How To Watch Giri vs Mamedyarov Speed Chess Today

It's the final opening-round match of the Speed Chess Championship today as Anish Giri (@AnishGiri) faces Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (@azerichesss) for the right to advance in the Speed Chess bracket and play Levon Aronian in round two, but maybe we saved the best for last? 

This first-round pairing has the feeling of a semifinal or better as each the two combatants enters the match as a top-seven chess player in the world by live rating.

Giri is the higher seed in the bracket, but he could be the underdog in this  4-vs-13 matchup against a surging Mamedyarov.

Watch the match live today, .

The following viewing options will be available:

• Twitch.tv/chess: the official broadcast with IM Daniel Rensch and GM Robert Hess—watch here to see the Twitch chat.
• Chess.com/TV: watch here to see the Chess.com chat.

The match is the eighth of 15 action-packed events in the main Speed Chess Championship bracket.

The match format:

• 90 minutes of 5/1 blitz.
• 60 minutes of 3/1 blitz.
• 30 minutes of 1/1 bullet.
• 3-minute breaks between segments.
• Higher seed starts with White, and colors alternate thereafter.
• Highest cumulative point total wins. If points are tied after the bullet segment, a four-game 1/1 tiebreaker match will be played.
• If the match is still tied after the additional four 1/1 games, a single armageddon game will be played: White 5+0, Black 3+0, Black gets draw odds. The player with the highest Chess.com blitz rating at the start of the Armageddon chooses his color.
• Full match rules are available here.

The match prizes:

• Winner: $1,000 and advances to round two of the SCC.
• An additional $1,000 split by win percentage.
• Additional prize funds donated by the Twitch community during the live show will be split evenly between the two players. 

Who's the favorite to win? 

The Chess.com SmarterChess predictions tell us that Mamedyarov is a 68 percent favorite to win the match as a solid, one-game favorite in each of the three time controls. The SmarterChess statistical model bases its predictions on prior performance by the players in selected Chess.com events.

Can Giri pull off the upset? Maybe he will find inspiration in Jan-Krzysztof Duda 's Speed Chess shocker yesterday. 

Next up for the Speed Chess Championship is round two, with eighth of the world's best chess players. Check back at www.SpeedChessChampionship.com for pairings and schedule announcements. 

You can find all the information on the 2018 Speed Chess Championship here, including rules, format, players, and complete schedule. 

Let us know your match predictions in the comments or on Facebook.