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All 16 individuals within the 2023 Bullet Chess Championship at the moment are decided. Together with 10 invited gamers, the six further spots have been stuffed—4 of them on Friday.
GMs David Paravyan and Denis Lazavik gained in Qualifier 2, whereas GMs Dmitry Andreikin and Arjun Erigaisi gained in Division 3. In all three qualifiers, the participant who misplaced within the Winners Remaining was in a position to qualify however within the Losers Remaining.
The principle occasion begins on July 17, at 3:30 p.m. ET/21:30 CEST.
Qualifier 2
Simply as on Thursday, every qualifier began with an hour-long area the place gamers amassed as many factors as they may. The time management was 1+0. The highest eight finishers moved on to the knockout stage.
Early within the area, one thing uncommon occurred: in a trivially profitable place, GM Rauf Mamedov by accident promoted his pawn to a knight as an alternative of a queen, and the sport led to a draw. Enjoying bullet chess with out auto-queen on is kind of a courageous endeavor!
Paravyan in the end gained the world with 31 wins, 5 losses, and three attracts—practically the identical rating as GM Hikaru Nakamura, however with one much less loss.
He and Nakamura performed 5 instances, and Paravyan gained three whereas dropping two. The cleanest win was the next, the place an area benefit reworked to related handed pawns on the queenside. Though the engine discovered defenses, in a sensible recreation it was too tall an order.
Nakamura and GM Jose Martinez (Jospem) didn’t advance to the knockout as a result of they’re already admitted to the primary occasion. Thus, the others within the high 10 moved on.
(Full standings and area video games will be discovered right here.)
The highest 4 finishers performed within the Winners Bracket, whereas the underside 4 performed within the Losers. The good thing about enjoying within the Winners Bracket is having a “second life” within the double elimination system.
Winners Bracket
Paravyan completed his Friday night with one other first-place end. He beat GM Alexander Grischuk 7-4 and GM Denis Lazavik 7-3 to assert his spot in the primary occasion.
Though blunders are to be anticipated, some video games featured unexpectedly high-quality chess. Paravyan gained recreation one and their second recreation led to a draw. The standard of strikes and the velocity with which they performed them in that second recreation would possibly deceive you into pondering this was a blitz recreation not 1+0 with zero increment.
After recreation seven, Paravyan led by one level, however he broke away with three wins within the final three video games.
Lazavik blundered a chunk within the first recreation of that decisive streak, and the final two video games ended with checkmate on the board. The penultimate recreation was the nicest, the place a misstep by White allowed Paravyan to show the hazard of opposite-colored bishops with heavy items nonetheless on the board.
Losers Bracket
Lazavik avenged himself within the Losers Bracket by defeating IM Renato Terry in a one-sided match ending with a 7-3 rating. After an equal rating following two video games, Lazavik gained 4 in a row after which made three attracts to shut out the match—a disappointing ending for the Peruvian GM who made it to the Remaining in Qualifier 2 as nicely.
The video games weren’t positional masterpieces. What was necessary was that Lazavik performed solidly and shortly. The fourth win featured a cute checkmate. Can you discover it?
Qualifier 3
If enjoying with Nakamura within the area made getting into the highest eight difficult, then think about enjoying with each Nakamura and GM Magnus Carlsen within the combine. Carlsen was additionally already invited to the BCC, however that did not cease him from leaping into the enjoyable.
Finally, the highest 5 finishers have been already invited into the occasion, so locations six by way of 13 superior to the knockout. GM Andrew Tang gained all of the delight factors, forward of Carlsen and Nakamura.
Though it did not have significance for the event, Carlsen had the higher rating towards Nakamura on this event, with a rating of +3 -2 =2. Each led the event at totally different factors, and the next mouse slip by Carlsen might have introduced again bitter reminiscences.
Hikaru wins a rematch after Magnus mouse slips (or blunders) in a profitable place!
#BulletChess pic.twitter.com/Az0lkN1CoI
— chess24.com (@chess24com) July 7, 2023
Terry, who had already gotten into the finals of the final two qualifiers, as soon as once more made it into the knockout. He gained the next recreation towards Martinez with 4 queens on the board.
Moreover Terry, Grischuk and Mamedov additionally returned to the knockout after failing to win in Qualifier 2. All of the others have been recent faces.
(Full standings and area video games will be discovered right here.)
Winners Bracket
Andreikin beat GM S.L. Narayanan 5.5-3.5 within the Semifinals, thanks largely to a three-game profitable streak between video games three to 5. He confronted Arjun within the Remaining.
This was a particularly shut match. After one draw, the following 9 video games have been decisive. The ultimate rating was 5.5-4.5 and was settled solely within the final recreation. There, Erigaisi went for an bold and faulty piece sacrifice (though sacrificing the piece a distinct manner might have labored)—after a couple of strikes, there was no assault, and Andreikin transformed the benefit.
Losers Bracket
After dropping within the Winners Remaining, Arjun accomplished the sample of achieving the second qualifying spot within the Losers Remaining. Once more, that is the brilliant facet of touchdown within the high 4 of the world. He defeated Mamedov with a powerhouse rating of 5.5-1.5.
Mamedov made it to the Losers Remaining by defeating GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra 7-3, Narayanan 6-4, after which Grischuk 7-5.
That final match, towards Grischuk, was uncharacteristic for a bullet match, because the commentators identified. In a time management extra generally related to soiled flagging, the 2 grandmasters confirmed a surprisingly excessive degree of honor by resigning positions that have been misplaced, with out attempting to win on time.
The Azerbaijani grandmaster gained the ultimate recreation by skewering Black’s rook.
Arjun did not lose a single recreation within the match, profitable 4 and drawing three. In contrast to the match with Grischuk, no chivalry was proven. The clock mattered in, for instance, recreation two, the place Arjun was down a queen however gained on time.
To be truthful to Arjun, he did win a lot of the video games by place and never simply flagging, however the clock definitely helped!
The Bullet Chess Championship 2023 (BCC) is Chess.com’s most elite bullet chess occasion and a part of the Pace Chess Championship collection. The occasion’s qualifiers occur on July 6 and seven, with the primary occasion occurring on July 17 by way of 21. The quickest gamers on the planet compete for his or her share of the $100,000 prize fund and a spot within the Pace Chess Championship’s foremost occasion.
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