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Carlsen Streams, But Others Win Titled Tuesday

Carlsen Streams, But Others Win Titled Tuesday

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NathanielGreen
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| 11 | Chess Event Coverage

Iran's current and former number-one players, GM Parham Maghsoodloo and France's GM Alireza Firouzja, were your Titled Tuesday winners on February 25. Maghsoodloo won outright with 10 points, while Firouzja needed tiebreaks for his 9.5 points to win out over GM Sam Sevian. GM Hikaru Nakamura regained the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix standings lead with a nine-point fourth-place finish in the late event.

Early Tournament

It was the eighth straight early tournament to start the year that crossed 800 participants, with 820 joining this time. Not only was GM Magnus Carlsen one of them, but he streamed the proceedings.

Maghsoodloo and GM Arjun Erigaisi both started 6/6 but then faced setbacks of varying degrees in round seven, Maghsoodloo losing to GM Grigoriy Oparin while Arjun made a draw with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Oparin reached 7/7 with the result, but Duda won their eighth-round matchup.

For both Maghsoodloo and Arjun, it was their only non-victory through the first 10 rounds. Both won the next three rounds, including a devastating attack from Arjun in his ninth-round game against IM Murad Ibrahimli. Ibrahimli could be forgiven for "castling into it" despite the computer finding 16...O-O to be a serious mistake; it took Arjun's AlphaZero-esque pawn pushes and rook sacrifice to ultimately punish the move.

And so by the time the 11th and final round rolled around, Arjun led Maghsoodloo and Oparin by half a point. Unfortunately for the Gen.G star Arjun, he fell behind by a rook once again, and this time, there was all pain and no compensation as Maghsoodloo overtook him in the position and in the standings.

Still, Arjun was able to claim second place, as Oparin lost his last game to GM Alexander Grischuk, who finished fourth. GM Eduardo Iturrizaga and Carlsen rounded out the top five, while IM Anastasia Bodnaruk won the women's prize.

February 25 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 9 GM @Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 3179 10 73
2 10 GM @GHANDEEVAM2003 Arjun Erigaisi 3161 9.5 78
3 56 GM @iturrizaga Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli 2996 9.5 73
4 23 GM @Grischuk Alexander Grischuk 3078 9.5 64
5 2 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3270 9 80
6 14 GM @NikoTheodorou Nikolas Theodorou 3121 9 77.5
7 35 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3054 9 76.5
8 8 GM @Javokhir_Sindarov05 Javokhir Sindarov 3156 9 72.5
9 62 IM @Kacparov Kacper Drozdowski 2978 9 67
10 13 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3112 9 65
11 24 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3051 9 62.5
12 59 IM @kingofthenil Mahel Boyer 2974 9 60.5
13 103 IM @MyDream003 Zou Chen 2903 8.5 73
14 5 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3165 8.5 72.5
15 33 GM @SantoBlue Vahap Sanal 3028 8.5 71.5
16 52 IM @Murad_Ibrahimli Murad İbrahimli 2997 8.5 71.5
17 28 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3053 8.5 70
18 3 GM @FabianoCaruana Fabiano Caruana 3200 8.5 67
19 22 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3073 8.5 65
20 7 GM @ChessWarrior7197 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3124 8.5 64.5
105 217 IM @Vesper2018 Anastasia Bodnaruk 2703 7 57.5

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Maghsoodloo $1,000, Arjun $750, Iturrizaga $350, Grischuk $200, Carlsen $100, Bodnaruk $100.

Late Tournament

Anyone else who remembers American pizza promotions from 20 years ago (and who doesn't? Besides everyone else) might appreciate the late event's count of 555 players. Both Firouzja and Sevian lost during the first half of the tournament, Firouzja in round four to GM Var Akobian and Sevian in round five to IM Renato Terry. Ultimately, it was the only loss for each; Firouzja only drew GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave the rest of the way, and Sevian, GM Matthias Bluebaum.

