The Road To The Speed Chess Championship Finals

A few weeks ago, NM Todd Bryant analyzed the speed of everyone who had ever taken part in the Speed Chess Championship. Since then, the 2024 edition has narrowed down a field of 16 participants to four finalists to compete in Paris, starting on September 6. The four finalists are defending champion GM Magnus Carlsen, five-time champion GM Hikaru Nakamura, bullet world champion GM Alireza Firouzja, and the only undefeated player in SCC history, GM Hans Niemann. Before Paris, let's see how each player qualified and how they might be able to keep it going.

The Fastest Man Alive: Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura has never lost a match before reaching the SCC finals, and he continued that streak by defeating GM Jose Martinez and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2024. Nakamura averaged only an even score in the five-minute section of his matches but improved in the three-minute and dominated the one-minute with a combined eight wins, three draws, and only two losses in bullet. 

How does Hikaru dominate in bullet? In his two matches, he's averaged only 1.47 seconds per move in the fastest section. For the first twenty moves of each game, he plays faster than the one-second increment, reaching move 20 with an average of 60.75 seconds left on his clock, which is more time than he started with! 

This was a standard bullet game from Nakamura. A quiet opening led to an edge on the clock and the board. His opponent missed a tactic and resigned. 

The Bullet Beast: Alireza Firouzja

The only reason not to bet on Nakamura in the semi-finals is that he's up against Firouzja, a man who has won two bullet world championships and won't be afraid of the one-minute section. Despite his accolades in bullet, Firozuja has been the slowest of the surviving players so far in both of the blitz time controls, and he's only been 0.05 seconds per move faster than Carlsen in bullet. Yet, Firouzja has been up comfortably on the clock for most games in his matches so far, sometimes winning even endgames, like this one against the notorious time-trouble addict, GM Alexander Grischuk.

Firozuja will need to speed up to keep pace with Hikaru in Paris.

The GOAT: Magnus Carlsen

Magnus has accomplished just about everything you can think of in the chess world, including a record of 19-2 in SCC matches so far. Carlsen has a unique style in the SCC. He's actually the slowest bullet player in the finals, the only one who averages more than two seconds per move in that time control. Carlsen’s biggest strength is making strong moves that force his opponent to think. Despite not being the fastest, he averages the biggest clock leads by move 20 in all three-time controls! Even in blitz, the quality of chess moves is at least as important as how fast they come. No one in the history of the game makes moves as accurately as Magnus!

Check out one of Carlsen's impressive wins from the semi-finals against GM Arjun Erigaisi, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.

The Party Crasher: Hans Niemann

Just about everyone was expecting Magnus and Hikaru to make it to Paris, but few people thought they'd see Hans making it this far in his first-ever SCC appearance. However, Hans Niemann has defeated two past SCC Finalists, GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So, to set up a semi-final match with Carlsen. Niemann famously defeated Carlsen in their only classical encounter, so he's unlikely to be intimidated. Like Carlsen, Niemann has outplayed his opponents on the board more than the clock.

On average, he's been behind on time on move 20 in the five-minute section despite playing at a quick pace of 5.89 seconds per move. Hans has outplayed his famous opponents in the two blitz time controls with a score of 18/31 (58%). In bullet, he's hung on and defended his leads, scoring 7.5/16 (47%).  

It's been clutch play in the most important moments that has brought Hans this far in the SCC.

Hans is currently the only player who has won every SCC match that he has played. He'll look to keep that going in Paris for two more matches.

Who do you think will win the 2024 Speed Chess Championship? Let us know in the comments below!