Oparin Wins 5th Speed Chess Grand Prix

PeterDoggers

Updated: Jul 2, 2020, 10:26 AM | 9 | Chess Event Coverage

Russian GM Grigoriy Oparin won the fifth Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix after beating Azerbaijan's GM Eltaj Safarli in the knockout final. GM Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus is the new leader of the overall Grand Prix leaderboard.

The next Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix will be played on July 7 at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.

The fifth Speed Chess Grand Prix tournament was held on Tuesday, June 30, with 826 participants. It was GM Hikaru Nakamura who won the Swiss part with a tremendous 9.5/10 score.

The live broadcast of the tournament.

Nakamura (@Hikaru) was in excellent shape in that Swiss part, but in one spectacular game, he miraculously survived a devastating attack. This particular moment looked very much like a Puzzle Rush puzzle. Black to play and win.

June 30 Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Score	SB
1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	9.5	62.75
2		GM	@youngKID	Karthikeyan Murali	9	42
3		IM	@Sankalp_Gupta2003	Sankalp Gupta	8.5	56
4		GM	@Micki-taryan	Haik Martirosyan	8.5	53.25
5		GM	@Parhamov	Parham Maghsoodloo	8.5	51.5
6		GM	@Eltaj_Safarli	Eltaj Safarli	8.5	51.25
7		GM	@Izoria123	Zviad Izoria	8.5	49
8		GM	@OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	8.5	46.75
9		GM	@Sibelephant	Vladislav Artemiev	8	54
10		GM	@vladislavkovalev	Vladislav Kovalev	8	47.75
10		GM	@Sam_ChessMood	Samvel Ter-Sahakyan	8	47.75
12		GM	@BilodeauA	Kirill Alekseenko	8	47.5
13		IM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	8	46.5
14		GM	@crescentmoon2411	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	8	46
15		GM	@GigaQuparadze	Giga Kuparadze	8	45
16		GM	@Igor_Lysyj	Igor Lysyj	8	44.75
17		GM	@Beca95	Aleksandar Indjic	8	44.5
18		GM	@AlexVanGog	Aleksey Goganov	8	44
19		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	8	43.5
20		IM	@GadimbayliA	Abdulla Gadimbayli	8	43

In the eight-player knockout, however, Nakamura got eliminated right away by the eventual winner—in the most unfortunate manner. In what was a one-game minimatch in the round of 16, he suffered from internet issues, got disconnected, and lost on time on move 22.

Oparin (@OparinGrigoriy) followed up his lucky start by beating GM Haik Martirosyan (@Micki-taryan) 2-1, winning the bullet game after two draws in the blitz and then repeating the same feat against Safarli (@Eltaj_Safarli). His very last move of the tournament was a nasty bullet trick, sacrificing a rook but putting the opponent in check to increase the chance he flags—and Safarli did flag.

"Is that even fair?" commentator IM Danny Rensch wondered in the live broadcast, adding, still in doubt: "All is fair in chess and more and love..."

"I was so lucky today," Oparin said in the post-tournament interview. "I should not even have made it to the knockout stage. I was completely lost in round nine. And I didn't win a single game in the knockout, it was all decided in bullet."

Oparin won the $1,000 first prize and 12 GP points while Safarli took second ($500 and eight GP points). Martirosyan and GM Zviad Izoria (@Izoria123) both won $200 and four GP points while the losing quarterfinalists earned $100 and two GP points.

WFM Oksana Gritsayeva of Russia (@chessmaugli) won the $100 prize for being the top-scoring female player.

Below are the current Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix standings. At the end of the season, the players with the four best scores will advance to the Speed Chess Championship to be hosted later this year.

Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Standings After June 30 (Top 20)

#	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Swiss Points	Bonus Points	Overall Points
1		GM	Vladislav Kovalev	@vladislavkovalev	41	6	47
2		GM	Vladislav Artemiev	@Sibelephant	25	16	41
3		GM	Vladimir Fedoseev	@Bigfish1995	25.5	14	39.5
4		GM	Parham Maghsoodloo	@Parhamov	34	4	38
5		GM	Haik Martirosyan	@Micki-taryan	25.5	10	35.5
6		GM	Grigoriy Oparin	@OparinGrigoriy	17.5	16	33.5
7		IM	Tuan Minh Le	@wonderfultime	25	4	29
8		GM	Dmitry Andreikin	@2Vladimirovich90	17	12	29
9		GM	Alireza Firouzja	@Firouzja2003	17.5	10	27.5
10		IM	Hans Niemann	@IMHansNiemann	24.5	2	26.5
11		GM	Sergey Karjakin	@SergeyKarjakin	17	8	25
12		GM	Anish Giri	@AnishGiri	17	4	21
13		GM	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	@LyonBeast	9	12	21
14		GM	Maxim Matlakov	@Borsch7	16.5	4	20.5
15		GM	Hikaru Nakamura	@Hikaru	17.5	2	19.5
16		GM	Vincent Keymer	@VincentKeymer	16.5	2	18.5
17		GM	Andrey Esipenko	@Andreikka	16.5	2	18.5
18		GM	Alexander Zubov	@Alexander_Zubov	8.5	8	16.5
19		GM	Salem AR Saleh	@Arabicfalcon	8.5	8	16.5
20		GM	Eltaj Safarli	@Eltaj_Safarli	8.5	8	16.5

Games final eight

The Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix is presented by Gambit, where you can play classic games like Reversi, Backgammon, and Oh Ship by playing with players from around the world.

More information about the Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix can be found here.

Peter Doggers

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.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!

Company Contact and News Accreditation:

Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: PO Box 60400 Palo Alto, CA 94306

Oparin Wins 5th Speed Chess Grand Prix

Pranav Tops All-Indian Podium Ahead of Ivanchuk, Niemann At New Dubai Tournament

Abdusattorov Wins TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament In Thrilling Tiebreaker