Aronian Rejoins Titled Tuesday Winners Ahead Of Firouzja Comeback
GMs Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja are your winners for the first Titled Tuesdays in June 2025. Aronian doesn't play Titled Tuesday very often, so it is always a treat when he does; this was his first win in the event since December 2023. Firouzja's win was his third of the year and 17th since February 2022.
Congratulations to @LevAronian for winning the early #TitledTuesday! pic.twitter.com/SqWEiLmYc1
— chess24 (@chess24com) June 3, 2025
The two former world championship candidates achieved victory on June 3 via rather different paths, although both ended on a 9.5/11 score. Aronian started 7/7 and then coasted with three draws before claiming first place on tiebreaks over GMs Sergei Zhigalko and Denis Lazavik, while Firouzja started on just 2.5/4 before winning his last seven games, which was good enough to take the late tournament outright.
Early Tournament
Aronian's sixth and seventh wins, on his way to that perfect start in the early field of 620 players, came against Firouzja and Lazavik. The game against Lazavik began with both players on a 6/6, had more of an effect on the final standings, was a more accurately-played game, and featured a correct exchange sacrifice by the winning side, so let's take a look at it now:
Aronian's only win in the last four rounds came against GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son in the 10th round, but Aronian didn't lose any of the other games either. Zhigalko was actually able to catch up completely by the ninth round by defeating GM Ediz Gurel, who made only one game-changing mistake, but it was enough.
Lazavik only made a draw after his loss to Aronian, but recovered after that with three straight wins to rejoin a tie for first place. In the final round, he came out ahead in a 2024 Speed Chess Championship rematch against last week's early Titled Tuesday winner GM Wesley So. That might have well kept So from winning a second straight early tournament.
Aronian and Zhigalko could each have won the tournament outright by toppling the other in the last round, and they played a real game, going 67 moves before they settled for a repetition.
The remaining prizes went to GM Mitrabha Guha in fourth, GM Bogdan Daniel Deac in fifth, and 16-year-old WIM Afruza Khamdamova from Uzbekistan for posting the women's highest score in the field.
June 3 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 12 | GM | @LevonAronian | Levon Aronian | 3107 | 9.5 | 77 | |
| 2 | 50 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2976 | 9.5 | 74 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3171 | 9.5 | 73 | |
| 4 | 22 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 3061 | 9 | 74 | |
| 5 | 15 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3085 | 9 | 71 | |
| 6 | 34 | GM | @Macho_2006 | Mukhiddin Madaminov | 2967 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 7 | 10 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3127 | 9 | 68 | |
| 8 | 38 | GM | @Chesssplayer21 | Platon Galperin | 3022 | 9 | 67 | |
| 9 | 8 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 3121 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 10 | 1 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3209 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 11 | 37 | IM | @scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 2971 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 12 | 9 | GM | @gurelediz | Ediz Gürel | 3116 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 13 | 24 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 3015 | 8.5 | 65 | |
| 14 | 27 | GM | @Sychev_Klementy | Klementy Sychev | 3023 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 15 | 219 | GM | @rhungaski | Robert Hungaski | 2681 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 16 | 5 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3132 | 8 | 77 | |
| 17 | 39 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 2991 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 18 | 51 | IM | @Kirill_Klukin | Kirill Klukin | 2963 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 19 | 45 | IM | @MatthewG-p4p | Matvey Galchenko | 2978 | 8 | 69 | |
| 20 | 31 | GM | @Shankland | Sam Shankland | 2994 | 8 | 68 | |
| 48 | 181 | WIM | @FARIZA2018 | Afruza Khamdamova | 2685 | 7.5 | 62 |
Prizes: Aronian $1,000, Zhigalko $750, Lazavik $350, Mitrabha $200, Deac $100, Khamdamova $100.
Late Tournament
By the time this field of 430 players had finished four rounds, 122 of them had scored as many or more points as Firouzja, including 13 players with a perfect score. Firouzja, who earlier had left midway through the previous tournament, would ultimately pass every single one of them, but it took every last round to do it. Entering the final round, GM Hans Niemann led all players with nine points, with Firouzja, Deac, and GM Matthias Bluebaum half a point back. The latter two had drawn in round 10, and both would lose in round 11, making the Firouzja-Niemann matchup decisive.
