Xiong Wins May 25 Titled Tuesday

GM Jeffery Xiong won the May 25 Titled Tuesday tournament outright with a score of 10/11, his second win in as many months. GM Vladimir Dobrov finished second with 9.5/11 on a tiebreak over third-place GM Salem Saleh after both won in the final round, while fourth place went to GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov with the best tiebreak out of five players on 9/11.

592 titled players participated in this week’s Titled Tuesday tournament, with players like GM Hikaru Nakamura playing in the FTX Crypto Cup. As usual, this week’s Titled Tuesday was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.

The live broadcast of the tournament, hosted this week by IM Kostya Kavutskiy.

Xiong survived an early scare in round two against FM Emin Ohanyan, trailing at one point by two pawns without compensation (after prior complications on moves 11-15), but used Ohanyan’s time trouble and a promotion tactic to pull out the win.

For the second straight week, a mate-in-one was missed by both players in a game. GM Steven Zierk had just defeated Xiong on time in round five to reach 5/5 when he missed a chance out of the opening for a win against GM Raunak Sadhwani, who went on to win and reached 8/8 in the tournament before finishing fifth.

The round nine encounter between Xiong and Sadhwani was the turning point of the event. Xiong broke through in the endgame with the nice shot 34…Nxb3 to take the win.

With two more wins in the final two rounds, Xiong wrapped up a nearly flawless tournament victory. His only loss, in round five, came on time in an equal rook endgame. Second-place Dobrov did not lose a single game, scoring +8 =3.

May 25 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB
1	4		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3020	10	68.5
2	41		GM	@VladDobrov	Vladimir Dobrov	2885	9.5	65
3	1		GM	@Arabicfalcon	Salem AR Saleh	3011	9.5	62.75
4	14		GM	@ChessWarrior7197	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2957	9	62.75
5	6		GM	@champ2005	Raunak Sadhwani	3002	9	59.5
6	21		GM	@Beca95	Aleksandar Indjic	2939	9	58
7	29		IM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	2885	9	52.75
8	24		GM	@rpragchess	Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu	2912	9	51.5
9	10		GM	@Alexander_Zubov	Alexander Zubov	2974	8.5	58.25
10	43		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2844	8.5	55.75
11	13		GM	@mishanick	Aleksey Sarana	2959	8.5	55.25
12	54		GM	@Gabrielian_Artur	Artur Gabrielian	2787	8.5	53.25
13	9		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	2983	8.5	49.25
14	18		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2922	8.5	46.75
15	46		GM	@nrvisakh	Visakh NR	2839	8.5	44
16	34		GM	@Alexsur1981	Aleksei Pridorozhni	2862	8	53.5
17	5		GM	@Jospem	Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara	2964	8	51.5
18	86		GM	@Dyadya81	Gevorg Harutjunyan	2731	8	50.5
19	127		FM	@Kretov_Evgenij	Evgenij Kretov	2680	8	49.5
19	57		IM	@Semen_Khanin	Semen Khanin	2793	8	49.5

(Full final standings here.)

Xiong won $750 for first place, Dobrov $400 for second, Saleh $150 for third, and Abdusattorov $100 for fourth. The $100 prize for the top female player went to GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, who finished with 7/11 and a better tiebreak than GM Alexandra Kosteniuk by just a quarter-point.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time (19:00 Central Europe).