Martirosyan Wins 8th Speed Chess Grand Prix

PeterDoggers

Updated: Jul 23, 2020, 9:42 AM | 7 | Chess.com News

GM Haik Martirosyan has won the eighth Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix. The 20-year-old Armenian grandmaster beat Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev 2-0 in the knockout final and is now in fourth place in the overall Grand Prix standings.

The next Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix will be played on July 28 at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.

The eighth Speed Chess Grand Prix tournament was held on Tuesday, July 21, with 745 participants. It was 15-year-old GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov who won the Swiss part as the only player with a 9.0/10 score.

The live broadcast of the tournament.

Abdusattorov, who is the fifth-youngest grandmaster ever, was in great shape. The Uzbek GM defeated, among others, GMs Vladimir Fedoseev, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana (the last two using the same opening variation!) and drew with GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Here's his game with Caruana, who had won the Swiss part for the last two weeks.

The eight players who have qualified for the knockout part are GMs Abdusattorov, Martirosyan, MVL, Nakamura, Artemiev, Alexander Moskalenko, Eric Hansen, and IM Abdulla Gadimbayli.

July 21 Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Score	SB
1		GM	@ChessWarrior7197	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	9	55.5
2		GM	@Micki-taryan	Haik Martirosyan	8.5	54
3		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	8.5	53.5
4		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	8.5	53.25
5		GM	@Sibelephant	Vladislav Artemiev	8.5	49.5
6		GM	@Alexander_Moskalenko	Alexander Moskalenko	8.5	48.5
7		GM	@erichansen	Eric Hansen	8.5	46.75
8		IM	@GadimbayliA	Abdulla Gadimbayli	8.5	46
9		GM	@GigaQuparadze	Giga Kuparadze	8.5	42.25
9		GM	@vladislavkovalev	Vladislav Kovalev	8.5	42.25
11		GM	@RaunakSadhwani2005	Raunak Sadhwani	8	51
12		GM	@OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	8	49.75
13		GM	@Jumbo	Rinat Jumabayev	8	49.5
14		GM	@1977Ivan	Ivan Ivanisevic	8	48.5
15		GM	@2Vladimirovich90	Dmitry Andreikin	8	48.25
16		GM	@VerdeNotte	Gawain Jones	8	47
17		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	8	46.75
18		GM	@ShimanovAlex	Aleksandr Shimanov	8	45
19		IM	@okriak	Dmitry Obolenskikh	8	42.5
20		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	8	41

Nakamura, the winner of the knockout both last week and the week before, didn't survive the quarterfinals this time. He was knocked out by Artemiev, who accurately judged a pawn ending to be winning for him:

Vachier-Lagrave lost his first game to Martirosyan, but managed to win a drawn queen ending by tricking his opponent into a queen trade. The Armenian GM then won the armageddon and impressively set aside Artemiev 2-0.

♜ GM @Vachier_Lagrave TRICKS GM Martirosyan and pulls out a win when it seemed like all hope was lost! 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/rAxeLM2kaq
— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 21, 2020

Martirosyan won the $1,000 first prize and 12 GP points while Artemiev took second ($500 and eight GP points). Abdusattorov and Vachier-Lagrave both won $200 and four GP points, while the losing quarterfinalists each earned $100 and two GP points.

GM Kateryna Lagno (@KaterynaLagno) 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 July 21 (Top 20)

#	Fed	Title	Name	Username	Swiss Points	Bonus Points	Overall Points
1		GM	Hikaru Nakamura	@Hikaru	43	28	71
2		GM	Vladislav Kovalev	@vladislavkovalev	58	8	66
3		GM	Vladislav Artemiev	@Sibelephant	33.5	24	57.5
4		GM	Haik Martirosyan	@Micki-taryan	34	22	56
5		GM	Parham Maghsoodloo	@Parhamov	42.5	8	50.5
6		GM	Dmitry Andreikin	@2Vladimirovich90	33.5	14	47.5
7		GM	Sergey Karjakin	@SergeyKarjakin	33.5	10	43.5
8		GM	Grigoriy Oparin	@OparinGrigoriy	25.5	16	41.5
9		GM	Fabiano Caruana	@FabianoCaruana	34	6	40
10		GM	Vladimir Fedoseev	@Bigfish1995	25.5	14	39.5
11		IM	Tuan Minh Le	@wonderfultime	33.5	4	37.5
12		GM	Raunak Sadhwani	@RaunakSadhwani2005	32	4	36
13		GM	Alireza Firouzja	@Firouzja2003	25.5	10	35.5
14		GM	Alexander Grischuk	@Grischuk	32.5	2	34.5
15		IM	Hans Niemann	@IMHansNiemann	32.5	2	34.5
16		GM	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	@LyonBeast	17.5	16	33.5
17		GM	Giga Kuparadze	@GigaQuparadze	32.5	0	32.5
18		GM	Nordibek Abdusattorov	@ChessWarrior7197	25.5	6	31.5
19		GM	Rasmus Svane	@rasmussvane	24.5	4	28.5
20		GM	Aleksandr Moskalenko	@Alexander_Moskalenko	24	2	26

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 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.”

Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!

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