Nakamura Returns To Titled Tuesday, Splits Week With Abdusattorov

World Rapid Champion GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov won the early edition of Titled Tuesday while GM Hikaru Nakamura, who did not play last week, won the late tournament. Both players took their tournament outright with a score of 10/11. It was also a rare Titled Tuesday where no player finished in the top five in both events.

Early Tournament

385 players contested the first tournament of the day and Abdusattorov lost to none of them, only drawing twice. IM Tuan Minh Le placed sole second a half-point behind on 9.5/11 and a half-point ahead of the three players.

Broadcast of the early tournament hosted by FM James Canty III.

Abdusattorov has won Titled Tuesday before, taking it down on June 1, 2021. A common theme in both victories was needing to get through Nakamura, back then in the 11th round but this time in a scrappy round-eight game:

Abdusattorov won two further games against tough opponents right after that, GMs Alexey Sarana and Oleskandr Bortnyk, before drawing GM Jeffery Xiong to protect his tournament lead. The win against Sarana was wild, with Sarana leading for much of the time, then Abdusattorov missing a checkmate before winning a rook ending.

Le also didn’t lose a single game, but had one extra draw compared to Abdusattorov. He rode his London System to a clean round-10 win over GM Maxim Matlakov.

April 12 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	17		GM	@ChessWarrior7197	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	3032	10	71.5
2	16		IM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	2989	9.5	56.75
3	23		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	2923	9	59.75
4	9		GM	@Andreikka	Andrey Esipenko	2999	9	56
5	32		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	2923	9	52.5
6	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3191	8.5	55.25
7	5		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3035	8.5	54
8	24		GM	@BillieKimbah	Maxim Matlakov	2951	8.5	53.5
8	20		IM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	2946	8.5	53.5
10	18		GM	@Shield12	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	2951	8.5	51.75
11	13		GM	@Jospem	Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara	2945	8.5	45.75
12	15		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	2965	8	56.5
13	3		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3056	8	55.75
14	8		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3001	8	55
15	31		GM	@Beca95	Aleksandar Indjic	2896	8	49
16	84		FM	@suyu28	Suyog Wagh	2754	8	47.75
17	4		GM	@Duhless	Daniil Dubov	3051	8	46
18	29		GM	@Zkid	Steven Zierk	2911	8	45.5
19	52		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	2832	7.5	48.75
20	49		FM	@frederiksvane	Frederik Svane	2818	7.5	47.75
40	92		GM	@Vanina1989	Valentina Gunina	2726	7	40

(Full final standings here.)

Abdusattorov earned $1,000 for the tournament victory while Le won $750 for taking second place. GM Matthias Bluebaum won $300 after finishing third on tiebreaks ahead of GMs Andrey Esipenko and Sanan Sjugirov. Esipenko earned $150 for fourth place and Sjugirov $100 for fifth. GM Valentina Gunina also won $100, the prize for the highest-scoring woman in the field, on 7/11.

Late Tournament

Nakamura won the late tournament by a full point out of 257 players, with several big names tying for second place on nine points: GMs Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov, and Xiong.

Broadcast of the late tournament hosted by GM Benjamin Bok.

Despite his bigger tournament win compared to Abdusattorov, Nakamura lost a game, which happened in round five. However, he was perfect in all other rounds, with big wins over Caruana in round eight, GM Aryan Tari in round 10, and GM Dmitry Andreikin in the finale.

The turning point of the tournament was the Nakamura-Caruana game, which turned Caruana’s perfect 7/7 start into a tie for first.

They both won their ninth and tenth games, but then Xiong came in and defeated Caruana in the last round while Nakamura was checkmating Andreikin.

Xiong joined Caruana and Dubov in a tie for second, but Caruana’s strong start also meant he’d faced the toughest opponents, so he finished second on tiebreaks. Caruana’s sixth-round win over GM Kirill Alekseenko ended in a fairly amusing position: Caruana cornering his own queen on h1 to win a piece.

Don’t let all these super grandmasters intimidate you, though. They’re human just like us.

April 12 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score SB

1 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3191 10 61

2 10 GM @FabianoCaruana Fabiano Caruana 3015 9 62

3 7 GM @Duhless Daniil Dubov 3051 9 55

4 8 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3035 9 54.75

5 29 GM @AryanTari Aryan Tari 2904 8.5 50.25

6 14 GM @BillieKimbah Maxim Matlakov 2951 8.5 44.75

7 5 GM @mishanick Alexey Sarana 3056 8.5 41.75

8 24 GM @Beca95 Aleksandar Indjic 2896 8 47.5

9 7 GM @shimastream Alex Shimanov 2900 8 47

10 25 GM @K_A_S_T_O_R Rodrigo Vasquez 2896 8 45.25

11 4 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3076 8 43

12 103 FM @Tobias_Koelle Tobias Kölle 2646 8 42

13 30 GM @Zhigalko_Sergei Sergei Zhigalko 2893 8 40.75

14 11 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 2965 8 40.5

15 22 GM @rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 2914 7.5 48.75

16 3 GM @DanielNaroditsky Daniel Naroditsky 3040 7.5 45.5

17 17 GM @TenisMaster Yuniesky Quesada 2926 7.5 42

18 19 GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 2926 7.5 39

19 31 GM @Experience_Chess Valery Kazakouski 2855 7.5 37.25

20 48 GM @ActorXu Xu Yi 2808 7.5 36.75

25 77 GM @ChessQueen Alexandra Kosteniuk 2676 7 38.75

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $1,000 while Caruana settled for $750. Dubov earned $300 for third place, Xiong $150 for fourth, and Tari $100 for fifth. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk scored 7/11 and won the $100 prize with the highest score among the women in the field.

Titled Tuesday is the tournament Chess.com holds every week for titled players. Every Tuesday, two separate 11-round Swiss tournaments start at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.