GM Denis Lazavik defeated GM Arjun Erigaisi 12-9 in the Speed Chess Championship 2025. The 3+1 segment separated the players, and GM Aman Hambleton aptly summarized it: “I don’t even recall Arjun playing a terrible match, Denis was just better.”
The next Round of 16 match, between GMs Wesley So and Vincent Keymer, will be on Thursday, October 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET/20:30 CEST/12:00 a.m. IST (on October 17).
Lazavik advances to the Quarterfinals, where he will face the winner of GM Hans Niemann vs. GM Ding Liren.
2025 Speed Chess Championship Bracket
Arjun 9-12 Lazavik
Despite being lower-rated than the world number-four in classical chess, Lazavik was predicted to be the favorite by a slight margin in the match. According to the forecast, the bullet segment was supposed to make the difference in an otherwise equal matchup.
As it turned out, the 3+1 portion was the turning point, with Lazavik mounting a three-point lead that he’d hold onto in the final 30 minutes of the match. Lazavik earned $8,125 plus another $4,062.50 by win percentage; Arjun made $4,062.50 for his share of wins.
5+1: Arjun 3.5-3.5 Lazavik
Though game one was a draw, the next six were decisive. Curiously, the white pieces won every single one of the next six games as the players traded blows.
In general, the trend was: Lazavik kept taking the lead, and Arjun kept bouncing right back. Lazavik won game two after finding the first brilliant move of the match, 26.Re4!!, which collected the wayward knight on c2. Arjun eventually fought his way back into the game, but Lazavik took the full point later.
Only 11 seconds on the clock for Denis who finds a BRILLIANT rook sac! #SpeedChess ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/vRPLpPqKnd
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 15, 2025
Arjun, as he would do throughout the segment, bounced right back with a win. He found a key tactic to transition an opposite-color bishop middlegame to a winning heavy-piece endgame.
In terms of technical, “slow squeeze” chess, game four was Lazavik’s nicest, where he outplayed his opponent with a better knight vs. bad bishop endgame.
Lazavik wins the endgame with good knight vs. bad bishop and again takes the lead!https://t.co/pTM2ovozeN#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/maIiBoTFRj
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 15, 2025
For Arjun, the last game of the segment was certainly his best. Hambleton called it “an Arjun Erigaisi masterclass straight out of the opening.”
One has to wonder where Lazavik’s preparation ended, as the two players followed a game between Arjun and GM Vidit Gujrathi from 2021 for 25 moves in a Sveshnikov Sicilian. On move 22, Lazavik repeated Vidit’s mistake, recapturing on e6 with the wrong piece and entering a losing endgame, with his king perpetually weak.
The score was even ahead of the 3+1 portion.
3+1: Arjun 2-5 Lazavik
The second segment was the most critical of the match. It was close in the first half, with Lazavik running away with it in the second.
The players traded blows, each winning one game, before making the second draw of the match. Lazavik scored a shocking win when his opponent premoved right into a one-move fork.
Arjun premoves his king right into a fork!#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/yo6Wp9YA1t
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 15, 2025
But Arjun won with a direct assault against the king the next game to even the score. After a draw, Lazavik scored the first win by the black pieces, finding a nice sequence that ended with the forced queen trade to seal the game.
Indeed, that was the turning point of the 3+1 portion and the match as well. Lazavik won two more, with one draw, to take a three-point lead ahead of the bullet portion. The last game featured a wild, heavy-piece endgame where both kings were exposed. In such cases, the first player to land a check often wins, and Lazavik showed that this was no exception.
Denis checkmates Arjun and takes a three-point lead, 8.5-5.5!https://t.co/NbGm4Ya8HD#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/8ECS14mejZ
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 15, 2025
1+1: Arjun 3.5-3.5 Lazavik
Arjun was unable to make the comeback he needed to make it back into the match, though he threatened to do so at one point when he won two games in a row.
After a draw in the first bullet game, Lazavik took a four-point lead when Arjun’s king got caught in the middle and led to the loss of a piece.
Arjun’s king runs into the center and pays the price, as Denis takes a four-point lead!https://t.co/RV1alZjbaf#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/CSWkCJppOo
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 15, 2025
After that, however, Arjun won two games in a row to bring the deficit down to two, with eight minutes left in the match. Annoyingly, for Arjun, Lazavik managed to make the first loss very long—defending extremely tenaciously in the queen endgame to run down the match clock.
When Lazavik bounced back with the following win, however, the match was effectively over, with not enough time on the match clock left for Arjun. Lazavik won with a checkmating attack in the endgame.
Arjun won the last game, with rook and bishop vs. rook, but it was little consolation for the outcome of the match.
Arjun Erigaisi wins the rook and bishop vs. rook endgame, but it’s Denis Lazavik who wins the match!#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/GbknFsb7wj
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 15, 2025
IM Tania Sachdev called this a big result for the player she considered the underdog in the match, concluding, “This has got ot be a huge confidence boost for Denis in the Speed Chess Championship!” In his next match, he will either face a former world champion or the world number-18.
As for the next match, we will see a clash of So and Keymer. Who do you think will win? Share in the comments below!
The Speed Chess Championship, which starts on October 12 and culminates with Live Finals on February 8, 2026 in London, is Chess.com’s most important speed chess event. Some of the biggest names in chess compete to determine the best speed chess player in the world. The games are played with time controls of 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1. The prize fund is $250,000.
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