Despite still being tied for second, the result left Niemann with bad tiebreaks, and he would finish in seventh place. Second place ultimately went to GM Jeffery Xiong, who recovered from his 10th-round loss against Niemann to defeat fellow American GM Andrew Tang in the last round.
Like Xiong, third-place GM Yagiz Erdogmus and fourth-place GM Andy Woodward (ages 14 and 15, respectively) also ended up with better tiebreaks than Firouzja, and so Firouzja needed every last one of that seven-game winning streak to take first place. Woodward needed his own end-of-tournament streak of five wins just to finish in a paid position, a streak he punctuated with checkmate against Bluebaum.
The final paid spots went to GMs Alexey Sarana and Tan Zhongyi.
June 3 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 4 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3183 | 9.5 | 68.5 | |
| 2 | 13 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3127 | 9 | 71 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | @legendisback1 | Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus | 3144 | 9 | 70 | |
| 4 | 5 | GM | @Philippians46 | Andy Woodward | 3156 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 5 | 7 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3132 | 9 | 66 | |
| 6 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3319 | 9 | 65 | |
| 7 | 3 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3214 | 9 | 64 | |
| 8 | 11 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3123 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 9 | 15 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3085 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 10 | 25 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3059 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 11 | 23 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3028 | 8.5 | 58.5 | |
| 12 | 8 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3127 | 8 | 76 | |
| 13 | 20 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 3061 | 8 | 72 | |
| 14 | 48 | GM | @topotun | Mikhail Panarin | 2921 | 8 | 69 | |
| 15 | 10 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3100 | 8 | 67 | |
| 16 | 41 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2932 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 17 | 34 | IM | @MatthewG-p4p | Matvey Galchenko | 2978 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 18 | 32 | IM | @scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 2971 | 8 | 61 | |
| 19 | 53 | IM | @hakanazeri2 | Khagan Ahmad | 2945 | 8 | 60.5 | |
| 20 | 106 | GM | @VMikhalevski | Victor Mikhalevski | 2785 | 8 | 59.5 | |
| 49 | 113 | GM | @daika91 | Zhongyi Tan | 2721 | 7 | 56.5 |
Prizes: Firouzja $1,000, Xiong $750, Erdogmus $350, Woodward $200, Sarana $100, Tan $100.
Grand Prix Qualifiers
The Titled Tuesday Grand Prix concluded on May 27. Congratulations to the Speed Chess Championship qualifiers!
SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
| 1 | @MagnusCarlsen | 98.5 | GM | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2 | @Hikaru | 95.0 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
| 3 | @LiemLe | 93.0 | GM | Liem Le |
| 4 | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | 93.0 | GM | Arjun Erigaisi |
| 5 | @DenLaz | 92.5 | GM | Denis Lazavik |
| 6 | @Jospem | 92.0 | GM | Jose Martinez |
| 7 | @wonderfultime | 92.0 | GM | Tuan Minh Le |
| 8 | @HansOnTwitch | 92.0 | GM | Hans Niemann |
Women's SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
| 1 | @ChessQueen | 74.5 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| 2 | @Flawless_Fighter | 72.5 | IM | Polina Shuvalova |
| 3 | @Goryachkina | 72.0 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina |
| 4 | @karinachess1 | 70.5 | IM | Karina Ambartsumova |
| 5 | @Meri-Arabidze | 69.0 | IM | Meri Arabidze |
| 6 | @Sanyura | 68.0 | WGM | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya |
| 7 | @anasta10 | 68.0 | FM | Anastasia Avramidou |
| 8 | @jinbojinbo | 67.0 | GM | Jiner Zhu |
Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) did not have SCC places on the line, but there were cash prizes in each of these categories. The winners were:
Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.5 points (won $2,500)
Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points (won $2,500)
Girls: WGM Anna Shukhman (@speshka), 66.5 points (won $1,000)
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).
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.
