Brilliant Play Order Of Day In July Titled Tuesday
The winning score in the July Titled Tuesday was 8.5/10. Two players made that mark. The first was GM Aram Hakobyan, a young Armenian player who has of late been a regular atop the Chess.com blitz leaderboard. Here was one accurate trick he landed against a surely surprised GM Jorden Van Foreest.
Hakobyan was joined atop the standings by IM Vasiliy Korchmar of Russia who won in the final round to catch up to Hakobyan who was not able to win a two-pawn up opposite-color bishop endgame. He lost this first-round game, but then won seven games in a row!
Tactics Abound
This month's Titled Tuesday was particularly full of aggressive, tactical play and some brilliancies. Probably the finest such example was GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda's fabulous attack from a King's Indian Defense. Many fine attacking moves came early on, but it's the mating finish that HAS to be seen.
Duda will be an exciting player to watch in this year's Speed Chess Championship.
Duda also won a nice game against GM Niclas Huschenbeth. Huschenbeth got caught with his king in the middle of the board and his queen rampaging. When White nicely castled, seemingly leaving a piece en prise, Black was in enormous trouble.
Another 2700+ grandmaster, Dmitry Andreikin, also delivered some fine tactical victories. He started with a win over Dr. Elias Oussedik who was streaming at twitch.tv/chessbrah. The classic bishop sacrifice still has bite!
It's not enough to win when you are over 2700, you have to win in style! | Photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com.
Andreikin also used another classic sacrifice to win in only 15 moves against FM Rickstereo.
GM Andrew Tang finished in a tie for third and won an exciting finish against IM Pavel Anisimov. Post-game analysis revealed that a refutation was possible though.
I Helpmate Myself
After a good Titled Tuesday last month (for me) in which I scored 6.0/10, I made the mistake of trying my luck again in the July Titled Tuesday and produced this moment of enduring shame.
Question: How can the author checkmate himself in only four moves?
Answer (also sound warning):
Final Standings | July Titled Tuesday
| Place | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | Prize |
| 1 | 2 | GM | mukhin1 | Hakobyan Aram | 8.5 | $450 | |
| 2 | 36 | IM | Korchmar_Vasiliy | Vasiliy Korchmar | 8.5 | $450 | |
| 3 | 23 | GM | dretch | Conrad Holt | 8 | $125 | |
| 4 | 19 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 8 | $125 | |
| 5 | 30 | GM | David_Paravyan | David Paravyan | 8 | $125 | |
| 6 | 177 | WIM | arctic_t00 | Teodora Injac | 8 | $125 | |
| 7 | 16 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 7.5 | ||
| 8 | 33 | GM | joppie2 | Jorden Van Foreest | 7.5 | ||
| 9 | 11 | GM | Dr_Mortimer | James Mortimer | 7.5 | ||
| 10 | 111 | FM | Stouuf | Steph Bressac | 7.5 | ||
| 11 | 45 | IM | renatoterrylujan | Renato Alfredo Terry Lujan | 7.5 | ||
| 11 | 1 | GM | 2Vladimirovich90 | Dmitry Andreikin | 7.5 | ||
| 13 | 54 | GM | ficorrales | Fidel Corrales | 7.5 | ||
| 14 | 17 | GM | Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 7.5 | ||
| 15 | 108 | NM | Blitzstream | Kevin Bordi | 7.5 | ||
| 16 | 5 | IM | Shant_Sargsyan | Shant Sargsyan | 7 | ||
| 17 | 15 | GM | klounessa | Даниил Линчевский | 7 | ||
| 18 | 35 | GM | Dr-Bassem | Bassem Amin | 7 | ||
| 19 | 51 | GM | Margency | Mert Erdoğdu | 7 | ||
| 20 | 66 | IM | pultineviciuspaulius | paulius pultinevicius | 7 | ||
| 21 | 80 | IM | Swarnapuri | 7 | |||
| 22 | 202 | GM | Irochka83 | Irina Krush | 7 | ||
| 23 | 40 | GM | SergeiAza | Sergei Azarov | 7 | ||
| 24 | 72 | GM | Last7Samurai | Cemil Can Ali Marandi | 7 | $100 |
Find the complete crosstable, standings, and games here.
GM Aman Hambleton provided commentary for the entire event on twitch.tv/chess and chess.com/tv. As always, he managed to craft a subtle blend of mellow humor and chess enthusiasm.
Watch Royal Arena Kings Bullet Tournament with GM Robert Hess from Chess on www.twitch.tv
For shared first, Akobyan and Korchmar each won $450 dollars. Four players shared third through fifth place money. They were GMs Conrad Holt, Andrew Tang, David Paravyan and WIM Teodora Injac. Each received $125.
The $100 Streamers' prize goes to GM Cemil Can Ali Marandi, a popular new streamer attending Saint Louis University and tearing it up in Arena Kings.
Watch Playing Titled Tuesday - July 3, 2018 from JJChess2018 on www.twitch.tv
I'm the Head of 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 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.
