Speed Chess Championship Semifinal, Artemiev vs So

Vladislav Artemiev and Wesley So will play the first semifinal of the 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship on Thursday. Their match will start at 7 a.m. Pacific (10 a.m. Eastern, 16:00 CET).

Yesterday, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda 15.5-11.5 and so all four quarterfinals have now been played. Today is the first semifinal in the Speed Chess championship, which has a total prize fund of $50,000.

Dec. 5: Artemiev vs. So

Born in Omsk, the 21-year-old Artemiev is currently the number-23 in the FIDE rankings. He is one of Russia's rising stars and the current Gibraltar Masters and European champion. 

Artemiev has knocked out two world-class players from this Speed Chess Championship. He started with a win against Alexander Grischuk, and then in the quarterfinal he eliminated Levon Aronian.

“I think that our match will be interesting and I hope that our fans will be glad after watching," said Artemiev, who will be playing from Omsk, Siberia. 

"It is no secret that Wesley is a solid and strong player so I expect a difficult match," he added. "My opponent is a universal player in all aspects of the game, so I will try to play well."

Born in Bacoor, Cavite, Philippines, the 25-year-old Wesley So has been representing the U.S. since 2014. So is the world number-11 in the FIDE rankings. He has scored tournament victories in e.g. Bilbao, St. Louis, Wijk aan Zee and London and is the current FIDE World Fischer Random champion.

In the first round of the Speed Chess Championship, So defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and then he eliminated the world-number four Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. 

So went as far as calling Artemiev the favorite, claiming that he (himself) is "never anyone's favorite."

The American GM will be playing from his training base in St. Louis. He mentioned "lightning-speed reflexes and owning a mouse from the future" as Artemiev's biggest strengths.

Asked how he will beat the Russian player, So replied: "Beat him?"

You can watch the Speed Chess match Vladislav Artemiev vs. Wesley So on Thursday, December 5, starting from 7 a.m. Pacific (10 a.m. Eastern, 16:00 CET) at Chess.com/tv.