
Carlsen Takes Tuesday Fresh Off Freestyle
GMs Magnus Carlsen and Parham Maghsoodloo were your Titled Tuesday winners on February 11. Carlsen won outright on 10.5 points and Maghsoodloo also won outright, with 10 points. It was the first win of 2025 for both of them, although each also won a Titled Tuesday last December.
Congratulations to @PMaghsoodloo on winning the late #TitledTuesday! He finished a half-point ahead of Sam Sevian! pic.twitter.com/JMva29ZJnA
— chess24 (@chess24com) February 12, 2025
Early Tournament
Carlsen is in the middle of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, but still found time to dominate the early Titled Tuesday proceedings.
It's none other than @MagnusCarlsen who wins the early #TitledTuesday, after playing #FreestyleChess just a few hours ago! pic.twitter.com/90YpEKfNmQ
— chess24 (@chess24com) February 11, 2025
In a field of 907, he reached a perfect 7/7 score with a win over GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (who would be back). Carlsen made no outright mistakes and reached a two-pawn-up rook ending. Vachier-Lagrave hung on for a little while and even regained material equality, but Carlsen's advantage was never in doubt thanks to his passed pawns.
Carlsen had Black against GM Hikaru Nakamura in his next game, and his 100% score went away with a draw. But that was it for anything less than a win for Carlsen as he took the final three games.
To clinch the tournament, Carlsen played an even better game than against Vachier-Lagrave, almost a perfect one, and won following GM Aleksandar Indjic's not-obvious blunder on move 34. After 13 seconds, Carlsen found the most accurate response, and five moves later he had won the game and the tournament.
Coming in second place was Vachier-Lagrave, who won on time with a slightly better position over GM Jose Martinez in the final round, reaching 9.5 points and finishing ahead of GM Dmitry Andreikin on tiebreaks. A more solid and decisive game from Vachier-Lagrave came the round before when he defeated GM S.L. Narayanan.
Vachier-Lagrave's success was his first after being signed by the Vitality esports team.
Maxime, pour son premier tournoi sous les couleurs de Vitality, fait très bonne impression et termine deuxième du TT, derrière Magnus Carlsen ! 🥈Belle présentation !💛🖤 pic.twitter.com/w2nBnjkVus
— Stunt83a (@Stunt83a) February 11, 2025
For his part, Andreikin had recovered from a loss all the way back in round four to get into third place. After a draw in the 10th round, he won against GM Mateusz Bartel to wrap up his tournament.
Rounding out the prize winners were GM Denis Lazavik in fourth place, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in fifth, and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in 56th, the highest-ranking woman.
February 11 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
1 | 2 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3260 | 10.5 | 77 | |
2 | 12 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 3156 | 9.5 | 79 | |
3 | 16 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3101 | 9.5 | 70 | |
4 | 4 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3193 | 9 | 78 | |
5 | 11 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3133 | 9 | 77 | |
6 | 25 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 3084 | 9 | 77 | |
7 | 75 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2983 | 9 | 76.5 | |
8 | 5 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3184 | 9 | 76 | |
9 | 7 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3150 | 9 | 74.5 | |
10 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3295 | 9 | 73 | |
11 | 10 | GM | @NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 3174 | 9 | 72.5 | |
12 | 20 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3076 | 9 | 71 | |
13 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3108 | 9 | 70.5 | |
14 | 23 | GM | @Annawel | Jules Moussard | 3072 | 9 | 70 | |
15 | 65 | GM | @Matibar | Mateusz Bartel | 3003 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
16 | 8 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3127 | 8.5 | 71.5 | |
17 | 53 | GM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 3005 | 8.5 | 71.5 | |
18 | 36 | IM | @DonkyDonkyDonkey | Eray Kilic | 3048 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
19 | 19 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 3075 | 8.5 | 70 | |
20 | 32 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 3056 | 8.5 | 69 | |
56 | 186 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2792 | 8 | 54 |
Prizes: Carlsen $1,000, Vachier-Lagrave $750, Andreikin $350, Lazavik $200, Duda $100, Kosteniuk $100.
The early Titled Tuesdays have been joined by more than 900 players almost all year, but the next Titled Tuesday to hit 1,000 participants will award prizes to the top 30 players.
📢 BIG NEWS 📢
— Chess.com (@chesscom) January 20, 2025
Titled Tuesday registrations have been going WAY up lately, with a record 905 last week!
