In a thrilling opening match of the 2021 Speed Chess Championship Main Event, GM Anish Giri defeated GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda with a final score of 14-12. The next match, between GMs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ding Liren, starts on Tuesday, November 9, at 4 a.m. Pacific time / 13:00 Central Europe time.

This exciting matchup was as close as expected. While Duda scored the narrowest of victories, 14.0-12.0, in their 2019 Speed Chess Championship match only thanks to a big comeback in the bullet portion, this time around it was a closely contested battle from the very start.

The live broadcast of the match.

Giri drew the first blood in game 2 of the 5+3 portion, but Duda rebounded quickly and took the lead after a nice technical win in game 5.

The match got heated as players kept exchanging blows with—the black(!) pieces. Games 5 to 10 were all won by Black, which is certainly not a common occurrence in top-level chess. This was partly due to somewhat questionable opening choices by White, especially on Duda’s part. 

However, the volatility in this part of the match was largely a result of both players taking turns dropping very low on the clock, at times giving their opponent as much as a 2-minute time advantage. The culmination came in round 8 as we saw an incredible mutual blunder.

The pendulum swung both ways, even within single games, and it was difficult to figure out who had the initiative in the match. In one game, Duda would blunder a checkmate in two, but in the next one, he would play a positional masterpiece, such as this one.

Amidst this seesaw affair, one of the most shocking moments in the match came in game 14 when Duda blundered again, this time missing a fork in an otherwise winning position.

The lead in the match moved from one player to the other several times, and for a long time neither of them had a lead greater than one point. Despite the fact that there were only a couple of draws after the combined 5+3 and 3+1 blitz portions, the match was tied at 8.5-8.5. This was a perfect setup for the final 30-minute bullet portion of this tense match. 

If statistics are anything to go by, Duda was a clear favorite going into it, not only because of his better results and greater experience in this last time control, but also since he beat Giri 7-3 in the bullet segment of their 2019 Speed Chess Championship encounter.

He started strongly, according to expectations, winning the first bullet game fairly easily. However, Giri immediately bounced back with a fine and controlled win of his own. And then, the madness of game 20 happened. 

The most entertaining game of the match also turned out to be the turning point. Giri won the next three games and, after game 23, the scoreboard read 13.5-9.5. In the remaining time, Duda managed to improve the score a bit, but it was too late to pull a miraculous comeback. The Dutchman secured the victory with the final score of 14-12.

Even though the match was very close, Giri played more solid chess overall and made fewer blunders. The big surprise was that he defeated Duda on the latter’s home turf, bullet chess.

When asked by commentator GM Aman Hambleton whether he expected to be so good at bullet today, Giri said: “I don’t think that I was good, to be honest. I think that the quality of the games was not very high. I mean, I expect that from me, but I assumed that if I play like that I would lose, but Jan-Krzysztof was not having his best day, I guess.”

His opponent provided an interesting view on the match: “I think that I was overconfident in this match, especially in the bullet segment. At some points, I just started playing for fun, not caring about the objective evaluation of the position. In bullet, when I won the first game, I thought that it was almost over. But it kind of backfired. To be honest, I am kind of surprised by the result.”

Giri shared his sentiment as he downplayed his success in a playful manner: “I think that we are both shocked that I won this match, so this is why it is very awkward right now. Because we both assumed that I would lose, especially in the bullet, but somehow, I won, and we both don’t really know how to explain it, I guess. So, it makes sense.”

Duda earned $923.08 based on a score percentage, while Giri pocketed $2,000 for the victory plus $1076.92 on percentage, making it a total of $3076.92. He advances to the quarterfinals where he will play the winner of GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Peter Svidler.

All Games

The 2021 Speed Chess Championship Main Event is a knockout tournament among 16 of the best grandmasters in the world who will play for a $100,000 prize fund. The tournament will run November 8-December 19, 2021 on Chess.com. Each individual match will feature 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet chess.

Find all information about the Speed Chess Championship here.