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(Not) Deja Vu As Carlsen, Maghsoodloo Win Titled Tuesday

(Not) Deja Vu As Carlsen, Maghsoodloo Win Titled Tuesday

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NathanielGreen
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| 43 | Chess Event Coverage

Don't adjust your calendars: GMs Magnus Carlsen and Parham Maghsoodloo won Titled Tuesday on February 11, and they've done it again on March 11. Neither player was quite as dominant as they were a month ago, both scoring 9.5 points this week. Carlsen won on tiebreaks over GM Jeffery Xiong while Maghsoodloo won outright. Carlsen and GM Jose Martinez moved ahead of GM Hikaru Nakamura in the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix for qualification to the Speed Chess Championship.

You can watch Carlsen's entire victorious performance on YouTube:

Early Tournament

In that awkward time of year where the United States has entered Daylight Saving Time but Europe has not, there were 473 players in the early tournament. The unusual time difference will persist for the March 18 and March 25 tournaments as well. April 1 will bring a different change when the late event starts an hour earlier, which is a permanent change.

The smaller field opened the door wider than usual to those who were playing, but in the end Carlsen conquered all despite an early draw in round three. No one started off particularly hot this week—usually at least one person begins 6/6 or better, but even that didn't happen here. That nine-way tie on 5.5 points eventually became four ways on 8/9 with two rounds left, and now things were a bit more dire for Carlsen, who was not part of it after losing to GM Oleksandr Bortnyk in round seven.

Of those four on eight points, only GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won his game, against the same Bortynk.

But now was finally the time for Carlsen to strike. Having beaten GM Aleksandar Indjic in round nine and GM Denis Lazavik in round 10, he got a shot at Praggnanandhaa in round 11. A tactical morass ensued, the computer finding several flaws with both players' play, but Carlsen finally wrested control. Except for one fleeting moment on move 43 where Praggnanandhaa had a shot at equalizing, Carlsen kept that control.

Carlsen was joined at the top by Xiong, who after consecutive draws in rounds nine and 10, defeated GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round 11. Unlike Carlsen–Praggnanandhaa, it was a relatively uneventful win for Xiong.

Carlsen's tiebreaks won out over Xiong, while Praggnanandhaa's still kept him in third place despite the last-second setback. GMs Sam Sevian and Arjun Erigaisi rounded out the top five, with Bortnyk a tough-luck sixth-place finisher. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk finished 48th on seven points and won the women's prize.

March 11 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 2 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3274 9.5 77.5
2 34 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3064 9.5 75
3 4 GM @rpragchess Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 3214 9 75
4 8 GM @Konavets Sam Sevian 3155 9 72.5
5 6 GM @GHANDEEVAM2003 Arjun Erigaisi 3185 9 71
6 15 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3120 9 70
7 12 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3129 8.5 68.5
8 7 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3168 8.5 68.5
9 13 GM @artooon Pranesh M 3111 8.5 65.5
10 72 GM @crescentmoon2411 Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2908 8.5 64
11 20 GM @DanielNaroditsky Daniel Naroditsky 3065 8.5 61.5
12 51 GM @Shankland Sam Shankland 2982 8 77.5
13 5 GM @LyonBeast Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3196 8 77
14 18 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3079 8 74
15 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3302 8 73.5
16 10 GM @AnishGiri Anish Giri 3125 8 71.5
17 29 GM @penguingm1 Andrew Tang 3021 8 68.5
18 26 GM @vi_pranav Pranav V 3046 8 66.5
19 54 GM @DavidGavrilescu18 David Gavrilescu 2953 8 60
20 62 GM @francyIM Francesco Sonis 2929 8 59.5
48 108 GM @ChessQueen Alexandra Kosteniuk 2813 7 61.5

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Carlsen $1,000, Xiong $750, Praggnanandhaa $350, Sevian $200, Arjun $100, Kosteniuk $100.

Late Tournament

As with Carlsen/Maghsoodloo winning on the 11th, exactly 473 players played the late event, another double-take-inducing moment. There were more fast starts this time, with Maghsoodloo and GM Alireza Firouzja starting 7/7. They drew each other in round eight, and both made draws again in round nine, and yet through all that they remained the only two players tied for first place.

