Nepomniachtchi Wins, Shevchenko Nearly Sweeps Titled Tuesday

GM Kirill Shevchenko, who also won Titled Tuesday on June 15, 2021, won the early tournament on February 8 and finished third in the late tournament. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi won the late tournament.

Both players won outright, Shevchenko with 10/11 early and Nepomniachtchi with 9.5/11 late. The two players agreed to a draw before their game in the final round of the second tournament, preventing Shevchenko from duplicating GM Hikaru Nakamura’s two wins last week but guaranteeing him a cash position in both events.

Early Tournament

485 players joined the early tournament, including GM Alexander Grischuk on a rest day at the FIDE Grand Prix. Nakamura, who is also at the Grand Prix, decided not to play.

Live broadcast of the early tournament, hosted by IM David Pruess.

Shevchenko survived a third-round loss to keep it his only blemish of the tournament on the way to victory with 10 points of 11. Tied on 9/10 with GM Nils Grandelius and GM Arjun Erigaisi, Shevchenko defeated Erigaisi in the final round while Grandelius drew Chess.com’s own and fifth-place finisher GM Robert Hess.

Shevchenko won but Grandelius was undefeated with +8 =3 for sole second place on 9.5/11 after drawing Erigaisi and Hess in the final two rounds. Grandelius played a nearly flawless game in round eight against GM Vladimir Dobrov.

February 8 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	22		GM	@kirillshevchenko	Kirill Shevchenko	2987	10	67.5
2	32		GM	@Grandelicious	Nils Grandelius	2952	9.5	60
3	60		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	2912	9	61.25
4	62		GM	@VerdeNotte	Gawain Jones	2888	9	59
5	44		GM	@GMHess	Robert L. Hess	2899	9	57.5
6	11		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3022	9	57
7	20		GM	@Micki-taryan	Haik Martirosyan	2973	9	54.5
8	3		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3038	8.5	59.25
9	52		GM	@VladDobrov	Vladimir Dobrov	2885	8.5	56.75
10	1		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3049	8.5	55.25
11	106		GM	@tdf98pantani	pawel jaracz	2779	8.5	53.5
12	39		GM	@Anton_Demchenko	Anton Demchenko	2897	8.5	51.75
13	45		GM	@Indianlad	S.L. Narayanan	2889	8.5	51.5
14	18		GM	@ChessWarrior7197	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2987	8.5	45.25
15	38		GM	@TimofeevAr	Artem Timofeev	2901	8	53
15	19		GM	@champ2005	Raunak Sadhwani	2971	8	53
17	35		GM	@SantoBlue	Vahap Sanal	2919	8	52
18	78		IM	@blitzking1729	Srihari L R	2812	8	51
19	5		IM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3009	8	48.25
20	136		CM	@Brave_spirit12	Eldiar Orozbaev	2794	8	46.5
59	88		WGM	@Meri-Arabidze	Meri Arabidze	2760	7	36.25

(Full final standings here.)

Shevchenko won $1,000 for the victory. Grandelius took home $750 for second place while Erigaisi claimed $300 for third. GM Gawain Jones finished in fourth for $150 while Hess earned $100 in fifth. WGM Meri Arabidze took home the $100 prize for highest-scoring female player.

Late Tournament

340 players participated in the late tournament, which represented (as did the early tournament) a small climb from the previous week as players adjust to the new format and times.

Live broadcast of the late tournament, hosted by GM Aman Hambleton.

Nepomniachtchi only drew against his first-round opponent, but by round seven he would only face eventual top-10 finishers. He drew Shevchenko and GM Raunak Sadhwani, but Nepomniachtchi defeated fourth-place GM Jeffery Xiong in round nine and second-place NM Valery Sviridov in round 10.

The 10th round game was a 132-move marathon, with Nepomniachtchi on the brink for most of it before pulling off the win.

Places two through five all scored nine points and were settled on tiebreaks. Sviridov recovered from his difficult round 10 to defeat GM Dmitry Andreikin in 104 moves in round 11 and take second.

February 8 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score SB

1 9 GM @lachesisQ Ian Nepomniachtchi 3038 9.5 60

2 13 NM @Sviridov_Valery Valery Sviridov 3016 9 66.5

3 14 GM @kirillshevchenko Kirill Shevchenko 3009 9 60.25

4 8 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3025 9 57.75

5 74 FM @littleplotkin Mark Plotkin 2827 9 50.5

6 2 GM @mishanick Alexey Sarana 3058 8.5 58.75

7 18 GM @Konavets Sam Sevian 2974 8.5 50.75

8 6 GM @BogdanDeac Bogdan Daniel Deac 3002 8.5 49.75

9 17 GM @champ2005 Raunak Sadhwani 2996 8.5 46.25

10 24 GM @rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 2946 8 54.5

11 34 GM @TimofeevAr Artem Timofeev 2904 8 54

12 7 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3001 8 51.5

13 45 FM @KazakhFighter04 Kazybek Nogerbek 2884 8 47.75

14 33 GM @exoticprincess Baadur Jobava 2911 8 47

15 10 GM @howitzer14 David Howell 2987 8 46

16 4 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3034 8 45.5

17 21 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 2941 8 44

18 59 IM @DoHoChess Dominik Horvath 2831 8 41

19 61 GM @moro182 Luca Moroni Jr 2854 7.5 49.75

20 28 GM @Fandorine Maksim Chigaev 2899 7.5 48.25

30 130 IM @AnotherGrumpy Anna M Sargsyan 2617 7.5 35.25

(Full final standings here.)

Nepomniachtchi won $1,000 for the first-place finish. Sviridov got $750 for second and Shevchenko tacked on another $300 to his day with the third-place finish. Xiong earned $150 for fourth place and IM Mark Plotkin took in $100 for fifth. IM Anna Sargsyan won the $100 women’s prize.

Titled Tuesday consists of two tournaments held each Tuesday by Chess.com for titled players. They are Swiss tournaments beginning at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.