Jobava Wins 16th Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix
GM Baadur Jobava won the 16th Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix, his first in the series. The Georgian grandmaster beat GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam 2-1 in the knockout final.
The next Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix will be played on September 22 at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.
The 16th Speed Chess Grand Prix tournament was held on Tuesday, September 15, with 710 participants. GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Peter Svidler tied for first place in the Swiss part after both scored 9/10.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
One of the best games from the Swiss part was Svidler's win as Black against Le Quang Liem. It was not without mistakes (what can you expect with a 3+1 time control) but was great entertainment.
Along with Abdusattorov, Jobava, and Svidler, GMs Kirill Alekseenko, Anton Korobov, Le Quang Liem, and IMs Le Tuan Minh and Viktor Gazik qualified for the eight-player knockout.
September 15 Speed Chess Grand Prix | Swiss Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | GM | @ChessWarrior7197 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 9 | 59.25 | |
| 2 | GM | @PSvidler | Peter Svidler | 9 | 57 | |
| 3 | GM | @BilodeauA | Kirill Alekseenko | 8.5 | 52.25 | |
| 4 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 4 | GM | @GOGIEFF | Anton Korobov | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 6 | GM | @LiemLe | Liem Le | 8.5 | 49.5 | |
| 7 | IM | @Funo09 | Viktor Gazik | 8.5 | 43.25 | |
| 8 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 8.5 | 43 | |
| 9 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksey Sarana | 8 | 49.5 | |
| 10 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 8 | 49.25 | |
| 11 | GM | @Borsch7 | Maxim Matlakov | 8 | 49 | |
| 12 | GM | @RaunakSadhwani2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 8 | 47.25 | |
| 13 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 14 | GM | @David_Paravyan | David Paravyan | 8 | 45.75 | |
| 15 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 16 | GM | @suryaganguly | Surya Shekhar Ganguly | 8 | 42.5 | |
| 17 | FM | @Taron_Shagbazyan | Taron Shagbazyan | 8 | 40.75 | |
| 17 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 8 | 40.75 | |
| 19 | GM | @eljanov | Pavel Eljanov | 7.5 | 48.25 | |
| 19 | GM | @Alexander_Moskalenko | Alexander Moskalenko | 7.5 | 48.25 |
GM @polborta lookin' like the Sith Lord of #chess. pic.twitter.com/RxuyUQHk4O
— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 15, 2020
Svidler wasn't the Sith Lord in the next part as he got knocked out right away by Gazik. That first round, where a win in the first game is immediately decisive, is rather cruel.
Jobava reached the final by eliminating Abdusattorov and Le Tuan Minh, while Le Quang Liem beat Alekseenko and then Gazik.
Jobava then won the first game in the final but lost the second. Interestingly, both were RN versus RN endgames. The Georgian GM then won the third, again as Black—another encounter that shouldn't be missed:
That's the kind of chess we like, and it was perfectly matched that one of the greatest hackers of them all, GM Simon Williams, was the commentator of the day.
"I had no idea what was going on in that last game," Williams started his interview with the winner, who replied that it was also the case for him.
Jobava managed to win a few Titled Tuesdays in the older formats in 2014, 2015, and 2016, but this was his first win in the SCC GP series. "The format is extremely tough and very interesting," he said.
Interestingly, the Georgian GM was streaming his play during the tournament for the first time and said he had less stress than when he's not streaming.
Jobava won the $1,000 first prize and 12 GP points, while Le Quang Liem took second ($500 and eight GP points). Le Tuan Minh and Gazik both won $200 and four GP points, while the losing quarterfinalists each earned $100 and two GP points.
GM Harika Dronavalli (@Elegance_Riks) won the $100 prize for being the top-scoring female player.
Jobava's stream
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 September 15 (Top 20)
| # | Title | Country | Username | Name | Swiss Points |
Bonus Points |
Overall Points |
| 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 68 | 52 | 120 | |
| 2 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 68 | 24 | 92 | |
| 3 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 51 | 38 | 89 | |
| 4 | GM | @Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 59.5 | 28 | 87.5 | |
| 5 | GM | @ChessWarrior7197 | Nordibek Abdusattorov | 67.5 | 16 | 83.5 | |
| 6 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 65 | 14 | 79 | |
| 7 | GM | @SergeyKarjakin | Sergey Karjakin | 65 | 10 | 75 | |
| 8 | GM | @vladislavkovalev | Vladislav Kovalev | 66 | 8 | 74 | |
| 9 | GM | @2Vladimirovich90 | Dmitry Andreikin | 57 | 14 | 71 | |
| 10 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 50.5 | 20 | 70.5 | |
| 11 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 41.5 | 28 | 69.5 | |
| 12 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 58.5 | 10 | 68.5 | |
| 13 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 56.5 | 12 | 68.5 | |
| 14 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 49.5 | 16 | 65.5 | |
| 15 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 57 | 6 | 63 | |
| 16 | GM | @RaunakSadhwani2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 55.5 | 4 | 59.5 | |
| 17 | GM | @Guenplen | Boris Grachev | 47.5 | 12 | 59.5 | |
| 18 | GM | @PSvidler | Peter Svidler | 42.5 | 14 | 56.5 | |
| 19 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 49.5 | 6 | 55.5 | |
| 20 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 41 | 12 | 53 |
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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