By the time the final round rolled around, both players were on the outside of the lead looking up: They had 8.5 points while Nakamura and Duda had nine each. But those two had made a draw with each other in the ninth round, so instead, Firouzja faced Duda, and Sevian faced Nakamura.

There would be no early decisions here; Sevian-Nakamura lasted 74 moves, and Firouzja-Duda went on for 76. The longer game was effectively decided first, as Duda spent the final 30 moves in a rather hopeless position before finally losing on time.

As that game was wrapping up, Sevian was putting the finishing touches on an excellent endgame performance. Unfortunately for him, it just wasn't quite enough after tiebreaks were applied.

And so Firouzja took first and Sevian second, with Vachier-Lagrave third, Nakamura fourth, and Duda fifth, while Arjun just missed another top-five finish. IM Karina Ambartsumova won the women's prize.

February 25 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 12 GM @Firouzja2003 Alireza Firouzja 3153 9.5 79
2 6 GM @Konavets Sam Sevian 3193 9.5 73
3 7 GM @LyonBeast Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3190 9 77.5
4 2 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3277 9 75
5 8 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3190 9 73
6 10 GM @GHANDEEVAM2003 Arjun Erigaisi 3168 9 72
7 18 GM @Philippians46 Andy Woodward 3103 9 72
8 233 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3035 9 60.5
9 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3269 8.5 76.5
10 14 GM @NikoTheodorou Nikolas Theodorou 3130 8.5 74
11 9 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3161 8.5 73.5
12 25 GM @Msb2 Matthias Bluebaum 3063 8.5 71.5
13 26 IM @MITerryble Renato Terry 3067 8.5 71.5
14 29 IM @Murad_Ibrahimli Murad İbrahimli 3040 8.5 70.5
15 13 GM @ChessWarrior7197 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3130 8.5 69.5
16 15 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3112 8.5 67
17 24 GM @tptagain David Anton Guijarro 3035 8.5 65.5
18 126 FM @Ali_rastbod Ali Rastbod 2768 8.5 53.5
19 57 GM @GMAkobianSTL Varuzhan Akobian 2953 8 71.5
20 55 GM @Matibar Mateusz Bartel 2950 8 71.5
67 135 IM @karinachess1 Karina Ambartsumova 2709 7 53

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Firouzja $1,000, Sevian $750, Vachier-Lagrave $350, Nakamura $200, Duda $100, Ambartsumova $100.

Grand Prix Standings

GM Christopher Yoo took the eighth spot from GM David Anton, with some shuffling in the top seven but no changes to the player list.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @Hikaru 90.5 GM Hikaru Nakamura
2 @Jospem 90.0 GM Jose Martinez
3 @Msb2 89.5 GM Matthias Bluebaum
4 @Oleksandr_Bortnyk 87.0 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk
5 @HansOnTwitch 87.0 GM Hans Niemann
6 @OparinGrigoriy 86.5 GM Grigoriy Oparin
7 @BogdanDeac 86.5 GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac
8 @ChristopherYoo 86.0 GM Christopher Yoo

All eight players from last week remain, although IM Polina Shuvalova now holds the top spot.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @Flawless_Fighter 71.0 IM Polina Shuvalova
2 @karinachess1 70.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova
3 @Sanyura 65.0 WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
4 @anasta10 64.5 FM Anastasia Avramidou
5 @Meri-Arabidze 64.5 IM Meri Arabidze
6 @rollercoaster29 60.0 WFM Kalyani Sirin
7 @Fh2411 56.0 IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham
8 @teresin05 54.0 WIM Maria Teresa Jimenez Salas

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. GM Alexei Shirov took the top senior spot from GM Alex Rustemov this week. The current leaders are:

Seniors: Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 77.5 points

Youth: IM Ilan Schnaider (@IlanSchnaider), 72.0 points

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 60.0 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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