Magnus Secures Titled Tuesday Sweep

In the November 7 edition of Titled Tuesday, GM Magnus Carlsen finally joined the list of players to win both tournaments on a single day, becoming the sixth player to pull off the feat. After a come-from-behind early win, where Carlsen was only tied for 10th place with just three rounds to go, he led almost wire-to-wire late, holding at least a share of the lead after nine of the 11 rounds and all of the last five.

The record player when it comes to Titled Tuesday sweeps is GM Hikaru Nakamura, who has done it five times. This week, however, he was taking some time to savor qualifying for the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024.

Thanks for all the support and love over the last month of traveling and tournaments. I really do appreciate it. Here’s the schedule for this week. pic.twitter.com/tWEvDrbhyG

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) November 6, 2023

The other players to complete a sweep, once each, are GMs Wesley So, Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Jose Martinez. Carlsen scored 9.5 points early and 10 points late to join the club.

Early Tournament

Participation rebounded to 561 players, an almost 10% gain from the early event the week before. Carlsen appeared to be on track after defeating Martinez in round seven, ending the Peruvian’s perfect start to move into a share of the lead. But Carlsen stumbled the very next round, losing to last week’s late winner GM Pranav V in a King’s Gambit Declined.

But Carlsen won his last three games after that, getting back on track by going right back to the King’s Gambit.

After defeating GM Grigoriy Oparin in round 10 with Black by replying to 1.g3 with 1…h5, Carlsen faced last week’s early winner GM Liem Le in the final round. Le was trying to win for a third straight week, but could not handle Carlsen’s Accelerated Dragon (achieved in the opposite move order from the usual).

With Carlsen knocking off Le, who had led the field outright before the round, the second-place game ended up being the contest between GM Jeffery Xiong and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In fact, a win for Duda would have won him the tournament on tiebreaks, but it was Xiong who took the game home.

November 7 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3268	9.5	70.5
2	13		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3030	9.5	66
3	2		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3116	9	72.5
4	31		GM	@FormerProdigy	David Navara	2956	9	71
5	60		GM	@Sychev_on_YouTube	Klementy Sychev	2882	9	65.5
6	8		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3076	9	65.5
7	10		GM	@LiemLe	Liem Le	3075	9	65.5
8	16		GM	@jcibarra	José Carlos Ibarra Jerez	3004	9	60
9	7		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3080	8.5	78.5
10	69		GM	@Nyzhnyk_Illia	Illia Nyzhnyk	2894	8.5	75
11	35		GM	@Vaathi_Coming	Aravindh Chithambaram	2939	8.5	72.5
12	44		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2903	8.5	63
13	112		FM	@Brave_spirit12	Eldiar Orozbaev	2780	8.5	60
14	4		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3069	8.5	57.5
15	22		IM	@MatthewG-p4p	Matvey Galchenko	2954	8.5	56
16	263		GM	@Zhuu96	Zhamsaran Tsydypov	3019	8.5	55
17	9		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3063	8	76
18	11		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3039	8	73
19	41		GM	@Sethu0025	Sethuraman S.P	2920	8	69.5
20	30		GM	@Denis_Makhnyov	Denis Makhnev	2944	8	69
68	158		IM	@Flawless_Fighter	Polina Shuvalova	2676	7	56.5

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won $1,000 and Xiong $750 for their performances. GM Dmitry Andreikin finished third for $350, GM David Navara fourth for $200, and GM Klementy Sychev fifth for $100. IM Polina Shuvalova won the $100 women’s prize, scoring 7/11.

Late Tournament
The late tournament went much more smoothly for Carlsen. The field of 396 produced one of the strongest top-fives ever: Carlsen, GM Nihal Sarin, Firouzja, Martinez, and Duda, but it was Carlsen who won easily.

Once again things turned in the eighth round, although this time that was a good thing for Carlsen. He defeated Nihal to move to 7.5/8, already good enough for the sole lead. This despite starting with 1.h4.

Duda held Carlsen to a draw the following round, which simultaneously allowed Firouzja to move into a share of the lead with Carlsen. Firouzja did so by defeating GM Gata Kamsky.

Even facing someone as good as Alireza Firouzja in round 10 wasn’t enough to stop Carlsen from again starting with 1.h4. Firouzja replied with equal cheekiness, playing 1…a6. It was only the third time, according to the Chess.com database, that a game between masters started with those moves.

Beyond the opening choices, Carlsen ended up playing a crushing game to regain the outright lead in the tournament. Firouzja didn’t make any obvious mistakes but gradually got overrun on the kingside. The ending was brutal: after Carlsen forked Firouzja’s king and queen, capturing wasn’t even the best continuation, with a pretty mate-in-two also on the board.

In the final round, where Carlsen defeated GM Aravindh Chithambaram to secure the tournament, Duda again found himself on the wrong end of a game for second place, this time against Nihal.

November 7 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1

1 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3279 10 71.5

2 3 GM @nihalsarin Nihal Sarin 3122 9 73

3 8 GM @Firouzja2003 Alireza Firouzja 3084 9 72.5

4 10 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3058 9 70.5

5 4 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3098 8.5 76.5

6 22 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 2981 8.5 72

7 26 GM @Vaathi_Coming Aravindh Chithambaram 2955 8.5 68.5

8 6 GM @Njal28 Aram Hakobyan 3061 8.5 68.5

9 47
GM @alexrustemov Alexander Rustemov 2841 8.5 56

10 82 GM @Byniolus Zbigniew Pakleza 2751 8.5 54

11 33 GM @Hrant_ChessMood Hrant Melkumyan 2938 8 76.5

12 17 GM @BogdanDeac Bogdan Daniel Deac 2982 8 72

13 7 GM @vi_pranav Pranav V 3051 8 71.5

14 55 NM @MightyGMpretender Antonio Kozak 2819 8 70

15 21
IM @Rud_Makarian Rudik Makarian 2985 8 68.5

16 76 FM @Ali_rastbod Ali Rastbod 2772 8 64.5

17 50 IM @Szparu Miłosz Szpar 2841 8 64

18 60
CM @BardArtem Artem Bardyk 2799 8 62.5

19 27 GM @Beca95 Aleksandar Indjic 2922 8 62

20 70 IM @mbojan Bojan Maksimović 2769 8 61.5

45 104 WGM @Crazy_girl99 Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova 2645 7 59.5

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won another $1,000 for a total of $2,000 on the day. Nihal, Firouzja, and Martinez all tied for second place on nine points; after tiebreaks, Nihal earned $750, Firouzja $350, and Martinez $200. The $100 prizes went to Duda in fifth place and WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova with the women’s highest score, 7/11, just ahead of IM Anna M. Sargsyan on tiebreaks.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).