Knegt claimed double gold on the way to the overall title last year in the Czech Republic and looked to be on course to do the same after winning the 1500m on the opening day.
However Russian Grigorev ensured that wouldn't be the case in the 500m at least as he beat the Dutch skater to retain the title he won in Mlada Boleslav 12 months ago.
Grigorev clocked a winning time of 41.330seconds with Knegt 0.077 behind for silver while another Russian Victor An completed the podium in third after posting 41:432.
Meanwhile in the ladies' 500m final defending overall champion Arianna Fontana, who was beaten to gold in the 1500m by in-form Brit Elise Christie, topped the podium.
The Italian beat Jorien ter Mors of the Netherlands by 0.054 for gold with Poland's Patrycja Maliszewska claiming bronze ahead of Tatiana Borodulina.
Britain failed to have a single skater in either final as Charlotte Gilmartin, a bronze medallist in the 1500m on the opening night, lost out in the heats while Christie faltered in the preliminaries.
Jack Whelbourne fell at the same stage in the men's 500m while Paul Stanley and Jon Eley made it past the preliminaries and heats but no further than the quarter-finals.
And to complete a poor second night both relay teams failed to qualify for their respective finals.
Christie, Gilmartin, Alex Stanley and Kathryn Thomson finished third in their 3000m relay semi-final as did the men's 5000m quartet of Whelbourne, Eley, Paul Stanley and Richard Shoebridge.
