On Friday, GM Hikaru Nakamura won his second-straight Speed Chess Championship title, defeating GM Wesley So by the score of 19.5-14.5. So came back from a four-game deficit early in the match and at one point was even leading the defending champion. Nakamura showed his class in the bullet segment, outscoring the reigning Fischer Random World Champion by a full four points in that time control.

Chess.com's own SmarterChess had predicted the match would end closely, even calling for an overtime victory by Nakamura. In fact, the World Blitz Championship finalist held just a 51-percent edge according to SmarterChess which meant that this was the predicted to be the championship's closest match on paper.

Nakamura was disappointed in his performance, even lamenting in the Twitch chat, "Pretty terrible play by me after the first eight games." Even so, Nakamura held a pragmatic view of the result, "Yeah, not the best win ever, but it's a win."

With his victory, Nakamura now becomes the only player in Speed Chess Championship history to win the event twice, though GM Magnus Carlsen did emerge victorious in the SCC's predecessor, the 2016 Grandmaster Blitz Battle Championship, and won the inaugural Speed Chess Championship against Nakamura. After Nakamura defeated GM Vlad Dobrov, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and the ever-dangerous GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the previous rounds, his and So's incredibly busy schedules delayed the final all the way through late February. 

Still, the fans were treated to some high-level chess and a deserved victory by arguably the fastest player on the planet.

Chess.com's Peter Doggers will be providing a full report covering this epic final. Until then, you can check out today's full match on twitch.tv/chess and youtube.com/chess, and you can read more about the Speed Chess Championship after the jump.

This year, the Chess.com Speed Chess Championships will feature a series of three innovative esports bracket tournaments featuring the world's best chess players and a guaranteed combined prize pool of $100,000.

Find out the details for the 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship, the 2019 Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship and the 2019 Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championship Sponsored by ChessKid.

You can find important information on each of the events below:

• 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship
• 2019 Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championships
• 2019 Chess.com Junior Chess Championships Sponsored by ChessKid
• 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Qualifiers

You can read about our previous Speed Chess Championships here:

• 2018 event
• 2017 event

Speed Chess Championships Schedule

• 2019 Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championships
• 2019 Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championships
• 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Qualifiers
• 2019 Chess.com Speed Chess Championships

2019 Speed Chess Championships

Broadcast and streaming:

All 2019 Speed Chess Championship matches will be broadcast live with full chess-master commentary on Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/Chess. 

Bracket:

Seeding:

• Seed 1 by defending 2018 SCC Champion
• Seeding 2-12 by July FIDE Blitz rating
• Seeding 13-16 by the organizer

2019 Speed Chess Championship schedule (all times Pacific):

9/2/2019 Mon 6:00 PM Match 3 (5 vs. 12) Ding vs. Shankland
9/3/2019 Tue 7:00 AM Match 8 (2 vs. 15) Vachier-Lagrave vs. Wei Yi
9/4/2019 Wed 7:00 AM Match 4 (4 vs. 13) Nepomniachtchi vs. Danielian
9/6/2019 Fri 9:00 AM Match 2 (8 vs. 9) Duda vs. Giri
10/1/2019 Tue 9:00 AM Match 5 (3 vs. 14) Nakamura vs. Dobrov
10/2/2019 Wed 9:00 AM Match 7 (7 vs. 10) Mamedyarov vs. So
10/3/2019 Thu 7:00 AM Match 1 (1 vs. 16) Aronian vs. Firouzja

10/3/2019 Thu 10:30 AM Match 6 (6 vs. 11) Artemiev vs. Grischuk

Round 1: Round of 16

(1) Hikaru Nakamura vs. (16) Vladimir Dobrov

Vlad Dobrov put together an admirable performance in his Speed Chess Championship debut, testing the defending champion Hikaru Nakamura throughout the match. While the Russian grandmaster kept the blitz portions interesting, Nakamura found ways to continue building pressure both on the board and on the clock, leading to a massive 27-8 victory for the American.

• Report
• Games in PGN

(5) Ding Liren vs. (12) Sam Shankland

The match between Ding Liren and Sam Shankland kicked off the Speed Chess Championship, the premier Chess.com tournament of the year. Fresh off his playoff victory against Magnus Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup, Ding out-muscled Shankland, the 2018 U.S. champion, using a dominant performance in the bullet portion to suppress any chance of a late comeback. Ding won the match 19-12.

• Report
• Games in PGN

(8) Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs. (9) Anish Giri

He was four points down in the match, and three going into the bullet portion, but prevailed in the end. On Friday Jan-Krzysztof Duda eliminated world number four Anish Giri from the Speed Chess Championship in what was the third match of the round of 16.

