Speed Chess Championship Finals

The concluding stages of the Speed Chess Championship will be held in front of a live audience in London on 7–8 February 2026, with the semifinals, consolation match and final taking place at 180 Studios, a noted brutalist-style venue located in the heart of the city.

Organised by chess.com, the event brings the closing phase of one of the most prominent online chess circuits into a physical venue. Earlier knockout stages - the round of 16 and quarterfinals - were played online, with only the final weekend's matches contested on site. Tickets are available in several tiers, offering different forms of access to the live playing hall and related activities.

The championship began with a 16-player single-elimination bracket featuring a mix of direct invitees and the top eight performers from the Titled Tuesday leaderboard. The online rounds produced several notable exits: Arjun Erigaisi, Ding Liren and Anish Giri were among those eliminated in the round of 16.

The semifinal pairings were decided by quarterfinal matches completed in November. Magnus Carlsen will meet Denis Lazavik, while Hikaru Nakamura faces Alireza Firouzja.

• Carlsen advanced with a 14½–7½ victory over Fabiano Caruana. Although the overall score was clear, the match remained competitive into the 3+1 segment, at one point standing at 6½–5½.
• Nakamura reached London after edging Wesley So 11–10 in a contest marked by repeated momentum swings; So notably won the bullet segment 4–3, an uncommon outcome in Nakamura's matches, but the top seed secured the overall win by taking a key penultimate game and holding a difficult final position.
• Firouzja produced one of the most lopsided quarterfinal results, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi 19–9 with consistent scoring across all time controls.
• Lazavik completed the semifinal lineup by overcoming Hans Niemann 15½–9½, recording eleven wins to five and maintaining control through each phase of the match.

Format

Each match in the live finals follows the championship's standard three-segment structure of continuous games:

• Segment 1: 90 minutes of games at a 5+1 time control
• Segment 2: 60 minutes of games at a 3+1 time control
• Segment 3: 30 minutes of games at a 1+1 time control

Colours alternate from game to game, with the higher-seeded player starting with white in the first game of each segment. A win scores one point and a draw half a point, and only games that have already begun before a segment timer expires count towards the score. Players may not forfeit a match except during the final ten minutes of the 1+1 segment.

If the score is level after all three segments, the tiebreak procedure is as follows:

• Up to four additional 1+1 games are played, with colours continuing to alternate
• The match ends as soon as one player reaches 2½ points in this mini-match
• If still tied, a single Armageddon game is played

For Armageddon, both players secretly submit a bid indicating how much time (up to five minutes) they are willing to have with the black pieces. The lower bid receives Black with that time, while White gets the full five minutes and must win the game, as a draw counts as a win for Black.

The 2024 edition took place in Paris | Photo: Maria Emelianova / chess.com

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