It’s a rest day at the FIDE World Chess Championship between world champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai, so we’ll be reporting on a “lesser” event today – the Speed Chess Championship being played online at the chess.com playing server. The event started November 8th and will end on December 19th.
This is a knockout competition with a US$100,000 prize fund and is joined by 16 of the world’s top grandmasters – Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Liren Ding, Anish Giri, Alexander Grischuk, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Svidler, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Daniil Dubov, Richard Rapport, Jeffery Xiong, Alexey Sarana, and Nihal Sarin,
After the opening round, eight players advanced to the quarterfinals. These are Nakamura, who defeated Svidler, 22-10; Giri, who eliminated Duda, 14-12; Ding, who ousted Mamedyarov, 14-12; Aronian, who knocked out Dubov, 15-12; Rapport, who booted out Sarana, 16½-14½; Nihal, who beat Grischuk, 15½-10½; Caruana, who knocked out Vachier-Lagrave, 13½-12½; and Wesley, who escaped a determined Xiong, 18-14.
The quarterfinal duels will pit Nakamura vs Giri; Ding vs Aronian; Rapport vs Nihal; and Caruana vs So. The time controls will be: 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet.
Xiong,J (2687)-So,Wesley (2772) [D38]
chess.com (1.12) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 d5 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.Bd2 0-0 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 Bd7 9.Qb3 dxc4 10.Qxc4 Ne4 11.e3 Nxc3 12.Qxc3 Rc8 13.Bd3 Re8 14.b4 Qe7 15.Rd1 h6 16.Be4 Nd8 17.Ne5 Bb5 18.Qb3 f6 19.Nd3 Bxd3 20.Rxd3 f5 21.Bxf5 Qg5 22.Be4 c6 23.0-0 Nf7 24.f4 Qf6 25.Bf3 Rcd8 26.b5 cxb5 27.Qxb5 Nd6 28.Qe5 b6 29.Rc1 Qe7 30.Rdc3 1-0
So,Wesley (2772)-Xiong,J (2687) [E60]
chess.com (1.15) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.e3 0-0 5.Be2 d6 6.0-0 e5 7.Nc3 e4 8.Nd2 Re8 9.b4 h5 10.b5 Bf5 11.a4 Nbd7 12.a5 a6 13.Bb2 Nf8 14.Qb3 Ne6 15.Rfc1 Bh6 16.Nd5 Bg7 17.h3 Ng5 18.Nf4 Ne6 19.Nxe6 Bxe6 20.Qc2 Bf5 21.c5 Nd5 22.cxd6 cxd6 23.Qb3 Nc7 24.b6 Ne6 25.Qd5 Qh4 26.Bf1 Ng5 27.Rc7 Rad8 28.Rac1 Be5 29.dxe5 dxe5 30.Qxe5 Rxe5 31.Bxe5 Nxh3+ 32.gxh3 Rxd2 33.Bg3 Qf6 34.Rxb7 h4 35.Rb8+ Kg7 36.Bf4 g5 37.b7 Rb2 38.Bh2 Bxh3 39.Be2 Rxe2 40.Rg8+ Kxg8 41.b8Q+ Kh7 0-1
Xiong,Jeffery (2687)-So,Wesley (2772) [B52]
chess.com (1.14) 2021
