Shevchenko Wins June 15 Titled Tuesday

GM Kirill Shevchenko, the 18-year-old grandmaster from Ukraine, won Titled Tuesday on June 15 for his first-ever win in the event. His 10/11 score took the tournament outright. In second with 9.5/11 was GM Alexander Zubov on tiebreaks over third-place GM Brandon Jacobson. GM Sergei Zhigalko took fourth on tiebreaks over four other players with 9/11.

583 titled players participated in this week’s Titled Tuesday. The tournament was the usual 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.

The live broadcast of the tournament, hosted this week by WGM Dina Belenkaya.

ChessBrah GM Eric Hansen, starting with 7/7, and GM Dmitry Andreikin played the game of the tournament in round eight, with several tactics working out in Andreikin’s favor. His retreat 9…Nb8!! surprisingly won a piece by force. Hansen ran out of time after just 24 moves, with his rook trapped on f6.

Hansen recovered to reach 9/10, leading to a final-round matchup for first place with Shevchenko, also on 9/10 after defeating Andreikin in round 10. It was a close, maneuvering game until Hansen allowed a nice winning tactic from Shevchenko that combined forking and removing the guard motifs.

Hansen wasn’t the only one of Chess.com’s top personalities to lose tough games this week. Last week’s Titled Tuesday victor GM Hikaru Nakamura, after drawing with GM Gil Popliski in the very first round, dropped his round five game (below) to GM Gawain Jones and ultimately ended up in 26th place.

Meanwhile GM Robert Hess nearly began 4/4, but GM Giga Quparadze got him in the endgame, and Hess would finish at 5.5/11.

June 15 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	34		GM	@kirillshevchenko	Kirill Shevchenko	2930	10	70.25
2	8		GM	@Alexander_Zubov	Alexander Zubov	3006	9.5	60.5
3	36		GM	@BrandonJacobson	Brandon Jacobson	2854	9.5	53.25
4	25		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2920	9	59
5	30		GM	@erichansen	Eric Hansen	2916	9	53.5
6	7		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3007	9	52.75
7	10		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	2980	9	49.5
8	23		GM	@Beca95	Aleksandar Indjic	2919	9	47.5
9	21		GM	@BilodeauA	Kirill Alekseenko	2931	8.5	60.75
10	26		GM	@Alexander_Moskalenko	Alexander Moskalenko	2913	8.5	58.5
11	54		GM	@OldweakGM	Ronen Har-Zvi	2893	8.5	56.5
12	18		GM	@rpragchess	Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu	2939	8.5	55.5
13	53		GM	@Infernal_XaM	Pavel Ponkratov	2894	8.5	49.75
14	85		GM	@Vanina1989	Valentina Gunina	2806	8.5	49.5
15	33		IM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	2895	8.5	49.25
16	16		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	2943	8.5	46.75
17	15		IM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	2942	8	51.75
18	13		GM	@mishanick	Aleksey Sarana	2958	8	48.75
19	56		GM	@RD4ever	Rustam Khusnutdinov	2847	8	48.25
20	79		GM	@GMKrikor	Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian	2783	8	47.5

(Full final standings here.)

Shevchenko won $750 for first place, Zubov $400 for second, Jacobson $150 for third, and Zhigalko $100 for fourth. The $100 prize for the top female player went to GM Valentina Gunina, who finished in 14th place with 8.5/11.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players. It begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European every Tuesday.