Dreev Wins December 21 Titled Tuesday

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GM Aleksey Dreev won Titled Tuesday on December 21 with a score of 9.5/11, after a big victory in the final round. He edged out second-place GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the tiebreak system. With nine points out of 11, GM Raunak Sadhwani won third place and GM Aram Hakobyan finished fourth.

Titled Tuesday saw a field of 486 players this week. The tournament was the standard 11-round Swiss tournament with a 3+1 time control.

The live broadcast of this week’s tournament, hosted by WGM Dina Belenkaya.

Dreev, 52, has been on the chess scene for decades, with an outstanding resume: A super-grandmaster with a 2711 peak FIDE rating in 2011, he was a world championship candidate in 1991 and won the Wijk aan Zee international tournament in 1995.

The heads-up battle between the eventual top two finishers came early, back in round four. Mamedyarov delivered what turned out to be Dreev’s only defeat of the tournament.

Mamedyarov ended up starting 7/7, the last perfect score in the tournament, before drawing in rounds eight and ten. That still put him in first by a half-point entering the final round, where he and Sadhwani decided to make a draw before any moves were played.

That gave Dreev a window that he took full advantage of, defeating GM Brandon Jacobson in a clutch performance that showed a good knight vs. a bad bishop.

Titled Tuesday breaks ties with a system called Sonneborn-Berger instead of head-to-head. Dreev’s slightly better opposition throughout the tournament gave him a win that only became secure once the entire tournament ended so the tiebreak scores could be finalized.

Third-place Sadhwani was also celebrating his 16th birthday. (Titled Tuesday runs into Wednesday in Indian time zones.) His round-10 win over GM Vugar Rasulov was very smooth.

For the second straight week, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the prize for the highest-scoring female player. She was in the running for the overall top four entering the final round, after defeating GM Vladimir Onischuk in round 10.

December 21 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	64		GM	@Igrok3069	Alexey Dreev	2946	9.5	62.75
2	2		GM	@Azerichess	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	3044	9.5	61.75
3	8		GM	@champ2005	Raunak Sadhwani	2956	9	57.5
4	7		GM	@Njal28	Aram Hakobyan	2990	9	57
5	35		IM	@Arash_Tahbaz	Arash Tahbaz	2849	9	53.5
6	66		GM	@Evgeny81	Evgeny Postny	2782	9	45
7	11		GM	@BrandonJacobson	Brandon Jacobson	2930	8.5	58.75
8	19		IM	@AlexTriapishko	Alexandr Triapishko	2877	8.5	53.75
9	5		GM	@Alexander_Zubov	Alexander Zubov	3000	8.5	51.5
10	32		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2841	8.5	51.25
11	16		GM	@TenisMaster	Yuniesky Quesada	2908	8.5	48.25
12	55		IM	@carlesdc96	Carles Diaz Camallonga	2798	8.5	47.25
13	72		IM	@PavelShkapenko	Pavel Shkapenko	2735	8	52.25
14	33		GM	@tigra	Boris Savchenko	2863	8	52
15	24		GM	@TimofeevAr	Artem Timofeev	2859	8	47.75
16	62		GM	@Gabrielian_Artur	Artur Gabrielian	2747	8	46
17	108		FM	@suyu28	Suyog Wagh	2685	8	45.5
18	1		IM	@Supernotar	Maly Alexey	2824	8	44.25
19	95		IM	@Undisputed92	Shyaamnikhil P	2704	8	40
20	31		GM	@VladDobrov	Vladimir Dobrov	2837	8	38
23	102		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2689	8	33.25

(Full final standings here.)

Dreev took home $750 with his victory while Mamedyarov won $400 for second place. Sadhwani earned $150 for third and Hakobyan $100 for fourth. Goryachkina with 8/11 won $100 as the top female player.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s tournament for titled players, a Swiss-system event played every week at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 Central European.