• Report
• Games in PGN

(7) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs. (10) Wesley So

Wesley So showed that he was a force to be reckoned with this Speed Chess Championship by eliminating Azeri grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The match went just as Hikaru Nakamura predicted in his post-match interview on Tuesday. Mamedyarov kept the match close, but So was resilient and built an advantage late in the blitz portion, leading to an 18-12 match win.

• Report
• Games in PGN

(2) Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. (15) Wei Yi

In the second match of the 2019 Speed Chess Championship French star Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat the Chinese GM Wei Yi in an enthralling clash.

• Report
• Games in PGN
  
  

(3) Levon Aronian vs. (14) Alireza Firouzja

In the first match, the well-respected veteran Levon Aronian squeaked by the surging chess prodigy Alireza Firouza who came one game short of completing a furious comeback in the bullet section. Aronian defeated Firouza 13.5-12.5, just getting by the dangerous young grandmaster described as possibly the next world chess champion by GM Simon Williams.

• Report
• Games in PGN

(4) Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. (13) Elina Danielian

Everyone expected the Russian star Ian Nepomniachtchi to crush Elina Danielian in the 2019 Speed Chess Championship, and he more than lived up to those predictions with a dominating win, 27-2.

• Report
• Games in PGN
  
  

(6) Vladislav Artemiev vs. (11) Alexander Grischuk

Another possible future world chess champion played another established superstar in the second match. Vladislav Artemiev defeated Alexander Grischuk in a high-level battle between the two Russian super-GMs. The score was level for much of the match, with neither grandmaster having held more than a one-game lead heading into the bullet portion.

• Report
• Games in PGN

Round 2: Quarterfinals

• Event 13 (Round 2, Match 1)
• Event 14 (Round 2, Match 2)
• Event 15 (Round 2, Match 3)
• Event 16 (Round 2, Match 4)

Round 3: Semifinals

• Event 15 (Round 3, Match 1)
• Event 16 (Round 3, Match 2)

Round 4: Finals

• Event 17 (Round 4, SCC CHAMPIONSHIP)

Event prizes: $50,000 total. 

Prizes by round:

• Round 1 -- $16,000
• Round 2 -- $12,000
• Round 3 -- $12,000
• Round 4 -- $10,000
  

Prize breakdown:

Round 1: 16 players, 8 matches, $16,000 prize pool.

• Winner: $1,000 and advance to round 2
• $1,000 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $2,000

Round 2: 8 players, 4 matches, $12,000 prize pool.

• Winner: $1,500 and advance to round 3
• $1,500 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $3,000

Round 3: 4 players, 2 matches, $12,000 prize pool

• Winner: $3,000
• $3,000 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $6,000

Round 4: 2 players, 1 match, $10,000 prize pool

• Winner: $5,000
• $5,000 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $10,000

Detailed format:

Qualifiers

Two spots will be determined by two qualifier events. The first qualifier event will take place Tuesday, August 6 at 1 p.m. PDT and will feature a combined Titled Tuesday/Speed Chess Championship Qualifier tournament. The second qualifier will take place Wednesday, August 7 at 9 a.m. PDT and will feature the top 8 combined blitz and bullet players on Chess.com in a Knockout format with time controls of 3+1 and 1+1. The Women's Speed Chess Champion and the Junior Speed Chess Champion will automatically qualify for the Speed Chess Championships.

Main bracket

• Each 2019 Speed Chess Championship match will feature 90 minutes of 5/1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3/1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1/1 bullet chess.
• The bracket will feature the winners of the two qualifying spots, the winners of the Women's and Junior's Speed Chess Championships and 12 invited players
• The invites in the main bracket will be seeded 2-12 by July 2019 FIDE blitz ratings at the conclusion of the qualifiers. The defending champion will be seeded 1.
• The qualifiers in the main bracket will be seeded as follows: (13) Women's Speed Chess Championship Winner, (14) Invitational Qualifier Winner, (15) Junior Speed Chess Championship Winner, (16) Titled Tuesday Open Qualifier Winner
• The main bracket will be a single-elimination knockout.
• The winner of each match advances to the next line in the bracket.
• If match is tied after the last 1+1 bullet game, a tiebreak of 4 additional 1+1 games is played as a mini-match.
• If match is still tied after the mini-match tiebreaker, a single armageddon game will be played: White 5+0, Black 3+0, Black gets draw odds. The player with the highest Chess.com blitz rating at the start of the Armageddon chooses his color.

List of players:

The following chess players have confirmed their participation in the 2019 Speed Chess Championship main bracket:

• Ding Liren – world number 3 at time of invitation

• Anish Giri – world number 4 at time of invitation.

• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – world number 7 at time of invitation.

• Alexander Grischuk – Three-time world blitz champion

• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – world number 8 at time of invitation.

• Ian Nepomniachtchi – world number 9 at time of invitation.