7/24/2019 – Game one of the FIDE Grand Prix final in Riga finished surprisingly quickly, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took down Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld Defence in 28 moves. In the second classical game MVL battled back to tie the score forcing a tiebreak, July 24th starting at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST, 8:00 AM EDT), with live games and commentary. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
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Finals, Tiebreak - July 24th
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave stared down the threat of elimination and won a eliminations games again and again against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in today's finals. After six rapid and blitz games, the players were still tied, so the match had to be settled in a single sudden-death Armageddon game.
"A lot of tension and fight" was Maxime's verdict in the post-match press conference. Mamedyarov takes the first place prize of 24,000 euro and 10 Grand Prix points (two bonus points for winning matches without tiebreaks)! Vachier-Lagrave will head home with 14,000 euros and 8 GP points (5 as the runner-up plus 3 bonus points).
Neither player will get much rest as they are due to start playing rapid and blitz once again in Paris for the Grand Chess Tour in just three days time!
Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com
Games and commentary
Players receive 90-minute for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30-seconds per move starting from move one. Official broadcast available on worldchess.com.
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Commentary by GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko & GM Arturs Neikans
Format and players
In each Grand Prix tournament, 16 players compete in a knockout tournament. Each round consists of two games at classical time control. If the match is tied 1:1 after two games, then a tie-break day will consist of two games rapid games, and if necessary, two blitz games with a thinking time of 5 + 3, and if still tied, finally an 'Armageddon' game.
The following 16 players are starting in Riga:
Player
Federation
1
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Azerbaijan
2
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
France
3
Anish Giri
Netherlands
4
Wesley So
USA
5
Levon Aronian
Armenia
6
Alexander Grischuk
Russia
7
Hikaru Nakamura
USA
8
Sergey Karjakin
Russia
9
Yu Yangyi
China
10
Peter Svidler
Russia
11
Veselin Topalov
Bulgaria
12
David Navara
Czech Republic
13
Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Poland
14
Harikrishna Pentala
India
15
Nikita Vitiugov
Russia
16
Daniil Dubov
Russia
Here is Riga FIDE Grand Prix table. It's a knock-out event so every round half of the participants will be eliminated.
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 11, 2019
Distribution of Grand Prix points
The Grand Prix points are distributed in each tournament as follows:
Round
Grand Prix Points
Winner
8
Runner-up
5
Loser of semi-final
3
Loser in Round 2
1
Loser in Round 1
0
In addition, players receive an additional Grand Prix point for every match win without needing tie-break.
Prize fund
The Grand Prix series is carries a respectable prize pool. The total prize fund of the series is EUR €800,000 and each of the four individual Grand Prix tournaments comes with a prize fund of €130,000. The winner of a Grand Prix tournament receives €24,000, and the runner-up receives €14,000. Semifinalists will earn € 10,000, those exiting in round two receive €8,000 and the eight players who are eliminated in round one, still receive €5,000 each.
In addition there is the overall ranking. The winner of the series will receive €50,000 with second earning €45,000, and both qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2020. The third overall will receive €40,000, the fourth €35,000 and then it will continue in €5,000 increments down to the 9th and 10th spots, each of whom take home €10,000. If players are tied, the prize money is shared.
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