Eight well-known GMs reached the quarterfinals of the Speed Chess Championship, an online event organised by chess.com which features matches consisting of 5-minute, 3-minute and 1-minute games (all with 1-second increments).
The first quarterfinal match took place on Tuesday, with Alireza Firouzja obtaining a clean victory over Fabiano Caruana. Firouzja will face the winner of the match between Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi. On the other side of the bracket, Hans Niemann will face Wesley So (on Wednesday) and Magnus Carlsen will face Arjun Erigaisi (on Thursday).
In Tuesday's match, Firouzja prevailed in all three segments, first getting the upper hand by scoring a 4½-2½ victory in the 5-minute games, and then widening the gap by collecting a 5½-2½ win in the 3-minute section. It was possible for Caruana to recover the 5-point deficit in the bullet segment, but Firouzja continued to dominate, ending the match with a 4½-3½ victory in the final section.
The four winners of the quarterfinals will participate in the in-person final stages, set to take place on September 6-8 in Paris. Iranian-born Firouzja became a French citizen in 2021 and now represents France in official competitions. He lives in Chartres, a city located about 90 km (56 mi) southwest of Paris.
In the round-of-16, Firouzja had defeated Alexander Grischuk, while Caruana had got the better of Alexey Sarana.
Time control: 3+1
