Warning: To Beat Magnus, Tiebreaks May Be Required

It seems like no one can beat GM Magnus Carlsen these days. In just the last five weeks, he’s won the World Cup, the Julius Baer Generations Cup, and the Speed Chess Championship. After advancing in the AI Cup earlier in the day on September 26, he joined up the late Titled Tuesday and finished in… second place. But it took the tiebreak system to finish him off.

Instead, GMs Sergey Drygalov and Aram Hakobyan were the winners of this week’s Titled Tuesdays. Drygalov outright won early with 10 points in a field that was missing some regulars who were instead playing the AI Cup, including Carlsen, GM Hikaru Namakura, GM Alireza Firouzja, and others, but also featured several previous Titled Tuesday champions. Hakobyan won late on tiebreaks over Carlsen, with both on 9.5 points.

Early Tournament

Despite some missing big names, a group of 539 players joined the early Titled Tuesday tournament, including several who have won one since 2022, such as GMs Matthias Bluebaum, Daniel Naroditsky, Vugar Rasulov and Gata Kamsky.

Drygalov didn’t lose a single game, making draws in rounds two and three ahead of an eight-game win streak to wrap things up. Because the draws came so early, however, he didn’t take even a share of the lead in the tournament until round 10. Then, in round 11, Drygalov beat Naroditsky to take sole first place.

Meanwhile, the co-leader through 10 rounds, GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, lost to GM Sergei Zhigalko, who finished second with the win.

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

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	18		GM	@sergoy	Sergey Drygalov	2958	10	71
2	37		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2876	9.5	67.5
3	47		GM	@moro182	Luca Moroni Jr	2869	9	78.5
4	10		GM	@Shield12	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	2989	9	77.5
5	2		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3086	9	75.5
6	43		IM	@remi04	Tsvetan Stoyanov	2853	9	72
7	1		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3139	8.5	79
8	15		GM	@vugarrasulov	Vugar Rasulov	2956	8.5	76.5
9	19		GM	@Denis_Makhnyov	Denis Makhnev	2927	8.5	72.5
10	62		FM	@Zohid6	Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov	2801	8.5	69
11	12		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2953	8.5	67.5
12	11		GM	@h4parah5	Jaime Santos Latasa	2959	8.5	67
13	67		GM	@DuleMudule	Igor Miladinovic	2797	8.5	66.5
14	5		GM	@Krakozia	Denis Khismatullin	3022	8.5	66.5
15	59		IM	@AlmasRakhmatullaev	Almas Rakhmatullaev	2805	8.5	65.5
16	26		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	2876	8.5	61
17	102		IM	@CSB7	Balázs Csonka	2759	8.5	60.5
18	58		IM	@blitzking1729	Srihari L R	2788	8.5	56.5
19	166		GM	@astralpulse	Alex Goldin	2683	8	70
20	23		FM	@artin10862	Artin Ashraf	2887	8	67.5
45	75		GM	@ChessQueen	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2732	7.5	57

(Full final standings here.)

Drygalov earned $1,000 for his victory, while Zhigalko claimed $750 in second place. GM Luca Moroni Jr finished third for $350, Vokhidov fourth for $200, and Bluebaum fifth for $100. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk scored 7.5/11 and won the $100 women’s prize.

Late Tournament

While Hakobyan lost in the fourth round of the late tournament against Moroni, Carlsen appeared to be running away from the late field of 431 after a perfect eight rounds. When Carlsen’s run ended in round nine, it was not Hakobyan but instead GM David Paravyan who stopped the streak after Carlsen got his king stuck in the center of the board. Paravyan would finish in third place.

Hakobyan and Carlsen played each other in round 10 and made a draw, their 8.5 points each falling behind Paravyan’s 9/10.

Hakobyan did what Carlsen could not and defeated Paravyan, who was knocked off his perch but still finished in third place. The game ended on time, but Paravyan’s queen was trapped.

Carlsen got Zhigalko, who was trying to finish in the top two in both the early and late events. Carlsen, unlike in his game against Paravyan, was sure to keep his king safe this time.

The eight rounds of perfection were only enough in the end for Carlsen to finish in second place. But he’s also gotten to enjoy plenty of other wins lately.

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

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1

1 7 GM @Njal28 Aram Hakobyan 3097 9.5 78

2 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3278 9.5 74.5

3 4
GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3125 9 72.5

4 16 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3022 9 67.5

5 13 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3023 9 62

6 8 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3090 9 60.5

7 21 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 2988 8.5 75.5

8 9 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3092 8.5 73.5

9 41 GM @Zhigalko_Sergei Sergei Zhigalko 2939 8.5 71.5

10 52 GM @mitrabhaa Mitrabha Guha 2862 8.5 67.5

11 30 GM @jcibarra José Ibarra 2957 8.5 66

12 11 GM @SpeedofLight0 Andrew Hong 3041 8.5 65

13 45
FM @Bauman_Guy Konstantin Popov 2875 8 72.5

14 6 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3074 8 69

15 10 IM @0gZPanda Anthony He 3024 8 67

16 2 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3185 8 65

17 67 IM @Nor1lsk Kuzmicz Krystian 2742 8 61.5

18 25 GM @vugarrasulov Vugar Rasulov 2948 8 60.5

19 100 IM @MMSANCHEZ Max Gedajlovic 2715 8 59.5

20 31 GM @nihalsarin Nihal Sarin 3066 8 52

47 164 IM @zajka-molotok Yuliia Osmak 2580 7 59

(Full final standings here.)

Hakobyan won the $1,000 first-place prize for his efforts. Carlsen went home with $750 and Paravyan with $350. Rounding out the top five were GM Jose Martinez, who won $200, and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, for a $100 prize. IM Yuliia Osmak was the $100 women’s prize winner with seven points.

Titled Tuesday is an 11-round Swiss tournament for titled players hosted by Chess.com. There are two tournaments each week, both on Tuesday: one at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time and then another at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).