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No Fooling Nakamura, Who Wins Titled Tuesday With Le

No Fooling Nakamura, Who Wins Titled Tuesday With Le

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NathanielGreen
Staff
| 14 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Liem Le and GM Hikaru Nakamura are your winners of Titled Tuesday on April 1, Nakamura after finishing second in the early event. Tiebreaks were not necessary to determine either winner or even Nakamura's second-place finish. It was Le's second win of the year after a perfect 11/11 on February 4, and Nakamura's third win of the year but his first since January 21.

Early Tournament

With North America and Europe now both on Daylight Saving Time, early tournament participation rebounded this week to 675 players. GM Arjun Erigaisi reached 7/7 to become the last perfect player, but Nakamura handled him in the eighth round.

Le and GM Shant Sargsyan, along with Nakamura, also improved to 7.5 points in the eighth round. Like Nakamura last week, Sargsyan somehow didn't get a game in the next round. Meanwhile, Nakamura and Le played to a draw and were joined in the lead by GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Aleksandr Shimanov. Then, in the 10th round, Nakamura and Shimanova drew while Le defeated Maghsoodloo on time in an equal position to move into the tournament lead.

Nakamura finally broke his mini draw streak in the 11th round, defeating GM Daniel Dardha, but Le remained in the tournament lead with a win over GM S. L. Narayanan. Le's win was much more convincing than it had been in the round before, complete with an exchange sacrifice to break through to the opposing king.

With their final-round wins, Le and Nakamura both wrapped up first and second place without tiebreaks. Five players tied on nine points below them, with GM Harikrishna Pentala taking third after a 30-move win over GM Andrew Tang in the last round.

The remaining prizes went to Maghsoodloo in fourth, GM Amin Tabatabaei in fifth, and teenage WFM Yuliya Liavonava with the women's prize.

GM Magnus Carlsen also made an abbreviated appearance, beginning with 5/5 before abruptly leaving the tournament, but not without taking out IM Levy Rozman first. Here with more on that is Nakamura:

April 1 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 12 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3160 10 77.5
2 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3318 9.5 71.5
3 34 GM @GMharikrishna Harikrishna Pentala 3061 9 76
4 8 GM @Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 3164 9 74.5
5 24 GM @amintabatabaei Amin Tabatabaei 3095 9 74
6 32 GM @Volodar_Murzin Volodar Murzin 3054 9 71.5
7 11 GM @GHANDEEVAM2003 Arjun Erigaisi 3146 9 69.5
8 82 IM @Arystanner Arystanbek Urazayev 2952 8.5 74.5
9 52 GM @DanielDardha2005 Daniel Dardha 3017 8.5 74.5
10 29 GM @Indianlad S.L. Narayanan 3059 8.5 74
11 51 GM @shimastream Aleksandr Shimanov 2999 8.5 70
12 22 IM @Rud_Makarian Rudik Makarian 3070 8.5 68
13 14 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3123 8.5 67
14 21 GM @Msb2 Matthias Bluebaum 3079 8.5 65
15 33 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3038 8.5 64.5
16 118 IM @resha1988 Alexey Reshetnikov 2877 8.5 63.5
17 18 GM @vi_pranav Pranav V 3099 8.5 61
18 59 GM @DavidGavrilescu18 David Gavrilescu 2963 8.5 57
19 3 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3218 8 72.5
20 78 GM @ContrVersia Valery Kazakouski 2933 8 71
74 453 WFM @Juleona Yuliya Liavonava 2519 7 61.5

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Le $1,000, Nakamura $750, Pentala $350, Maghsoodloo $200, Tabatabaei $100, Liavonava $100.

Late Tournament

Remember that the late tournament is starting an hour earlier now at 4:00 p.m. ET/22:00 CET. Only 372 players played this week, which was the first at the new time. Nakamura raced out to a 9/9 start and held on to finish in outright first place despite a 0.5/2 finish.

