Carlsen obtains 23½-7½ victory, wins Speed Chess Championship

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
9/9/2024 – With a crushing 23½-7½ victory over Alireza Firouzja, Magnus Carlsen became the winner of the 2024 Speed Chess Championship. This is Carlsen's fourth SCC title, as only he and Hikaru Nakamura have ever won the tournament organised by chess.com. Carlsen outscored Firouzja in all 3 sections of the final match, which took place on Sunday at Espot in Paris. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
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A fourth SCC title for Carlsen

Only 2 players have ever won the Speed Chess Championship: Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. At this year's edition, which had an in-person final stage in Paris, Carlsen grabbed his fourth SCC title - Nakamura has collected 5 so far - by beating Alireza Firouzja in the final match. Nakamura had secured third place on Saturday.

Firouzja came from showing remarkable chess in the previous rounds, but was outplayed by Carlsen from start to finish. As it is well-known, blitz and bullet chess are all about form, and the former world champion simply had a great day on Sunday. The Norwegian has shown once and again that he has the uncanny ability of (very frequently) performing at his best in the deciding rounds of top events - and this was no exception.

Carlsen got a 3-point lead in the 5-minute section, widened the gap to 9 points in the following 3-minute section and saw his opponent collapsing in the bullet. As noted by commentator Daniel Naroditsky, though, Firouzja is certainly capable of taking down his famed opponent in fast-paced events, as he had shocked the chess world by beating Carlsen in chess24's Banter Blitz Cup back in 2020 - when Firouzja was only 16 years old!

Soon after losing the match, Firouzja shared on X, referring to the World Rapid and Blitz Championships that are set to take place in New York at the end of the year:

Carlsen, on his part, shared a post in similar concise style:

It all, indeed, had to do with speed, as an ecstatic Carlsen himself explained in the post-match interview with the chess.com team:

What I was most happy about my performance today was that I was thinking a lot clearer with little time. On a lot of days, I'm just guessing when there's little time, and Alireza is usually a lot better than I am in those situations.

Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja

Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Speed Chess Championship 2024

Previous champions of the Speed Chess Championships

Carlsen 1 - 0 Firouzja

Analysis by André Schulz

All games - Carlsen v. Firouzja

Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.