Banter Blitz Cup final

Gukesh, fresh from his Gelfand Challenge triumph, takes on Johan Sebastian Christiansen today as the San Fermin Banter Blitz Cup qualifiers continue. The D Qualifier also sees the likes of Baadur Jobava and 14-year-old Grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi in action. They’re fighting to join the already qualified Adhiban, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Liem Quang Le in an 8-player final that will decide a player in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and also next month’s San Fermin festival in Pamplona, where World Champion Magnus Carlsen plays.

The month-long Banter Blitz Cup qualifying features eight 8-player knockouts, and with the D Qualifier starting today we reach the midway point. As you can see, it’s quite a line-up, with today’s quarterfinals including some real prodigies: 15-year-old Gukesh holds the record as the 2nd youngest grandmaster of all time, 14-year-old Maurizzi recently became the youngest ever French Grandmaster and 20-year-old Polina Shuvalova was the 2019 World Girls Junior Champion.

The likes of dancing chess genius Baadur Jobava and Argentinian no. 1 and Meltwater Champions Chess Tour player Alan Pichot require no introduction.

The schedule for today, Wednesday June 16th, is as follows (all times CEST).

• 15:00: Christiansen vs. Gukesh
• 17:00: Cheparinov vs. Shuvalova
• 19:00: Jobava vs. Santos
• 21:00: Pichot vs. Maurizzi

Tune into the D Qualifier matches from 15:00 CEST right here on chess24!

See also:

• All the Banter Blitz Cup games: A Qualifier, B Qualifier, C Qualifier, D Qualifier
• Shankland and Anton knocked out of Banter Blitz Cup