15-Year-Old Denis Lazavik Stuns At Titled Tuesday
This week's Titled Tuesday saw a surprising winner. The Belarusian FM Denis Lazavik (@DenLaz) clinched the first prize as he edged out GM Jeffery Xiong (@jefferyx) on tiebreak. Both scored 9.5/11. Only 15 years old, Lazavik was the first FM to finish atop a Titled Tuesday in over a year.
This week's Titled Tuesday tournament had a total of 402 participants. It was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.
Lazavik seems to be especially strong in online blitz. Although only an FM, he was the 25th seed in this tournament.
In the eighth round, he beautifully outplayed GM Dmitry Andreikin (@FairChess_on_YouTube):
The absence of regular participants such as GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Alireza Firouzja, and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (all involved in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational) helped, but there was even more fortune involved with Lazavik's tournament victory.
In the final round, no move appeared after 1.e4 as the Azerbaijani GM Vugar Rasulov (@vugarrasulov) disconnected and couldn't get back to the game at all. Before that, GM Sam Sevian (@Konavets), Lazavik's opponent in the penultimate round, seemed to have resigned in a winning position.
Xiong, the runner-up on tiebreak, played a remarkable game in the second round. Due to what was most probably a mouse slip, the American GM blundered a fork on c7 as early as move five but ended up winning anyway:
March 16 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| # | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 25 | FM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2881 | 9.5 | 63.75 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3022 | 9.5 | 56 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksey Sarana | 3025 | 9 | 64 | |
| 4 | 10 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2934 | 9 | 58.25 | |
| 5 | 7 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 2952 | 8.5 | 59 | |
| 6 | 26 | GM | @Onischuk_V | Vladimir Onischuk | 2859 | 8.5 | 49.25 | |
| 7 | 17 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2889 | 8.5 | 48.5 | |
| 7 | 42 | FM | @NTBT_DHS | Sơn Đặng | 2808 | 8.5 | 48.5 | |
| 9 | 13 | IM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2911 | 8.5 | 46.5 | |
| 10 | 20 | GM | @KuzubovYuriy | Yuriy Kuzubov | 2863 | 8.5 | 44.25 | |
| 11 | 98 | GM | @jfriedel | Josh Friedel | 2720 | 8.5 | 43.25 | |
| 12 | 11 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 2918 | 8.5 | 42.75 | |
| 13 | 4 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2965 | 8 | 53.25 | |
| 14 | 50 | GM | @Evgeny81 | Evgeny Postny | 2779 | 8 | 51.5 | |
| 15 | 5 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Quparadze | 2924 | 8 | 48.5 | |
| 16 | 32 | GM | @XDPS | Pablo Salinas Herrera | 2817 | 8 | 47.75 | |
| 17 | 14 | IM | @renatoterrylujan | Renato Terry | 2931 | 8 | 47.25 | |
| 18 | 18 | GM | @Sychev_Klementy | Klementy Sychev | 2873 | 8 | 45.75 | |
| 19 | 37 | GM | @bakki78 | Vladimir Baklan | 2790 | 8 | 43.5 | |
| 20 | 24 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2858 | 8 | 40.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Lazavik won $750 for first place, Xiong $400 for second, Sarana $150, and Bluebaum $100.
The $100 prize for the best female player again went to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (@ChessQueen) who scored 7.5/11.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time (19:00 Central Europe).
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Peter Doggers is Chess.com’s Senior Global Correspondent. Between 2007 and 2013, his website ChessVibes was a major source for chess news and videos, acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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