Nakamura Wins 6th Speed Chess Grand Prix
GM Hikaru Nakamura won the sixth Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix after beating Iran's GM Amin Tabatabaei in the knockout final. Nakamura is now third in the overall Grand Prix, which is still led by GM Vladislav Kovalev.
The next Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix will be played on July 14 at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.
The sixth Speed Chess Grand Prix tournament was held on Tuesday, July 7, with 879 participants. It was GM Fabiano Caruana who won the Swiss part with a 9.0/10 score as he edged out Tabatabaei on tiebreak.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
Caruana (@FabianoCaruana) had scored an undefeated 8/9, drawing in 14 moves with Nakamura in round nine to get closer to qualification. He was probably safe with another draw but in the final round faced GM Alireza Firouzja, who needed a win. Caruana convincingly set aside the Iranian star (@Firouzja2003):
July 7 Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 9 | 53 | |
| 2 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 9 | 49 | |
| 3 | GM | @Infernal_XaM | Pavel Ponkratov | 8.5 | 57.25 | |
| 4 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 8.5 | 56.25 | |
| 5 | GM | @Aravindhchess1999 | Aravindh Chithambaram | 8.5 | 54.25 | |
| 6 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 7 | GM | @vladislavkovalev | Vladislav Kovalev | 8.5 | 50.25 | |
| 8 | GM | @RaunakSadhwani2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 8.5 | 47.75 | |
| 9 | GM | @Shield12 | (undisclosed) | 8.5 | 46.75 | |
| 10 | GM | @TamirNabaty | Tamir Nabaty | 8.5 | 42.75 | |
| 11 | GM | @SergeyKarjakin | Sergey Karjakin | 8 | 49.5 | |
| 12-13 | GM | @Guenplen | Boris Grachev | 8 | 47 | |
| 12-13 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Kuparadze | 8 | 47 | |
| 14 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 15-16 | GM | @ArjunErigaisi2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 15-16 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 17 | FM | @TheBigBoss04 | Jose Cardoso | 8 | 43 | |
| 18 | IM | @praveenb2002 | Praveen Balakrishnan | 8 | 41.25 | |
| 19 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 8 | 41 | |
| 20 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 8 | 40.5 |
What happened to Nakamura last week happened to Caruana in the eight-player knockout. After finishing first in the Swiss, he was eliminated right away in the one-game mini-match with Indian rising star GM Raunak Sadhwani (@RaunakSadhwani2005) after spoiling a won position:
Nakamura beat Sadhwani 2-0 and also started with a win vs. Tabatabaei but then lost the second. A bullet game had to bring a decision, in which Tabatabaei got the white pieces because he finished higher in the Swiss portion.
The game saw a crazy finish as Nakamura, in a completely winning position, premoved incorrectly. Tabatabaei didn't have time to win the endgame; he was playing on increment by then—one second per move basically.
The Iranian GM took too much time to force a draw (by taking on f3), and then Nakamura grabbed his chance, dropping his bishop between the rook and the pawn, anticipating his opponent's premove, and winning on time.
WHAT A FINISH BY @GMHikaru! 🤯🤯🤯
— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 7, 2020
He blocks the pre-move and wins today's #SpeedChess Grand Prix! pic.twitter.com/HeLpvt48om
Nakamura won the $1,000 first prize and 12 GP points while Tabatabaei took second ($500 and eight GP points). Sadhwani and GM Pavel Ponkratov (@Infernal_XaM) both won $200 and four GP points, while the losing quarterfinalists earned $100 and two GP points.
IM Alina Kashlinskaya (@AliKa2810) 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 7 (Top 20)
| # | Fed | Title | Name | Username | Swiss Points | Bonus Points | Overall Points |
| 1 | GM | Vladislav Kovalev | @vladislavkovalev | 49.5 | 8 | 57.5 | |
| 2 | GM | Vladislav Artemiev | @Sibelephant | 25 | 16 | 41 | |
| 3 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | @Hikaru | 26 | 14 | 40 | |
| 4 | GM | Vladimir Fedoseev | @Bigfish1995 | 25.5 | 14 | 39.5 | |
| 5 | GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | @Parhamov | 34 | 4 | 38 | |
| 6 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | @Firouzja2003 | 25.5 | 10 | 35.5 | |
| 7 | GM | Haik Martirosyan | @Micki-taryan | 25.5 | 10 | 35.5 | |
| 8 | GM | Grigoriy Oparin | @OparinGrigoriy | 17.5 | 16 | 33.5 | |
| 9 | GM | Sergey Karjakin | @SergeyKarjakin | 25 | 8 | 33 | |
| 10 | IM | Tuan Minh Le | @wonderfultime | 25 | 4 | 29 | |
| 11 | GM | Dmitry Andreikin | @2Vladimirovich90 | 17 | 12 | 29 | |
| 12 | GM | Fabiano Caruana | @FabianoCaruana | 25 | 2 | 27 | |
| 13 | GM | Alexander Grischuk | @Grischuk | 24.5 | 2 | 26.5 | |
| 14 | IM | Hans Niemann | @IMHansNiemann | 24.5 | 2 | 26.5 | |
| 15 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram | @Aravindhchess1999 | 24 | 2 | 26 | |
| 16 | GM | Alexander Zubov | @Alexander_Zubov | 16.5 | 8 | 24.5 | |
| 17 | GM | Giga Kuparadze | @GigaQuparadze | 24 | 0 | 24 | |
| 18 | GM | Boris Grachev | @Guenplen | 23.5 | 0 | 23.5 | |
| 19 | GM | Anish Giri | @AnishGiri | 17 | 4 | 21 | |
| 20 | GM | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | @LyonBeast | 9 | 12 | 21 |
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 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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