To celebrate, the first Titled Tuesday of 2025 with over 1,000 players will have a DOUBLED prize pool! Let the games begin 🙌 pic.twitter.com/yx9QBFaJWA
Late Tournament
You can always recover from a slow start. The top two players (out of 581) by the end of the late tournament, Maghsoodloo and GM Sam Sevian, scored a combined 0.5/2 in the first round. It was Maghsoodloo who lost, but he responded by ripping off 10 straight victories. On the flip side, third-place GM Oleksandr Bortnyk started with a perfect 8/8, then managed just two draws in the final three rounds. Because of the other two's slow starts, none of the three played any of the others in the tournament.
Maghsoodloo finally joined the tournament lead in the 10th round, taking out GM Benjamin Bok.
The tournament then hung on the result of the ensuing game between Maghsoodloo and GM Hans Niemann, the only players with a 9/10 score. Niemann started off with the edge, but Maghsoodloo gradually turned the tide until he was two pawns up in a rook ending. Unlike the earlier game between Carlsen and Vachier-Lagrave, Maghsoodloo kept both pawns until the game ended.
Niemann was able to hold fifth place regardless, but Sevian passed him with a smooth win over GM David Anton.
Another notable performance came from IM Mai Narva, who finished in 17th place, the highest any woman has finished yet this year and winning the $100 prize.
February 11 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
1 | 7 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3128 | 10 | 65 | |
2 | 6 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 3124 | 9.5 | 62.5 | |
3 | 8 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3108 | 9 | 78.5 | |
4 | 13 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3074 | 9 | 73.5 | |
5 | 1 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3184 | 9 | 71 | |
6 | 12 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3076 | 9 | 71 | |
7 | 30 | GM | @Matibar | Mateusz Bartel | 3003 | 9 | 66 | |
8 | 2 | GM | @NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 3174 | 9 | 65.5 | |
9 | 24 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3030 | 9 | 63 | |
10 | 9 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 3084 | 8.5 | 75 | |
11 | 31 | GM | @moro182 | Luca Moroni Jr | 2979 | 8.5 | 71.5 | |
12 | 59 | GM | @Byniolus | Zbigniew Pakleza | 2909 | 8.5 | 68 | |
13 | 10 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 3075 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
14 | 15 | GM | @tptagain | David Anton Guijarro | 3061 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
15 | 145 | FM | @Batko_2010 | Gleb Scheglov | 2726 | 8.5 | 61.5 | |
16 | 42 | IM | @tacticthunder | Dimitris Alexakis | 2954 | 8 | 75 | |
17 | 108 | IM | @bulletteemo | Mai Narva | 2740 | 8 | 70 | |
18 | 35 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2973 | 8 | 68.5 | |
19 | 63 | IM | @Kosak12 | Jakub Kosakowski | 2909 | 8 | 68.5 | |
20 | 43 | GM | @GMAkobianSTL | Varuzhan Akobian | 2935 | 8 | 65.5 |
Prizes: Maghsoodloo $1,000, Sevian $750, Bortnyk $350, Martinez $200, Niemann $100, Narva $100.
Grand Prix Standings
Nakamura regained the top spot in the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix standings, as everyone's worst scores are now going uncounted. Six of the top eight players remain from last week, with Martinez and Niemann replacing GM Jeffery Xiong and IM Kacper Drozdowski.
Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
1 | @Hikaru | 89.0 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
2 | @Jospem | 87.5 | GM | Jose Martinez |
3 | @Msb2 | 87.0 | GM | Matthias Bluebaum |
4 | @OparinGrigoriy | 85.0 | GM | Grigoriy Oparin |
5 | @HansOnTwitch | 85.0 | GM | Hans Niemann |
6 | @BogdanDeac | 85.0 | GM | Bogdan-Daniel Deac |
7 | @tptagain | 84.0 | GM | David Anton |
8 | @NikoTheodorou | 83.5 | GM | Niko Theodorou |
IM Karina Ambartsumova continues to lead in the women's standings. Here too, six of the players return from last week; Kosteniuk and WIM Maria Teresa Jimenez Salas are the new ranking players.
Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
1 | @karinachess1 | 67.0 | IM | Karina Ambartsumova |
2 | @anasta10 | 63.0 | FM | Anastasia Avramidou |
3 | @rollercoaster29 | 60.0 | WFM | Kalyani Sirin |
4 | @Flawless_Fighter | 58.0 | IM | Polina Shuvalova |
5 | @Sanyura | 53.5 | IM | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya |
6 | @ChessQueen | 47.0 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
7 | @teresin05 | 47.0 | WIM | Maria Teresa Jimenez Salas |
8 | @Meri-Arabidze | 46.0 | IM | Meri Arabidze |
Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) do not have SCC places on the line, but there will be cash prizes in each of these categories as well. The current leaders are:
Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov (@alexrustemov), 75.5 points
Youth: IM Ilan Schnaider (@IlanSchnaider), 70.0 points
Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 60.0 points
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).