Bortnyk Breaks Titled Tuesday Drought, Nepomniachtchi Wins Late
GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi earned Titled Tuesday victories on April 5. GM Vladimir Fedoseev had to settle for second place in both events, and by a thin tiebreak margin in the late tournament. GM Alexey Sarana and IM Volodar Murzin also finished in the top five in both tournaments.
Early Tournament
Bortnyk emerged out of a 363-player field in the first tournament with a 9.5/11 score that won outright. The rest of the top five—Fedoseev, Murzin in third, Sarana in fourth, and GM Jose Martinez in fifth—all scored nine points and were sorted out by tiebreaks, but no one else scored nine and got left out.
Broadcast of the early tournament hosted by FM Anna-Maja Kazarian.
Bortnyk's victory ended some period of sure frustration for the talented blitz player. Despite being a fixture in Titled Tuesday, it was his first win since a perfect 9/9 back in 2016.
The final two rounds must have been particularly gratifying. In round ten, he beat Titled Tuesday's hottest player from the last month, GM Dmitry Andreikin, whose streak of top-two finishes ended here with a sixth-place result.
Then, in the final round, Bortnyk, on eight and a half points, was matched with Fedoseev, on nine, while no one else had exceeded eight. Desperately needing a win, Bortnyk delivered.
Fedoseev had reached his leading position with a 10th-round win over Murzin.
April 5 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2959 | 9.5 | 67.75 | |
| 2 | 8 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3014 | 9 | 65 | |
| 3 | 47 | IM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 2839 | 9 | 63 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3056 | 9 | 53.5 | |
| 5 | 12 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 2960 | 9 | 46.5 | |
| 6 | 2 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3115 | 8.5 | 63 | |
| 7 | 5 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3021 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 3027 | 8.5 | 58.75 | |
| 9 | 7 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3002 | 8.5 | 51.25 | |
| 10 | 4 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3028 | 8.5 | 47.5 | |
| 11 | 81 | CM | @WhiteKnight2612 | Rohith Krishna | 2753 | 8.5 | 44 | |
| 12 | 13 | GM | @VladDobrov | Vladimir Dobrov | 2933 | 8 | 49.75 | |
| 13 | 64 | GM | @GM_Crest | Sergey Shipov | 2808 | 8 | 49 | |
| 14 | 51 | GM | @Byniolus | Zbigniew Pakleza | 2809 | 8 | 47.5 | |
| 15 | 11 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2941 | 8 | 47 | |
| 16 | 18 | GM | @Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 2912 | 8 | 46.75 | |
| 17 | 35 | GM | @ActorXu | Xu Yi | 2834 | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 18 | 30 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2873 | 8 | 46 | |
| 19 | 29 | FM | @Shubinkirill2003 | Kirill Shubin | 2873 | 8 | 44.5 | |
| 20 | 71 | NM | @BeanScreen | Zachary Tanenbaum | 2718 | 8 | 41 | |
| 51 | 92 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2656 | 7 | 33.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Bortnyk earned $1,000 for winning the tournament. Fedoseev claimed the $750 second-place prize and Murzin won $300 for third. Sarana earned $150 in fourth place and Martinez won $100 in fifth. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 prize as the top-female player.
Late Tournament
In a field of 294, the recent world championship challenger emerged victoriously. He was one of only two players in the late top five who hadn't also reached that position in the early tournament as Fedoseev, Sarana, and Murzin all returned.
Broadcast of the late tournament hosted by GM Irina Krush.
Nepomniachtchi has now won three Titled Tuesdays since February 8, and in two of the three, he drew in the first round. But, once again, that proved to be a small roadblock. In round eight, Nepo needed just 23 seconds and 16 moves to dispatch GM Rinat Jumabayev.
Two more wins, against Andreikin and GM Rodrigo Vasquez, gave Nepomniachtchi nine points out of 10. Fedoseev had reached the same score with wins over Murzin and GM Aram Hakobyan. Only GM Raunak Sadhwani was within half a point of the leaders, but Sarana ended up defeating Sadhwani to take third place for himself.
Meanwhile, Fedoseev-Nepomniachtchi was the antithesis of the early tournament's Fedoseev-Bortnyk in terms of drama; this time, the players agreed to a draw without making any moves. But Nepomniachtchi had played the somewhat tougher slate, winning the tiebreak by less than a point.
April 5 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 3 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 3101 | 9.5 | 63.5 | |
| 2 | 9 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3050 | 9.5 | 62.75 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3072 | 9 | 55 | |
| 4 | 27 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 2925 | 9 | 54.5 | |
| 5 | 39 | IM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 2882 | 9 | 45.5 | |
| 6 | 8 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3022 | 8.5 | 55 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 3043 | 8.5 | 46.5 | |
| 8 | 20 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 2948 | 8.5 | 40.75 | |
| 9 | 1 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3118 | 8 | 48 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2877 | 8 | 47.5 | |
| 11 | 30 | GM | @K_A_S_T_O_R | Rodrigo Vasquez | 2894 | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 12 | 40 | GM | @Experience_Chess | Valery Kazakouski | 2849 | 8 | 44.5 | |
| 13 | 28 | GM | @Jumbo | Rinat Jumabayev | 2912 | 8 | 43.5 | |
| 14 | 24 | GM | @Hrant_ChessMood | Hrant Melkumyan | 2918 | 8 | 42.5 | |
| 15 | 49 | GM | @KNVB | Aman Hambleton | 2827 | 8 | 38.5 | |
| 16 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2935 | 8 | 37 | |
| 17 | 2 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3118 | 7.5 | 57.5 | |
| 18 | 5 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3017 | 7.5 | 46 | |
| 19 | 112 | FM | @FMJoseHerrera | Jose Herrera | 2638 | 7.5 | 42.25 | |
| 20 | 138 | WIM | @M-Mar04 | Mariam Mkrtchyan | 2602 | 7.5 | 41 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nepomniachtchi claimed the $1,000 first prize. Fedoseev earned another $750 for a daily total of $1,500. Sarana's $300 third-place prize gave him $450 on the day. Demchenko earned $150 for fourth and Murzin $100 for fifth, giving the latter $400 on the day. WIM Mariam Mkrtchyan won the $100 prize as the highest-scoring woman in the field.
Titled Tuesday is a weekly tournament hosted by Chess.com for titled players. Every Tuesday there are two 11-round Swiss tournaments which commence at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 23:00 Central European.
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.
