Howell Wins January 4 Titled Tuesday

The first Titled Tuesday of 2022 went to GM David Howell on January 4. He scored 10/11 for an outright victory. In second place, also untied at 9.5/11, was GM Alexey Sarana. Meanwhile, seven players tied with nine points, with IM Pranav V in third on his particularly strong tiebreak score, and GM Vahap Sanal in fourth.

A week after GM Gadir Guseinov won on December 28, 2021, in a field of 370, this week’s Titled Tuesday was joined by 652 titled players, the first time cracking 600 since June 8, 2021, and boding well for 2022. It was the usual 11-round Swiss tournament at a 3+1 time control.

The live broadcast of this week’s tournament, hosted by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili.

The only blemish on Howell’s tournament was a third-round loss to FM Maksim Tsaruk. It was clear sailing for Howell after that, but he didn’t clinch the tournament until the final round against GM Jeffery Xiong. Both were on 9/10 while the third player with that score, Sarana, drew his game against GM Hikaru Nakamura. Xiong ended up in fifth place.

It was Xiong who had stopped the tournament’s last perfect run after GM Sanan Sjugirov had reached 7/7 with the following win over Sanal.

Xiong also played a position, in round eight, that brought out the arrows from host Tsatsalashvili.

Pranav’s third-place finish was notable for coming against unusually strong opposition, much stronger than that faced by either Howell or Sarana above him. Pranav played a top-50 finisher as early as round one, and 10 of his opponents finished in the top 100 with at least 7/11.

He toppled his biggest name, GM Alexander Grischuk, in the final round to lock up third.

January 4 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Score	SB
1	6		GM	@howitzer14	David Howell	10	57.5
2	4		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	9.5	54.25
3	28		IM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	9	64
4	30		GM	@SantoBlue	Vahap Sanal	9	60
5	5		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	9	58.75
6	10		GM	@champ2005	Raunak Sadhwani	9	58.5
6	21		GM	@Zhuu96	Zhamsaran Tsydypov	9	58.5
8	34		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	9	57.25
9	32		GM	@exoticprincess	Baadur Jobava	9	52.5
10	26		GM	@Arseniy_Nesterov	Arseniy Nesterov	8.5	56.25
11	47		GM	@Grandelicious	Nils Grandelius	8.5	55.5
12	18		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	8.5	53.75
13	7		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	8.5	50.25
14	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	8.5	49.25
14	20		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	8.5	49.25
14	76		IM	@Supernotar	Maly Alexey	8.5	49.25
17	206		GM	@Buffy7	Burak Firat	8.5	47
17	2		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	8.5	47
19	42		IM	@MITerryble	Renato Terry	8	55
20	13		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	8	54.5
20	3		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	8	54.5
51	140		GM	@ChessQueen	Alexandra Kosteniuk	7.5	37.75

(Full final standings here.)

Howell earned $750 for his win. Sarana won $400 for second place, Pranav $150 for third, and Sanal $100 for fourth. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won $100 as the top-scoring 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.