GM Parham Maghsoodloo narrowly defeated GM Jeffery Xiong in Monday’s quarterfinal of the Junior Speed Chess Championship presented by ChessKid. The Iranian GM came back from a three-point deficit and decided the match in the final bullet games.

The next quarterfinal match is GM Haik Martirosyan vs. GM Arjun Erigaisi to be played on Tuesday, August 3, at 11 a.m. Pacific / 20:00 Central Europe.

The live broadcast of the match.

Like the first quarterfinal, this match between Maghsoodloo and Xiong was a very close affair. The shorter the time control, the better Maghsoodloo started performing. In the end, he prevailed by just one extra win.

The five-minute portion was anyone’s game until Xiong finished with two wins to set a 6-3 score there. The last move of the first game is nice:

Maghsoodloo came back right away as he won the first two 3|1 games, but Xiong recovered and this segment eventually ended in a 4.5-4.5 tie. This meant that Xiong was still three points up into the bullet segment.

Also in the bullet, Maghsoodloo started with two wins. After two draws, Xiong hit back to extend his lead to two points again but, after a draw, Maghsoodloo next won three games in a row to take the lead in the match for the first time. He then held the final game to a draw to clinch the match.

The very first bullet game saw Xiong blundering a full bishop but missing a win anyway. There was a fun tactic noticed by the commentators but not by the players, who both smiled when FM Mike Klein told them about it:

“I think I was more motivated than him because he already beat me the last time in the Junior Speed Chess Championship,” said Maghsoodloo, referring to their match of two years ago. “I really wanted to take revenge!”

Although he was leading for a long time in points, Xiong said he felt a bit lucky during the blitz games. “I think I stole more points in that section. I definitely felt fortunate having the three-point lead going into the bullet.”

Xiong earned $361.61 based on win percentage; Maghsoodloo won $750 for the victory plus $388.39 on percentage for a total of $1,138.39. He moves on to the semifinals where he will play GM Raunak Sadhwani.

All games

The Chess.com 2021 Junior Speed Chess Championship is an online competition for top junior players. The qualifiers for the event were held June 7-21, while the main event runs July 1-August 8. Players battle for their shares of a total prize fund of $35,000 and a spot in the Speed Chess Championship later this year. More info here; live games here. 

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