Bortnyk Runs Table At Titled Tuesday With 1st Perfect Score
GM Olexandr Bortnyk ran the table, scoring a perfect 9.0/9 in a star-studded Titled Tuesday that featured two 2800s as both Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana competed. The perfect score (and a bonus Fischer prize of $250) had eluded all competitors with GMs Georg Meier, Tal Baron, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave being the only players to come within a half-point. Amusingly, Vachier-Lagrave's 8.5 result is the only Titled Tuesday he has ever won!
This was Caruana's first Titled Tuesday. It was a particular surprise to see him in the field as he is currently playing in Isle Of Man where he is in second place behind the leader Pavel Eljanov. Unfortunately, he had a rough tournament, drawing in round two and losing to GM ftorodent in round three before withdrawing to focus on Isle of Man.
As one might expect, the perfect score required a lot of skill and luck from Bortnyk. He displayed both in round two as he bamboozled GM Cristian Chirila with Black.
GM Cristian Chirila | Photo Chirila's website.
In rounds five and seven, Bortnyk demonstrated pure luck as he first benefited from the massive blunder ...Rc2???? To quote commentator IM Aman Hambleton, "What on earth did I just look at?!"
Second, he benefited from ...Ra1???? from GM Iuri Shkuro.
Bortnyk played strong, fine games against GM Luka Paichize and IM Minh Le, riding his way through to the legendary perfect score. Congrats to Bortnyk on a great tournament.
Clear second place (7.5/9) went to GM Alan Pichot, who won the following game in 70 moves, but he missed an earlier opportunity. Can you find it?
GM Alan Pichot. | Photo from the Argentine Chess Federation.
Vachier-Lagrave was one of three players on 7.0/9 (including GMs Jose Ibarra Jerez and Dariusz Swiercz) who shared third. He lost a costly game against the aforementioned Shkuro, who has a FIDE blitz rating of 2814, which prevented him from closing sufficiently to get a shot at Bortnyk in the pairings. Vachier-Lagrave did have the pleasure to win a very nice game in the last round and make it into the money.
Finally, Chess.com's own GM Robert Hess had a tournament packed with ups and downs, but the following win was very satisfying. To quote him, "Another dope win! 
... I should've ended the game with Kb3 and mate, but I had 10 seconds and a free piece did the trick "
Titled Tuesday, Early Event | Final Standings (6.5 Points And Up)
| # | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | 5 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 9 | 47 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | platy3 | Alan Pichot | 7.5 | 41 | |
| 3 | 2 | GM | LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier Lagrave | 7 | 38.75 | |
| 4 | 8 | GM | jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 7 | 33.5 | |
| 5 | 11 | GM | daro94 | Dariusz Świercz | 7 | 32.75 | |
| 6 | 43 | GM | VSERGUEI | Sergey Volkov | 6.5 | 36.5 | |
| 7 | 3 | GM | Lukianoo | Luka Paichadze | 6.5 | 35 | |
| 8 | 26 | GM | Tarlev_Konstantin | Konstantin Tarlev | 6.5 | 32 | |
| 9 | 7 | IM | wonderfultime | Minh Le | 6.5 | 31.75 | |
| 10 | 6 | GM | Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 6.5 | 30.75 | |
| 10 | 36 | GM | LuckyTiger | Valeriy Aveskulov | 6.5 | 30.75 | |
| 12 | 106 | GM | Malev212 | Jaan Ehlvest | 6.5 | 29.75 | |
| 13 | 10 | GM | arturchix | Arturs Neiksans | 6.5 | 25.25 | |
| 13 | 13 | GM | erichansen | Eric Hansen | 6.5 | 25.25 |
Full V3 tournament crosstables available here.
Bortnyk collected $750 for both first place and the Fischer prize ($250) for a perfect score. Pichot won $250 for clear second, and Vachier-Lagrave, Ibarra Jerez, and Swiercz each won $84 for shared third.
The late event saw Swiercz, who already shared third in the early event, continue his fine form and march to clear first with 8.0/9. One of his finest games was played in round three where he patiently and accurately exploited an overreach from his opponent, GM Axel Bachmann.
GM Dariusz Swiercz | Photo from Wikimedia Commons
For the second time today, Pichot got 7.5/9 and clear second. Perhaps his most pleasing late event game was the following amusing smash against shared fifth-place-finisher GM Konstantin Tarlev.
#TeamScandi suffered a legendary setback when IM John Bartholomew ground out a win for 170 moves only to lose on time!
Finally, the new ChessBrah IM Miodrag Perunovic, AKA TheButcher. won the following nice and typical attacking game as White. His games are always full of publishable tactics.
Titled Tuesday, Late Event | Final Standings (6.5 Points And Up)
| # | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | 4 | GM | daro94 | Dariusz Świercz | 8 | 37.75 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | platy3 | Alan Pichot | 7.5 | 42.25 | |
| 3 | 5 | GM | dretch | Conrad Holt | 7 | 37 | |
| 4 | 24 | GM | Borsch7 | Maxim Matlakov | 7 | 25 | |
| 5 | 14 | GM | Tarlev_Konstantin | Konstantin Tarlev | 6.5 | 33.5 | |
| 6 | 3 | GM | jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 6.5 | 32.5 | |
| 7 | 6 | GM | Noukii | Yannick Gozzoli | 6.5 | 28 |
Full V3 tournament crosstables available here.
Swiercz earned $500 for clear first and a total of $584 on the day. Pichot kept the math simple as he won two $250 prizes for $500 total. GMs Conrad Holt and Maxim Matlakov each received $100. Finally, Tarlev, Ibarra Jerez, and GM Yannick Gozzoli shared a diluted fifth place and each earned $17. For Ibarra Jerez, that pushed his daily total to $101.
The next Titled Tuesday will take place on November 1 at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific time. Live broadcasts will be available on Chess.com/tv and Twitch.tv/chess.
I'm the VP of Chess and Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2014, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
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