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15-Year-Old Denis Lazavik Stuns At Titled Tuesday

15-Year-Old Denis Lazavik Stuns At Titled Tuesday

PeterDoggers
| 82 | Chess Event Coverage

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). 

Titled Tuesday Format

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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