Nakamura, 22-Year-Old Dominate Tuesday - Chess.com

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GM Hikaru Nakamura claimed another Titled Tuesday victory early on July 26 and then finished fourth in the late event. GM Alexey Sarana, who finished just behind Nakamura on tiebreaks early, won the late tournament.

Early Tournament

Nakamura won the first tournament of the day on the back of the last perfect start, at 6/6, defeating IM (GM-elect) Tuan Minh Le with an exchange sacrifice in the sixth round.

But round nine was the key moment in the early tournament as Nakamura delivered Sarana’s first and only loss of the day.

The win put Nakamura in the sole lead with two rounds to go. He drew his last two games, including a moveless final round against third-place finisher GM Hrant Melkumyan. Sarana returned to second place with wins in his last two games, against GMs Alex Shimanov and Jose Martinez.

The early field consisted of 380 players.

July 26 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3154	9.5	69.25
2	12		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3010	9.5	65.25
3	21		GM	@Hrant_ChessMood	Hrant Melkumyan	2932	9.5	54.75
4	5		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	2991	9	61
5	84		IM	@Nikolas1408	Nikolas Lubbe	2729	8.5	56.25
6	4		IM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3018	8.5	54.75
7	7		GM	@Jospem	Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara	2997	8.5	52.75
8	2		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3118	8.5	52.5
9	27		IM	@OhanyanEminChess	Emin Ohanyan	2925	8.5	49
10	17		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2900	8.5	42.25
10	34		GM	@TimofeevAr	Artem Timofeev	2862	8.5	42.25
12	14		GM	@howitzer14	David Howell	2940	8	49.75
13	43		IM	@seorobert1971	Jung Min Seo	2837	8	48.75
14	16		GM	@erichansen	Eric Hansen	2925	8	48.5
15	36		IM	@MolecularChemist	Dimitar Mardov	2864	8	47
16	45		GM	@ActorXu	Xu Yi	2822	8	42.75
17	61		IM	@Legendinunknown	Harshavardhan GB	2750	8	41
17	153		IM	@korason34	Ariel Erenberg	2642	8	41
19	67		FM	@Chessmissile07	Suresh Harsh	2743	8	38.25
20	172		GM	@lukas_111111	Lukasz Jarmula	2570	8	37.5
24	35		GM	@Vanina1989	Valentina Gunina	2824	7.5	40.5

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $1,000 as Sarana took home $750 and Melkumyan $300. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk earned $150 in fourth, IM Nikolas Lubbe $100 for fifth, and GM Valentina Gunina $100 for the best women’s score, 7.5/11 in 24th place.

Late Tournament

Sarana and Nakamura continued their strong play in the late tournament, both reaching the top five yet again, in a field of 301 players. But while Nakamura needed a comeback to get there after starting 3/5 with two losses, Sarana never lost despite four draws.

Round nine once again featured the eventual one-two finishers, this time Sarana and GM Dmitry Andreikin. They drew their game, however, helping to create a six-way tie for first on 7.5/9 points. Of that group, Andreikin and IM Pranav V won in round 10. Andreikin defeated GM Christopher Yoo from a Catalan Opening.

The standings changed in the last round as Sarana came through with a round 11 checkmate over Pranav, giving the 15-year-old Indian lad a tough-luck sixth-place finish.

Meanwhile, Andreikin’s draw with GM David Howell ended up costing him the first-place finish by just one quarter of a tiebreak point.

July 26 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating . SB

1 11 GM @mishanick Alexey Sarana 3010 9 59.75

2 3
GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3118 9 59.5

3 4
GM @Grischuk Alexander Grischuk 3055 8.5 56.5

4 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3154 8.5 53.75

5 43 GM @K_A_S_T_O_R Rodrigo Vasquez 2844 8.5 52

6 25 IM @vi_pranav Pranav V 2917 8.5 51.75

7 8 GM @Salem-AR Salem AR Saleh 2979 8.5 49.75

8 1 GM @howitzer14 David Howell 2940 8.5 46

9 26 GM @sergiochess83 Sergey Grigoriants 2898 8.5 40.5

10 15 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 2947 8 52.5

11 10 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3003 8 49.75

12 18
GM @Zhigalko_Sergei Sergei Zhigalko 2900 8 46.75

12 21 GM @TigrVShlyape Gata Kamsky 2929 8 46.75

14 33 GM @dretch Conrad Holt 2851 8 43

15 46 FM @siciliannaga Arif Abdul Hafiz 2824 8 39

16 31 GM @Byniolus Zbigniew Pakleza 2841 7.5 43.25

16 41 NM @Abund Yuan Qingyu 2786 7.5 43.25

18 6 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 2991 7.5 42.75

18 22 GM @BrandonJacobson Brandon Jacobson 2904 7.5 42.75

20 53 FM @xinzhaooo Anish Vivekananthan 2810 7.5 42.25

44 76 WGM @jinbojinbo Jiner Zhu 2670 6.5 36.25

(Full final standings here.)

Sarana’s $1,000 prize gave him the day’s highest total with $1,750. Andreikin earned $750 for his second-place finish. GM Alexander Grischuk ended up in third to claim $300, while Nakamura won $150 by finishing in fourth, for a daily total of $1,150. Finally, $100 prizes went to GM Rodrigo Vasquez for fifth place and WGM Jiner Zhu as the highest-scoring woman (6.5/11).