Carlsen Takes A Tuesday Warming Up For World Cup
GM Magnus Carlsen won the early Titled Tuesday event on August 1 and then finished second late. It was GM Alexander Grischuk who won the late event. Both of them are playing in the second round of the 2023 FIDE World Cup on Wednesday, but decided to get in some blitz warmup while first-round tiebreaks were ongoing in the World Cup.
Early Tournament
The early tournament was joined by 589 players, the most for any Titled Tuesday of 2023. One player not in the field was GM Hikaru Nakamura, leaving Carlsen as the favorite, and Magnus met those expectations by leading the tournament wire-to-wire.
Carlsen and GM Dmitry Andreikin were the last perfect players on 6/6, and they made a draw. Then, of the five players on 6.5/7, only one won their game in the eighth round. Of course, it was Carlsen, who defeated IM Rudik Makarian to take an outright tournament lead that he would never relinquish.
Perhaps trying to stay in form for the World Cup to come later, there were no opening shenanigans the like of which Carlsen has been known to engage in during a Titled Tuesday—just straight chess from move one. Game nine was a fantastic English Opening against fellow super grandmaster GM Levon Aronian. Unfortunately for Aronian, this tournament could not be a World Cup tune-up for him, with the Armenian-American unable to attend that event being held in Azerbaijan.
Carlsen's draw in round 10 did not allow anyone to catch up, especially as it came against eventual second-place finisher GM Susanto Megaranto. Carlsen then wrapped up victory in the tournament with a quick knockout over GM Xu Xiangyu.
At the same time, Megaranto secured an uncontested second place with a win over Andreikin.
August 1 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3255 | 10 | 78 | |
| 2 | 16 | GM | @garcho08 | Susanto Megaranto | 3005 | 9.5 | 75 | |
| 3 | 15 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 3008 | 9 | 82 | |
| 4 | 74 | GM | @Rodalquilar | Leonardo Tristan | 2823 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3103 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 6 | 4 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3082 | 9 | 72 | |
| 7 | 9 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3025 | 9 | 70 | |
| 8 | 31 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 2925 | 9 | 70 | |
| 9 | 52 | GM | @ContrVersia | Valery Kazakouski | 2887 | 9 | 66.5 | |
| 10 | 8 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3050 | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 11 | 12 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 3017 | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 12 | 3 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3091 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 13 | 5 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3071 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 14 | 28 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 2937 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
| 15 | 18 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 2960 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 16 | 19 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 2959 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 17 | 13 | GM | @xxysoul6 | Xu Xiangyu | 3013 | 8.5 | 66 | |
| 18 | 6 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 3053 | 8 | 76.5 | |
| 19 | 27 | CM | @stollenmonster | Egor Baskakov | 2936 | 8 | 75.5 | |
| 20 | 24 | FM | @Sina_Movahed | Sina Movahed | 2953 | 8 | 74.5 | |
| 32 | 259 | WGM | @meoluoi91 | Hoang Thi Bao Tram | 2685 | 8 | 50.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Carlsen won $1,000 for first place, and he wasn't done for the day. Megaranto claimed $750 in second place. GMs Gata Kamsky ($350), Leonardo Tristan ($200), and Daniel Naroditsky ($100) rounded out the top five with the best tiebreaks out of seven players on nine points. WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram won the $100 women's prize, scoring 8/11.
Late Tournament
Carlsen would again fight for first place in the late tournament, but this time came up just short on a tiebreak score against Grischuk. The two of them never faced off one-on-one during the tournament, however, with Grischuk's second-round loss to IM Semetey Tologontegin keeping his score and Carlsen's score from matching up until the final round.
In the 10th round, Carlsen made a draw with GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, which allowed Grischuk to finally catch up by defeating GM Alireza Firouzja.
Both players won their game in the final round, locking out the rest of the field from the top two spots. Carlsen still had over a minute on his clock when GM Steven Zierk resigned from their game.
But Grischuk, playing in his comfort zone—a hair-raising, both players-under-30-seconds type of game—against GM Sergei Zhigalko, also won in the last round. And with that, he took the tournament, too.
August 1 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 8 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3026 | 9.5 | 73 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3253 | 9.5 | 71 | |
| 3 | 14 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2986 | 9 | 76 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3080 | 9 | 72 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3094 | 9 | 69 | |
| 6 | 38 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 2877 | 9 | 67 | |
| 7 | 24 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2924 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
| 8 | 31 | GM | @Zkid | Steven Zierk | 2899 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 9 | 17 | IM | @0gZPanda | Anthony He | 2944 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 10 | 36 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2843 | 8.5 | 66 | |
| 11 | 52 | GM | @Elsa167 | Leon Livaic | 2800 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 12 | 26 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2886 | 8 | 75.5 | |
| 13 | 18 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 2941 | 8 | 74 | |
| 14 | 34 | IM | @mbojan | Bojan Maksimović | 2859 | 8 | 71 | |
| 15 | 5 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3044 | 8 | 68 | |
| 16 | 127 | IM | @Semetey | Semetey Tologontegin | 2632 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 17 | 130 | FM | @Rutricks | Rubén Domingo Núñez | 2605 | 8 | 63.5 | |
| 18 | 49 | GM | @krzyzan94 | Marcin Krzyżanowski | 2796 | 8 | 62 | |
| 19 | 32 | GM | @hansen | Eric Hansen | 2862 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 20 | 95 | GM | @Harry_Rakkel | Krzysztof Jakubowski | 2678 | 8 | 61 | |
| 45 | 148 | FM | @Leebit02 | Liya Kurmangaliyeva | 2576 | 7 | 61.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Grischuk earned $1,000 with his victory, while Carlsen took the second-place prize of $750, giving him $1,750 on the day. GM Maxim Matlakov finished third for $350, Bortnyk fourth for $200, and Firouzja fifth for $100. FM Liya Kurmangaliyeva won the $100 women's prize with seven points.
Titled Tuesday consists of two 11-round Swiss tournaments Chess.com hosts for titled players every Tuesday. The first tournament starts at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second one 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.
