French And German GMs Split Tuesday Tournament

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and GM Dmitrij Kollars of Germany were the winners of Titled Tuesday on June 20. GM Gata Kamsky, who won one of last week’s events, nearly pulled it off again in the early tournament, finishing second behind Vachier-Lagrave on tiebreak score out of the four players on 9.5 points.

Early Tournament

The early field of 541 was packed as usual. Just outside the top five, in the sixth through eighth spots in the final standings, were GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Dmitry Andreikin, and Magnus Carlsen. Also in the top 20 were GMs Alexander Grischuk and Vladimir Kramnik.

Sometimes the aura of these players is quite strong, even to fellow grandmasters. The former world champion Kramnik got a resignation from his opponent in an equal position in round 10.

Through it all, Vachier-Lagrave emerged to win his third Titled Tuesday of the year. His two most difficult wins in terms of strength of opposition were also his most critical of the tournament, starting with a win against Carlsen in round eight.

After Vachier-Lagrave made draws in rounds nine and ten, he faced Grischuk in round 11. Grischuk, like Carlsen, played the French Defense against the Frenchman, but perhaps a different choice was in order.

Despite these games, a decisive contest between Kamsky and GM Pranav V in the final round would have produced a different winner. Kamsky came oh-so-close to taking his second consecutive early tournament after some great defense and counterattack, but under severe time pressure could not find the win, and the players made a draw by repetition. As a result, they settled into second and third place due to the tiebreaks.

June 20 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak
1	4		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3127	9.5	76.5
2	16		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	3033	9.5	75.5
3	13		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3035	9.5	70.5
4	15		GM	@OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	3046	9.5	65
5	48		GM	@VerdeNotte	Gawain Jones	2952	9	74
6	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3214	9	71
7	23		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3001	9	67
8	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3293	8.5	75.5
9	12		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3029	8.5	73.5
10	11		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3047	8.5	70
11	9		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3027	8.5	68
12	27		GM	@Denis_Makhnyov	Denis Makhnev	2950	8.5	66.5
13	29		GM	@Njal28	Aram Hakobyan	2955	8.5	65.5
14	6		GM	@VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	3049	8.5	65.5
15	5		GM	@GM_dmitrij	Dmitrij Kollars	3050	8.5	65
16	32		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2930	8.5	60
17	20		GM	@Indianlad	S.L. Narayanan	2964	8.5	58.5
18	25		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	2958	8	71
19	7		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3039	8	71
20	28		IM	@gurelediz	Ediz Gürel	2965	8	69
44	176		WIM	@Qnmeng	Kaiyu Ning	2730	7.5	61

(Full final standings here.)

Vachier-Lagrave earned $1,000 for his victory. Kamsky took home $750 in second place and Pranav $350 in third place. GM Grigoriy Oparin also had 9.5 points but finished fourth for $200. The $100 prize winners were GM Gawain Jones in fifth place and WIM Kaiyu Ning as the highest-scoring woman in the tournament.

Late Tournament

Kollars and eventual second-place finisher GM Alireza Firouzja battled in round six, Firouzja winning the game with a Trompowsky Attack.

However, a pair of French Titled Tuesday winners was not to be. From that point forward, Kollars only drew one more game and won the rest. In the final round, he took on Nakamura… and won.

One more player in addition to Kollars and Firouzja finished with the same first-place score. That was GM David Paravyan, who began with the rare 9.5/10, needing just a draw in the last round to lock up first place. Unfortunately, he made a highly unusual oversight in his final-round game against Firouzja and settled for third place.

June 20 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak

1 10 GM @GM_dmitrij Dmitrij Kollars 3064 9.5 71.5

2 3 GM @Firouzja2003 Alireza Firouzja 3147 9.5 70

3 7
GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3068 9.5 64.5

4 6 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3066 9 73.5

5 78 GM @Rodalquilar Leonardo Tristan 2762 9 58.5

6 2
FM @tsaruk_maks Maksim Tsaruk 2851 9 49.5

7 45
GM @alexrustemov Alexander Rustemov 2895 8.5 68.5

8 46 IM @KhazarBabazada007 Khazar Babazada 2896 8.5 66

9 19 GM @Njal28 Aram Hakobyan 2967 8.5 65

10 49 GM @sergiochess83 Sergey Grigoriants 2861 8.5 62.5

11 26 GM @Beca95 Aleksandar Indjic 2925 8.5 62

12 8 GM @TigrVShlyape Gata Kamsky 3025 8.5 60.5

13 2 FM @Chessmissile07 Suresh Harsh 2841 8.5 53.5

14 18 IM @MITerryble Renato Terry 2963 8 78

15 13 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3010 8 75.5

16 2 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3219 8 74.5

17 47 GM @dretch Conrad Holt 2864 8 70

18 30 GM @eljanov Pavel Eljanov 2908 8 67

19 34 GM @AryanTari Aryan Tari 2908 8 66.5

20 38 GM @jcibarra José Ibarra 2902 8 66.5

35 100
GM @Goryachkina Aleksandra Goryachkina 2688 7.5 58

(Full final standings here.)

Kollars won $1,000 with his first place finish while Firouzja earned $750 in second and Paravyan settled for the $350 third-place prize. GM Jose Martinez, who started on 7/7 but couldn’t stop Paravyan, earned $200 in fourth place. GM Leonardo Tristan finished in fifth for $100. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won another $100 women’s prize, her third in the last four weeks and fourth of the year.

Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for Titled Players that is played every week on Chess.com. The two 11-round tournaments running each Tuesday are an early event at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and a later one at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).