja had missed his chance to qualify for the overall Speed Chess Championship via the Junior Speed Chess Championship, but earned his spot in this tough qualifier.
This Saturday, August 10 at 6 p.m. Pacific time (3 a.m. CEST) we'll see which junior player will join him: Wei Yi or Jeffery Xiong. A preview of that Junior Speed Chess Championship final will be posted soon.
Firouzja, about playing in the Speed Chess Championship with players such as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren: “Of course it’s a good chance for me to show myself there, I am very [much] looking forward to it.”
Asked about his preferred first opponent there, Firouzja said Wei Yi, the player who kicked him out of the Junior speech Chess Championship—to get revenge!
Invitational Speed Chess Qualifier | Alireza Firouzja's games
The official coverage by GM Robert Hess and IM Danny Rensch.
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.”
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