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Firouzja Fireworks Lead To Win Over Grischuk, So Outlasts Lazavik
Firouzja was all smiles after defeating a player he proclaimed as "a star."

Firouzja Fireworks Lead To Win Over Grischuk, So Outlasts Lazavik

JackRodgers
FM JackRodgers
| 11 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Alireza Firouzja kicked off his Speed Chess Championship 2024 campaign in style with a 13.5-10.5 victory over GM Alexander Grischuk in a Round of 16 match that was packed to the brim with enterprising opening play and time scrambles. 

Four-time SCC runner-up GM Wesley So faced stiff resistance from prodigy GM Denis Lazavik in the blitz sections of his Round of 16 match but proved too classy in the bullet portion and pulled ahead to notch a 12-10 score.

The Round of 16 showdown between GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hans Niemann will take place on Wednesday, July 31, at 11 am ET /17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST before GM Fabiano Caruana takes on GM Alexey Sarana to decide the final quarterfinals participants at 2:30 pm ET / 20:30 CEST / 12 a.m. IST (on August 1).

Speed Chess Championship 2024 Bracket

Alireza Firouzja 13.5-10.5 Alexander Grischuk 

GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen have won the SCC in every iteration of the event dating back to its inauguration in 2016, but if there's one player in the bottom half of the draw who has a serious chance of toppling the best it's Firouzja. 

Firouzja at his best is capable of defeating Carlsen and Nakamura in matches. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Having proven his mettle by defeating Nakamura in the 2024 Bullet Chess Championship, Firouzja commenced his SCC campaign with a comfortable win over increment connoisseur and three-time world blitz chess champion Grischuk. 

While Firouzja would have been heavily favored in a flat time control, commentators Rensch and Naroditsky agreed that "the increment is the ultimate equalizer in the SCC."

Blitz 5+1: Firouzja 5.5-3.5 Grischuk

The first game of the match gave plenty of insight into Grischuk's overall strategy with Black and, by opting to play the Berlin Defense instead of his usual Sicilian setups, he showed his intent to avoid sharp, tactical positions against Firouzja. 

Grischuk sought to try his luck in endgames against Firouzja.

The plan seemed to be paying off as Grischuk procured the bishop pair in the middlegame before entering an endgame with a pawn structure that resembled GM Vidit Gujrathi's round-four game against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi from the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament. Just like in that encounter though, Black's position fell apart and Firouzja secured the first point of the match.

Rensch was quick to highlight that Firouzja was "historically, a slow starter" and had "one of the worst records in the 5+1 section." However, in game two Grischuk was able to recover after punishing Firouzja for playing the Philidor's Defense: Hanham, Lion Variation. Three draws ensued and heading into the final quarter of the segment the players were locked at 2.5 points apiece.

The two most important games of the match would turn out to be the sixth and seventh, both of which Firouzja managed to win. In the first of these, the French representative debuted the Nimzo-Indian Defense and pounced on the one mistake Grischuk made: 29.Rc1?.

Game seven was an equally high-quality encounter that unfortunately ended in a flagging after Grischuk defended well enough to bring about an equal queen vs. queen and bishop ending.

Two draws would close out the section and leave Firouzja with a two-point lead heading into the 3+1 games.

Blitz 3+1: Firouzja 4.5-3.5 Grischuk

The curtain-raiser for the 3+1 segment was the most entertaining of the day and both players put a mindboggling variation of the Trompowsky Attack on display. Aggression was on the cards for Firouzja, who played both g5 and b5 with the black pieces in the first eight moves, and these moves laid the platform for a scintillating central assault.

Our Game of the Day, which Firouzja eventually won, has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.

Now with a three-point buffer, Firouzja appeared to be running away with the match but was given a harsh reality check after the disastrous mouse-slip 23.Nb5?. Naroditsky summed this moment up well with a single exclamation... "Whoa!"

Shaken by the mishap, Firouzja produced an off-color showing in the third game of the 3+1 section and lost that as well. To Grischuk's credit, he did post accuracy scores of 99.5 and 93.3, respectively, in these games.

The evaluation was keeping up with The Maldives as the flattest place on Earth until Firouzja's untimely mouse-slip.

Perhaps inspired by his earlier game or the Paris Olympics, Grischuk made a surprising swap from the Berlin to the French Defense for the remainder of the segment, which was a decision that produced mixed results.

Poised at 2.5-2.5 once again, Firouzja was able to score dual wins in back-to-back time scrambles, ensuring that he would finish the segment with a healthy lead.

A picturesque queen sacrifice in the 16th game almost felt decisive as the players neared the bullet time control, in which Firouzja is ranked third on the Chess.com leaderboards.

The top five bullet chess players on the Chess.com leaderboard, the highest of which is ultrabullet specialist Arkadiy Khromaev.

A last-ditch effort by Grischuk in the final game of the 3+1 section left him with a fighting chance heading into the home stretch...

Bullet 1+1: Firouzja 3.5-3.5 Grischuk

In the 1+1 segment, Firouzja got off to a flying start, scoring 3/4 and extending his lead to 13-8. Despite the scoreline, Grischuk played "reasonable moves" that left Naroditsky scratching his head trying to figure out where things were going wrong for the veteran.

