Quarterfinals set at Speed Chess Championship
GM Vladislav Artemiev (@Sibelephant) will be GM Magnus Carlsen’s opponent in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Speed Chess Championship Main Event. The Russian grandmaster beat GM Anish Giri (@AnishGiri) 15.5-11.5. Based on his online experience and the Chess.com ratings, Artemiev was the slight favorite and he lived up to the expectations. Playing just a little bit faster than his opponent and with great tactical vision, the Russian player deservedly won this match. It was a result even Giri himself had expected. In fact, he moved up to a shared 12th place in the standings of our Fantasy competition (yep, he plays!) as he accurately predicted the four-point margin with which he’d lose to Artemiev. The match started quite even and was still tied after four games. Artemiev had won a nice, smooth first game and after a draw, Giri won his first. That was one of the rare moments in the match where Artemiev stumbled in a winning position. Usually, it was the other way around, with Artemiev being the one throwing in little tactical tricks here and there that were often completely missed by the commentators and sometimes by Giri as well. Artemiev won game five in a technical endgame and then also game eight, this time again with a small tactical shot. The score at the end of the five-minute segment was 5.5-3.5 and never in the match could Giri level the score again. Occasionally, Giri got the chance to show what he’s worth. That was the case in the second 3+1 game. Afterward, he revealed that he hadn’t prepared much, but that he did look at the Neo-Veresov (GM Baadur Jobava‘s 2.Nc3 and 3.Bf4) because he “always loses against that system in bullet.” The Dutchman got a great position out of the opening and finished it off in style. Giri held on and even ended up winning the three-minute segment with a one-point margin. He got a little help in one of the games as Artemiev briefly had issues with his internet and flagged in a drawn position, shortly after missing a win. With 9-8 for Artemiev, the players started the bullet segment and in that phase, more than before, the Russian player was faster and more accurate. The impression was that Giri didn’t make the most out of his promising positions. In the post-match interview, he didn’t agree he was doing so well in the openings: “Maybe the computer will say I had 0.40 here or there but it was not like there was anything I was thrilled about and he was pretty familiar with the positions and I think he was doing OK. I think too often I was down on the clock and I had not a great position but otherwise, in terms of time scrambles, I think I played OK.” Giri won $851.85 based on win percentage; Artemiev won $2,000 for the victory plus $1,148.15 on percentage, totaling $3,148.15. He moves on to the quarterfinals, where he will play GM Magnus Carlsen. “It should be a very interesting and also a difficult match for me,” said Artemiev. “It was a good motivation for today because it was clear that the winner of our match would go to Magnus. I’m happy and probably I will prepare, I don’t know, a few hours maybe.” The first quarterfinal has been scheduled and will be played on Thursday, November 19, at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe between GM Wesley So and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Text: Peter Doggers Photo: chess.com
Chess.com, FIDE agree to broadcast rights deal for 2021 FIDE World Championship
Chess.com has become the first company to acquire broadcast rights for the 2021 FIDE World Championship Match. The company, based in Palo Alto, California, will be an official broadcast partner for what is set to be the biggest global chess event of recent decades. The groundbreaking agreement between Chess.com and FIDE will bring the world chess championship to a wider audience than ever before. As the world’s biggest online chess platform, Chess.com has been the leading broadcaster of the board game in recent years, in partnership with streaming platform Twitch. Held every two years, the FIDE World Championship Match is by far the most important event for the sport. As the final stage of a long world championship cycle, it is also the most popular: the last title match, held in 2018, was followed by dozens of millions of fans around the globe. “We are truly excited about the prospects of the 2021 World Championship Match, and this agreement is a first step towards making it a great success”, said FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. “The popularity of chess is on the rise: more and more people devote more time to playing the game than ever before. Chess has always been an exciting and popular game, but now it is also much more accessible, and Chess.com contributed a great deal to that, bringing chess to a whole new audience. We are confident that this will be the most followed World Championship match of recent decades.” Chess.com will broadcast its official coverage across multiple platforms in the world’s most popular languages, featuring commentary from some of the biggest names in chess and entertainment. “FIDE has been one of Chess.com’s most important partners during the pandemic, helping to bring millions of new players to chess by working with us on some of the world’s most important events,” said Chess.com’s Director of Business Development, Nick Barton. “Chess is experiencing historic growth and we’ve been humbled by the sheer volume of new players from around the world who are finding joy playing on our site each day. This broadcast partnership provides us the opportunity to continue our mission of making chess fun and accessible for everyone.” With its unofficial coverage of the 2018 world championship, Chess.com reached 3.4 million unique viewers. The record-breaking coverage of this year’s Pogchamps event saw even higher per-day unique viewers. The FIDE World Championship Match is planned to be held in the fall of 2021. It will be played between reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the winner of the 2020 Candidates tournament. In addition to the championship, Chess.com has also acquired broadcast rights for the next two Candidates tournaments. The first is scheduled for the spring of 2021 and entails the second half of the 2020 tournament, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next Candidates tournament is scheduled for 2022. Contacts: FIDE – press@fide.comChess.com – press@chess.com