He really earned that perfect start, too, with the final four wins coming against GMs Jose Martinez, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Sargsyan, and Le. The game against Sargsyan ultimately made the difference between first and second place.

Sargsyan recovered to win his next two games, including against Bortnyk with Black despite a rather odd-looking opening choice.

Nakamura, meanwhile, lost on time against GM Denis Lazavik in that round, but still retained sole possession of first place. He continued to keep it despite a draw in the final round with GM David Paravyan, while the other two players who could have caught him, Sargsyan and Lazavik, drew with each other.

The draws were good enough for all four to retain paid positions. The only player to join them was GM Vasif Durarbayli in fourth, while GMs Benjamin Bok and Yagiz Erdogmus were short on tiebreaks. As the only top-five finisher who won in the final round, here is Durarbayli's game against GM Bogdan Daniel Deac.

The women's prize went to WCM Dorsa Sadat Khalafvand, who, being born in 2014, is several years younger than Chess.com.

April 1 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3324 9.5 71.5
2 17 GM @Sargsyan_Shant Shant Sargsyan 3115 9 77
3 2 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3220 9 73.5
4 31 GM @Durarbayli Vasif Durarbayli 2998 9 68
5 25 GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3040 9 65.5
6 21 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3062 9 62
7 16 GM @legendisback1 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus 3082 9 62
8 8 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3129 8.5 75.5
9 49 GM @AlexeiShirov Alexei Shirov 2958 8.5 73
10 11 GM @penguingm1 Andrew Tang 3097 8.5 72
11 6 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3130 8 76.5
12 30 FM @artin10862 Artin Ashraf 2981 8 69.5
13 52 IM @Kosak12 Jakub Kosakowski 2944 8 69.5
14 39 GM @ContrVersia Valery Kazakouski 2956 8 68.5
15 32 GM @sokidze Ihor Samunenkov 2969 8 65
16 9 GM @BogdanDeac Bogdan Daniel Deac 3108 8 64.5
17 20 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3043 8 61.5
18 36 IM @TrahtarBelarus Artiom Stribuk 2947 8 57
19 33 GM @Annawel Jules Moussard 2940 8 55
20 42 IM @scarabee43 Marco Materia 2954 7.5 79
43 253 WCM @dorsa_gh2014 Dorsa Sadat Khalafvand 2466 7 57

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Nakamura $1,000, Sargsyan $750, Lazavik $350, Durarbayli $200, Paravyan $100, Khalafvand $100. Daily totals: Nakamura $1,750.

Grand Prix Standings

In this week's Titled Tuesday Grand Prix standings, Le replaced... Le, with Liem Le now in fourth and GM Minh Le now in ninth. Nakamura gained two points and remained in the lead, while Lazavik is now in second.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @Hikaru 94.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura
2 @DenLaz 92.0 GM Denis Lazavik
3 @MagnusCarlsen 91.5 GM Magnus Carlsen
4 @LiemLe 91.0 GM Liem Le
5 @Jospem 91.0 GM Jose Martinez
6 @GHANDEEVAM2003 90.5 GM Arjun Erigaisi
7 @Oleksandr_Bortnyk 90.5 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk
8 @Msb2 89.5 GM Matthias Bluebaum

Kosteniuk continues to lead the women's standings, which for the second straight week had no new members among the top eight.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @ChessQueen 73.5 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2 @Flawless_Fighter 71.5 IM Polina Shuvalova
3 @karinachess1 70.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova
4 @Meri-Arabidze 68.0 IM Meri Arabidze
5 @Sanyura 67.5 WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
6 @jinbojinbo 65.5 GM Jiner Zhu
7 @Fh2411 65.0 IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham
8 @anasta10 64.5 FM Anastasia Avramidou

Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) do not have SCC places on the line, but there will be cash prizes in each of these categories. The current leaders are:

Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.0 points

Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 62.5 points

Titled Tuesday

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).

The next Titled Tuesday to hit 1,000 participants will award prizes to the top 30 players.

NathanielGreen
Nathaniel Green

Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.

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