The score blew out to 13-8 early in the bullet segment.

The French number-one did relax at this point and allowed Grischuk to score 2.5/3 in the final games of the match but was happy to score a comprehensive 13.5-10.5 victory over a player he grew up watching. In his post-match interview, Firouzja heaped respect on Grischuk: "He's a star I've watched for many years growing up, so I managed to adapt with his style."

Though Firouzja will receive a substantial $4,687 pay-day, the world number-11 will fancy his chances to dispatch the winner of Caruana-Sarana in the quarterfinals and make a deep run in the tournament. As a consolation prize, Grischuk will receive $1,313 by win percentage.

Wesley So 13.5-10.5 Denis Lazavik

Lazavik is somewhat of an enigma when it comes to his prowess in online tournaments and he has proven time and time again to be a thorn in the side of the world's best speed chess players. While his FIDE rating seems to have stabilized around the 2560 region in the last 12 months, the 17-year-old has gone from strength to strength in the online scene.

His Round of 16 opponent was none other than four-time runner-up So who Naroditsky dubbed as one of the most "accurate players in the world" though Lazavik managed to hold pace with the world number nine until the bullet section.

As YouTube viewer Hamza Sajid touted: "Wesley experience will prevail."

Blitz 5+1: So 3.5-3.5 Lazavik

The So-Lazavik match saw a high percentage of draws in the first two segments and of the first 11 games, only two decisive results were recorded. Following a rock-solid Berlin Defense in the first game, Lazavik drew first blood after winning a pawn with a brilliancy on move 17 on the white side of a Catalan Opening: Open Defense and duly converted a same-colored bishop ending.

Lazavik gave So a taste of his own medicine with resourceful defense in the next few games, finding a way to secure draw after draw. The most impressive of these, where Lazavik wrested a threefold repetition from the "jaws of defeat," positioned the Belarussian as a serious threat to So's longevity in the SCC.

In game six of the 5+1 segment So finally found a crack in Lazavik's defenses and it came at a moment when White looked to be on the verge of victory. Facing Lazavik's queen without one of his own (and only several uncoordinated minor pieces to compensate), So capitalized on his opponent's lack of confidence while in a better position and turned the tables.

The final game of the segment saw So press against Lazavik and enter a rook and four pawns vs. rook and three pawns endgame, but once again, his opponent proved to be a staunch defender and the players headed into the 3+1 games all square.

Blitz 3+1: So 3.5-3.5 Lazavik

Opportunities in the 3+1 segment were few and far between and what became clear was that So and Lazavik both share an innate ability to avert danger.

Of the four draws that transpired in games 8-11, only one serious chance to take the lead was missed by So. 49.g5!! would have been an instructive example of how in endgames it is not about how many pawns you possess but how many of those are passed pawns.

In the 12th game, with the scores locked at 5.5-5.5, it looked as though the players were headed for yet another equal ending before So spotted an idea that Hambleton referred to as the "slowest checkmate ever." Though the plan took several moves to execute, this flash of aggression from So gave him his first lead of the match.

In true Lazavik style, he locked things up once more with a win in game 13 when So flagged in a completely winning rook endgame and then drew the final 3+1 game with clinical precision.

Bullet 1+1: So 5-3 Lazavik

With the match on the line and only bullet chess left to play, So played his best chess of the match to score a hat-trick of wins and put to bed any suggestion that Lazavik would cause a boilover.

Each of these wins followed a similar pattern: the two would play solidly for the first 20-30 moves before a pressure-cooker mistake by Lazavik was pounced on by So who showed exactly why he is one of the chief SCC contenders in 2024.

Like in the earlier match in the day, two wins in the last three games for the trailing player made the score look closer than it was, but Lazavik can hold his head high having shown some of the best defensive form in the blitz sections in SCC history.

So showed that he understood his Round of 16 assignment in his post-match interview, stating: "I prepared mostly with Black because I thought he might play the Catalan almost every single game and he almost did so I just wanted to get a playable position with Black. I knew it would be a long match."

So will receive $4,636 for his efforts while Lazavik will receive $1,364.

His Round of 16 match was certainly a war of attrition and the same cannot necessarily be expected in his forthcoming quarterfinal, where he will play the winner of Vachier-Lagrave vs. Niemann. Both players have an uncompromising style so we can expect fewer draws no matter who So plays in the next round.

GMs Vachier-Lagrave and Hans Niemann would both be difficult opponents for So. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
How to watch?
You can watch the event on Chess.com/TV. You can also enjoy the show on our Twitch channel and catch all our live broadcasts on YouTube.com/Chess. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.

The live broadcasts were hosted by IM Danny Rensch, GM Daniel Naroditsky, and GM Aman Hambleton.

The Speed Chess Championship is Chess.com's most important speed chess event. Some of the biggest names in chess compete to determine the best speed chess player in the world. The main event started with qualifiers on June 27 and 28 and concludes with the first-ever Final on September 8, live in Paris. The games are played with time controls of 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1. The prize fund is $173,000.

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