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 g6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bg7 9.f3 0-0 10.Be3 Nc6 11.0-0 a6 12.Qd3 Rfc8 13.b3 b5 14.cxb5 Ne5 15.Qd2 d5 16.Nxd5 Nxd5 17.exd5 axb5 18.Qe2 Qxd5 19.Rad1 Nc6 20.Nxb5 Qe6 21.Kf2 Nb4 22.Rd2 Nd5 23.Bd4 Bxd4+ 24.Nxd4 Qb6 25.Qb5 Rxa2 26.Rxa2 Qxd4+ 27.Kg3 Qe5+ 28.Kf2 Qe3+ 29.Kg3 Nc3 30.Qb7 Qe5+ 31.f4 Ne4+ 32.Kf3 Nd2+ 33.Kg4 Qf5+ 34.Kh4 Nxf1 35.g4 Qf6+ 0-1
So,Wesley (2772)-Xiong,J (2687) [D37]
chess.com (1.17) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.Nxb5 Nb6 8.Be3 Nc6 9.a3 Qd7 10.Nc3 Bb7 11.Be2 Be7 12.Qc2 0-0-0 13.Rd1 g5 14.Ne4 g4 15.Nfg5 Bxg5 16.Nxg5 h5 17.Ne4 Qd5 18.f3 Ne7 19.Bg5 Nf5 20.Bxd8 Rxd8 21.Nf6 Qc6 22.Qc3 Na4 23.Qb4 Nxd4 24.Kf2 a5 25.Qxa5 gxf3 26.Bxf3 Nxf3 27.Rxd8+ Kxd8 28.Qb4 Nc5 29.Rd1+ Kc8 30.gxf3 Qxf3+ 31.Ke1 Qe3+ 32.Kf1 Qf4+ 33.Kg1 Qg5+ 34.Kf1 Qf5+ 35.Kg1 Qf3 36.Rd2 Qh1+ 37.Kf2 Qxh2+ 38.Ke1 Qxe5+ 39.Kd1 Bf3+ 40.Kc2 Qf5+ 41.Kc3 Qxf6+ 42.Kxc4 Nd7 0-1
So,Wesley (2772)-Xiong,J (2687) [C19]
chess.com (1.23) 2021
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.a4 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nbc6 9.Nf3 Bd7 10.Bb5 Qc7 11.0-0 Na5 12.Bd3 Nc4 13.Bc1 b6 14.Re1 h6 15.h4 Rc8 16.h5 cxd4 17.cxd4 Bc6 18.Nd2 Qd7 19.Qg4 g5 20.hxg6 fxg6 21.Bxc4 dxc4 22.Nxc4 Nf5 23.Nd6+ Nxd6 24.exd6 Kf7 25.c4 Qxd6 26.Ba3 Qd7 27.d5 Rhe8 28.dxc6 Qxc6 29.Re3 e5 30.Rd1 Rcd8 31.Rxd8 Rxd8 32.Rxe5 Qf6 33.Re7+ Kg8 34.Qe6+ Qxe6 35.Rxe6 Rd1+ 36.Kh2 Ra1 37.Bb2 Rxa4 38.Rxg6+ Kf7 39.Rxh6 Rb4 40.Be5 a5 41.f4 Rxc4 42.Rxb6 a4 43.g4 Rc5 44.g5 1-0
So,Wesley (2772)-Xiong,J (2687) [C19]
chess.com (1.54) 2021
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.a4 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nbc6 9.Nf3 Bd7 10.Bb5 a6 11.Be2 c4 12.0-0 Qc7 13.Bc1 f6 14.Re1 fxe5 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.dxe5 Ng6 17.Bh5 0-0-0 18.Qd4 Rdf8 19.Bxg6 hxg6 20.Ba3 Rf5 21.Bd6 Qa5 22.Qa7 1-0
So,Wesley (2772)-Xiong,J (2687) [C41]
chess.com (1.38) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Be7 6.Bf4 0-0 7.Qd2 d5 8.Ndb5 Bb4 9.0-0-0 c6 10.Nc7 Nxe4 11.Qe3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Ba3+ 13.Kb1 Nd7 14.Nxa8 Qa5 15.c4 Nc5 16.Bd6 Bf5 17.Bxc5 Bxc5 18.Qb3 Rxa8 19.cxd5 cxd5 20.Bd3 Be6 21.Rhe1 Bxf2 22.Re2 Bb6 23.Qb5 Qc3 24.Qb2 Qc5 25.Qb5 Qc7 26.Bf5 a6 27.Qa4 Qd6 28.Bxe6 fxe6 29.Rde1 Qc5 30.Rxe6 Rf8 31.Re8 Kf7 32.Rf1+ 1-0
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PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Bh7, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Rb6 2.Rd6#; 1…Rb2 2.Rg2#; 1…Kxc4 2.Qxb3#; 1…Nc2 2.Qxc2#.