The weird stasis finally lapsed in the 10th round. Carlsen was making a play for the sweep, but the attempt did not survive his encounter with Maghsoodloo. Maghsoodloo never really took control, although he was slightly ahead in the computer evaluation when Carlsen's flag fell. Carlsen's big chance came on move 41 when Maghsoodloo allowed a mate-in-three, but down to 17 seconds with Maghsoodloo still on 43, the world's best player didn't find the quiet winning move.

Firouzja, meanwhile, lost to Arjun in the 10th round, then fell out of top-five contention when IM Faustino Oro, the 11-year-old international master from Argentina, defeated him and very nearly made the top five himself.

Unfortunately, Oro's tiebreaks weren't quite good enough despite being tied for second place. GM Raunak Sadhwani, Martinez, GM Javokhir Sindarov, and Arjun all finished ahead of him. Out of the entire top five, Sindarov was the only one to get there needing a win in the last round, as all the others drew their final game. It came against GM Daniel Naroditsky, who apparently faltered immediately out of book.

Raunak's last win on the way to second place came a round earlier, with an impressive W over GM Andrey Esipenko in under 30 moves.

IM Meri Arabidze was the final prize winner, with the women's best score of the tournament.

March 11 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 13 GM @Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 3146 9.5 72.5
2 16 GM @RaunakSadhwani2005 Raunak Sadhwani 3107 9 74.5
3 17 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3099 9 71
4 6 GM @Javokhir_Sindarov05 Javokhir Sindarov 3159 9 70
5 3 GM @GHANDEEVAM2003 Arjun Erigaisi 3207 9 67
6 14 IM @FaustinoOro Faustino Oro 3105 9 63.5
7 32 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3057 9 63.5
8 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3275 8.5 77.5
9 20 GM @DanielNaroditsky Daniel Naroditsky 3117 8.5 74.5
10 10 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3131 8.5 71.5
11 30 GM @Andreikka Andrey Esipenko 3052 8.5 69.5
12 4 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3169 8.5 63
13 23 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3076 8.5 61
14 2 GM @Firouzja2003 Alireza Firouzja 3247 8 77.5
15 12 GM @NikoTheodorou Nikolas Theodorou 3131 8 73.5
16 24 GM @SGchess01 Szymon Gumularz 3009 8 70.5
17 11 GM @BogdanDeac Bogdan Daniel Deac 3119 8 69.5
18 41 FM @artin10862 Artin Ashraf 3001 8 69.5
19 15 GM @legendisback1 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus 3091 8 69.5
20 7 GM @lachesisQ Ian Nepomniachtchi 3128 8 68
77 165 IM @Meri-Arabidze Meri Arabidze 2671 6.5 57

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Maghsoodloo $1,000, Raunak $750, Martinez $350, Sindarov $200, Arjun $100 (daily total: $200), Arabidze $100.

Grand Prix Standings

Arjun has performed well this year and it's a bit surprising that he wasn't in the Grand Prix top eight already, but regardless, he enters now after today's fifth-place finishes. Lazavik is now in the top eight as well.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @MagnusCarlsen 91.0 GM Magnus Carlsen
2 @Jospem 91.0 GM Jose Martinez
3 @Hikaru 90.5 GM Hikaru Nakamura
4 @Msb2 89.5 GM Matthias Bluebaum
5 @GHANDEEVAM2003 89.0 GM Arjun Erigaisi
6 @Oleksandr_Bortnyk 88.5 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk
7 @DenLaz 88.0 GM Denis Lazavik
8 @mishanick 87.5 GM Alexey Sarana

Kosteniuk is back in the top eight, the only new entrant this week.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @Flawless_Fighter 71.0 IM Polina Shuvalova
2 @karinachess1 70.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova
3 @Sanyura 67.5 WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
4 @ChessQueen 67.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
5 @Meri-Arabidze 66.5 IM Meri Arabidze
6 @anasta10 64.5 FM Anastasia Avramidou
7 @jinbojinbo 64.0 GM Jiner Zhu
8 @Fh2411 64.0 IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham

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. The current leaders are:

Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 80.0 points

Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.0 points

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 61.5 points

Titled Tuesday

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).

The next Titled Tuesday to hit 1,000 participants will award prizes to the top 30 players.

NathanielGreen
Nathaniel Green

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.

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