Nihal Beats Martirosyan, Reaches Junior Speed Chess Final

GM Nihal Sarin defeated GM Haik Martirosyan 17-9 to become the first player to reach the final of the Junior Speed Chess Championship sponsored by ChessKid. Nihal's opponent will be known after today's semifinal between GM Aleksey Sarana and GM Jeffery Xiong.

Martirosyan was, in fact, the slight favorite for this match, with a 54% win probability according to SmarterChess, based on their Chess.com ratings before the tournament. It went very differently; not only did Sarin win the match, but he did so in all three time-controls.

Nihal (@nihalsarin) started with two wins and won the five-minute segment 4.5-3.5. Starting with two wins again in the three-minute games, he won that part 5-3 and then dominated the bullet: 7.5-2.5. A remarkably convincing victory for the 16-year-old grandmaster. Martirosyan was not in his best shape while Nihal played excellent chess.

These matches always include lots of interesting games, but two back-to-back wins for Black in the three-minute segment are especially nice. First, Nihal's endgame win in a Vienna Queen's Gambit:

Martirosyan (@Micki-taryan) was dead lost in the next game, but as time was ticking away, Nihal allowed counterplay and then missed a defensive knight move:

Nihal was leading 9.5-6.5 before the bullet when he started the 1+1 games with six straight wins. It didn't help that Martirosyan lost one of those games due to a wrong premove.

Martirosyan earned $519.23 based on win percentage; Nihal won $1,500 for the victory plus $980.77 on percentage, totaling $2,480.77. He moves on to the final, where he will play either GM Aleksey Sarana or Jeffery Xiong.

Nihal said he was doing better than in his match with GM Anton Smirnov. "The five-minute portion was a bit sloppy, but then I managed to play better."

Asked about the secret behind the improvement he has made in the last couple of years, Nihal said: "I think I just improved my openings, and I got to play a lot of strong players on Chess.com."

The live broadcast of the match with GM Robert Hess and GM Simon Williams.

All games

Remaining matches

• Jeffery Xiong vs. Alexey Sarana October 5, 2020, at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 CEST
• Final October 8, 2020

The 2020 Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championships is sponsored by ChessKid, the world's number-one site for kids to learn and play chess. Sixteen GMs younger than 21 years old play in a knockout format with 90 minutes of 5|1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3|1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1|1 bullet chess. In this second edition, there's a total prize fund of $25,000 on the line. Find all information here.

See also:

• Sarana Upsets Sevian In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Nihal Sarin Survives Scare To Reach Junior Speed Chess Semifinals
• Xiong Beats Erigaisi In Close Junior Speed Chess Match
• Exciting Endgames In Martirosyan-Maghsoodloo Junior Speed Chess Match
• Smirnov Beats Sadhwani In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Xiong Beats Abdusattorov In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Sarana Beats Esipenko In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Maghsoodloo Beats Praggnanandhaa In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Haik Martirosyan Beats Vincent Keymer In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Arjun Erigaisi Beats Gukesh D. In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Nihal Beats Tang In Junior Speed Chess Championship
• Andrew Tang Wins Junior Speed Chess Championship Qualifier
• Junior Speed Chess Championship info article