Firouzja king of C’Chartres Blitz Men Masters tourney

Teen sensation GM Aliresa Firouzja dominated and subsequently won the C’Chartres Blitz Men Masters Tournament which ended on June 14 on the europe-echecs.com server.

The two-day event started with a 16-player qualifying round robin where the top 8 finishers play a knockout final.
The time format is 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment for both qualifiers and final rounds.
The competition started with the 17-year-old Firouzja and fellow GMs Vassily Ivanchuk, Parham Maghsoodloo, Maxime Lagarde, Rauf Mamedov, Romain Edouard, Christian Bauer, Noel Studer, Dommaraju Gukesh, Vincent Keymer, Namig Guliyev, Zoltan Medvegy, Volodar Murzin, Daniel Dardha, Victor Stephan, and Marc Andria Maurizzi.

The top eight qualifiers were Firouzja, Ivanchuk, Maghsoodloo, Lagarde, Mamedov, Bauer, Guliyev, and Murzin.
Firouzja then disposed of Lagarde, Ivanchuk and Maghsoodloo in succession to win the event.

Incidentally, most of the online events being organized nowadays are blitz tournaments in view of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Lagarde, M (2655)-Firouzja, A (2728) [C00]

Europe-Echecs (f/1.2) 2020

1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4 cxb4 5.a3 Qa5 6.Be2 Nh6 7.0-0 Be7 8.d4 0-0 9.Bxh6 gxh6 10.Qc1 Kg7 11.Qf4 bxa3 12.Nxa3 Nc6 13.Nc4 Qd8 14.Ne3 f5 15.h4 Na5 16.c4 dxc4 17.d5 exd5 18.Rfd1 Nb3 19.Rab1 Be6 20.Nxd5 b5 21.Nf6 Qc8 22.Nh5+ Kh8 23.Qxh6 Rg8 24.Ng5 Bxg5 25.hxg5 Rg6 26.Qxg6 hxg6 27.Nf4 c3 28.Rd6 c2 29.Rf1 c1Q 30.Nxe6 Nd2 0-1

Ivanchuk, V (2678)-Firouzja, A (2728) [A49]

Europe-Echecs (f/2.3), 14.06.2020

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.Nc3 d5 7.Re1 b6 8.e4 dxe4 9.Nxe4 Nxe4 10.Rxe4 Bb7 11.Re1 e6 12.Bg5 Qc8 13.Qd2 Re8 14.Bh6 Bh8 15.c4 Nc6 16.Rad1 Ne7 17.Bf4 c5 18.dxc5 Qxc5 19.b3 Bf6 20.Ng5 Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Qc6+ 22.Ne4 Rad8 23.Qxd8 Rxd8 24.Rxd8+ Kg7 25.Rd6 Qb7 26.f3 Nf5 27.Rd3 Bb2 28.Red1 h6 29.Rd7 Qa6 30.a4 e5 31.Bd2 Qc8 32.Rxa7 Bd4 33.Re1 b5 34.c5 bxa4 35.Rxa4 Qc6 36.Ra5 g5 37.h3 Qd5 38.Rb5 Ne7 39.Rb6 Qa8 40.c6 Qa2 41.c7 Bxb6 42.Re2 Qa6 43.Re1 Bxc7 44.Bc3 Nd5 45.Bb2 Qd3 0-1

Firouzja, A (2728)-Maghsoodloo, P (2676) [A46]

Europe-Echecs (3.1) 2020

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5 Be7 4.Nbd2 d5 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 h6 7.Bh4 b6 8.c3 Bb7 9.Qb1 c5 10.0-0 Qc8 11.b4 a5 12.bxc5 bxc5 13.c4 0-0 14.cxd5 Bxd5 15.e4 Rb8 16.Qc2 Ba8 17.d5 Re8 18.Bg3 exd5 19.Bxb8 Qxb8 20.exd5 Nxd5 21.Rae1 N7f6 22.Bc4 Nb6 23.Bb5 Nbd7 24.a4 Bd6 25.Rxe8+ Qxe8 26.Re1 Qb8 27.h3 Nf8 28.Qc3 Qc7 29.Nc4 Bxf3 30.Qxf3 Ne6 31.Qa8+ Bf8 32.Qxa5 Qb8 33.Qb6 Qf4 34.Qb7 Nd4 35.Ne5 Nh5 36.Bc4 1-0

Maghsoodloo, P (2676)-Firouzja, A (2728) [A00]

Europe-Echecs (3.4) 2020

1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 Nf6 3.d3 e5 4.Nf3 Bd6 5.0-0 0-0 6.a3 c6 7.Bg5 Nbd7 8.e4 h6 9.Bxf6 Nxf6 10.exd5 cxd5 11.Re1 Re8 12.Nc3 a6 13.h3 Qc7 14.g4 d4 15.Ne2 Bd7 16.c4 dxc3 17.Nxc3 Rad8 18.Rc1 Qb8 19.Nh4 b5 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.Bxd5 Be7 22.Ng6 Bf6 23.d4 Be6 24.Bxe6 Rxe6 25.Qb3 Rxd4 26.f4 Rd2 27.g5 hxg5 28.fxe5 Qb6+ 29.Qe3 Qxe3+ 30.Rxe3 fxg6 31.Rc8+ Bd8 0-1

PUZZLERS

WHITE TO MOVE,

MATE IN TWO.

The key to our last problem is 1.e6!. Black’s futile options are: 1…Be5 2.Qxg6#; 1…Bf4 2.Sf2#; 1…Re5 2.Rxg4#./PN

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