Martinez Wins December 14 Titled Tuesday

With a victory in the final round, GM Jose Martinez won Titled Tuesday on December 14 with a score of 10/11. Coming in second place was last week’s victor, GM Jeffery Xiong, with 9.5/11. GM Alexey Sarana and NM Valery Sviridov had the best tiebreaks among players on nine points, for third and fourth place, respectively.

Titled Tuesday drew 587 players this week, the most since June 8. Perhaps we will see 600+ next week. The tournament was, as usual, an 11-round Swiss tournament at a 3+1 time control.

The live broadcast of this week’s tournament, hosted by IM David Pruess.

After a comeback win over Sviridov in round 10, Martinez was sole leader with 9/10 entering the final round. There he faced GM Hikaru Nakamura, who was in a crowd of five players tied for second on 8.5/10. A draw to assure a tie for first wasn’t an option for Martinez given Nakamura’s tournament situation. A tense game followed which was not decided until Nakamura surprisingly flagged with 40…Qd4 available.

Despite his round 10 result, Sviridov ended up finishing fourth on the strength of a perfect start. No fewer than 10 players reached 5/5, but only Sviridov made 6/6 (before losing to Nakamura the next round).

Xiong’s second-place finish was quite the recovery from a first-round loss against FM Marek Karas. A round-nine draw against Nakamura was the only other game Xiong did not win. His sole second was finalized in the last round against GM Conrad Holt.

The tactic of the tournament came in round nine after Holt played 83. Qf5+ to get a resignation from GM Vladislav Artemiev, who only had three seconds left. As pointed out during the broadcast, 83…Kh6 would extend the game, when the queens stay on because 84.Qxd7?? is stalemate.

December 14 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	5		GM	@Jospem	Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara	3086	10	71.25
2	4		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3081	9.5	60.25
3	6		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3031	9	60.5
4	12		NM	@Sviridov_Valery	Valery Sviridov	2990	9	55.5
5	26		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	2954	9	54.75
6	13		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	2988	9	53.75
7	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3193	8.5	63.5
8	7		GM	@Fandorine	Maksim Chigaev	3019	8.5	58.75
9	8		GM	@Duhless	Daniil Dubov	3013	8.5	55.5
10	22		IM	@Manticore17	Arystanbek Urazayev	2919	8.5	54.5
11	2		GM	@Sibelephant	Vladislav Artemiev	3078	8.5	52.25
12	34		GM	@exoticprincess	Baadur Jobava	2899	8.5	51.25
13	11		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	2985	8.5	51
14	44		GM	@dretch	Conrad Holt	2899	8.5	50.25
15	21		GM	@Zhuu96	Zhamsaran Tsydypov	2936	8.5	49
16	59		IM	@Supernotar	Maly Alexey	2843	8.5	48.5
17	86		GM	@Saxar85	Zahar Efimenko	2768	8.5	47.25
18	88		GM	@Rakhmanov_Aleksandr	Aleksandr Rakhmanov	2775	8.5	43.75
19	109		IM	@AtabayevSaparmyrat	Saparmyrat Atabayev	2753	8.5	43.25
20	9		GM	@viditchess	Vidit Gujrathi	2999	8	55.25
51	154		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2655	7.5	33.75

(Full final standings here.)

Martinez won $750 for his win. Xiong took home $400 for second place. Sarana won $150 for third and Sviridov $100 for fourth place. The $100 prize for the top female player went to GM Aleksandra Goryachkina on 7.5/11.

Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for titled players, played weekly on Chess.com at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 Central European.