Dubov, Nakamura Continue To Crush Titled Tuesday
For the second consecutive week, the winners of the March 15 Titled Tuesday were GM Daniil Dubov and GM Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura, GM Dmitry Andreikin, and GM Amin Tabatabaei all finished in the top five in both events, while GM Alexandra Kosteniuk became the first player to sweep both women's prizes since Titled Tuesday added a second tournament on February 1.
Early Tournament
248 players joined the early tournament as, also for the second week in a row, a player began Titled Tuesday with nine wins in the first nine rounds. Last week, that was GM Praggnanandhaa R; this week, it was Dubov, who drew his last two rounds to secure a full-point victory in the field. It made for Dubov's second straight win, as last week he took the late tournament.
Broadcast of the early tournament hosted by WFM Alessia Santeramo.
It was not an easy ride to 9/9 for Dubov, who had to beat Nakamura in round seven and then, in round nine, was worse against GM Andrey Esipenko before coming back in mutual time trouble, putting him two games away from perfection.
Last week, Praggnanandhaa faded and finished third, so perhaps with that in mind, Dubov took a 16-move draw in round 10. That decision, as well as a draw between Nakamura and GM Alexey Sarana, gave Dubov an insurmountable 1.5-point lead on the field entering the last round.
That left players to vie for second, where there was a tie after Nakamura beat Esipenko and Tabatabaei defeated Sarana. The tiebreaks went to Nakamura.
March 15 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3084 | 10 | 66 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3158 | 9 | 65.25 | |
| 3 | 21 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 2949 | 9 | 49.75 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3043 | 8.5 | 53 | |
| 5 | 105 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3013 | 8.5 | 47.5 | |
| 6 | 64 | NM | @KrolPawel92OnTwitch | Paweł Kowalczyk | 2719 | 8.5 | 47 | |
| 7 | 3 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3033 | 8 | 50.5 | |
| 8 | 28 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2881 | 8 | 50 | |
| 9 | 14 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 2931 | 8 | 48.5 | |
| 10 | 29 | GM | @TimurGareyev | Timur Gareyev | 2868 | 8 | 47.75 | |
| 11 | 2 | GM | @Jumbo | Rinat Jumabayev | 2883 | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 12 | 6 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3004 | 8 | 41.75 | |
| 13 | 19 | GM | @GMHess | Robert L. Hess | 2918 | 8 | 41 | |
| 13 | 25 | GM | @Igrok3069 | Alexey Dreev | 2893 | 8 | 41 | |
| 15 | 104 | IM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2969 | 7.5 | 40.75 | |
| 16 | 23 | GM | @shimastream | Alex Shimanov | 2881 | 7.5 | 40 | |
| 17 | 53 | GM | @Evgeny81 | Evgeny Postny | 2788 | 7.5 | 39.75 | |
| 17 | 11 | GM | @Andreikka | Andrey Esipenko | 2961 | 7.5 | 39.75 | |
| 19 | 36 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2844 | 7.5 | 39.25 | |
| 20 | 42 | GM | @ActorXu | Yi Xu | 2853 | 7.5 | 37.25 | |
| 32 | 58 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2763 | 7 | 28.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Dubov claimed $1,000 for his victory, while Nakamura settled for $750 in second place. Tabatabaei's third-place finish earned him $300, while GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac finished fourth and took home $150. Andreikin and Kosteniuk earned $100 each for, respectively, finishing fifth overall and first among the women in the field.
Late Tournament
The late tournament saw 294 entrants, the first time it outperformed the early tournament in a week. It was Nakamura's turn to win on 10/11, also winning by a full point, and also drawing twice. His draws in rounds three and eight, however, put him into a tie with Andreikin on 9/10 entering the final round.
Broadcast of the late tournament hosted by IM Kostya Kavutskiy.
Nakamura had already defeated Andreikin in round seven, the latter player's only blemish till that point. So Nakamura faced GM Vladimir Fedoseev in round 11 instead, while Andreikin met GM David Paravyan. Nakamura won (below) after Fedoseev allowed an unusual smothered checkmate, while Andreikin lost.
Nakamura had earlier shown his prowess with a nasty queen sacrifice against GM Parham Maghsoodloo.
Paravyan moved up to third place with his 11th-round win over Andreikin, but could not surpass his opponent, as Andreikin played a tougher slate. Also tying Andreikin in the final round was Tabatabaei, but he had the worst tiebreak of the three and finished fourth.
Andreikin had, in fact, beaten Tabatabaei in just 28 moves in round nine, ending the game with over a minute on his clock while Tabatabei had just six seconds.
Then there was Kosteniuk, who moved up from 32nd in the early tournament to 21st in this one, with both performances earning the prize for the highest-scoring woman. Her day ended with an amusing endgame victory against GM Maksim Chigaev.
March 15 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3174 | 10 | 67.5 | |
| 2 | 9 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3046 | 9 | 66 | |
| 3 | 16 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2975 | 9 | 56 | |
| 4 | 17 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 2988 | 9 | 50.75 | |
| 5 | 14 | IM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2977 | 8.5 | 53.75 | |
| 6 | 24 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 2932 | 8.5 | 47.25 | |
| 7 | 4 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3085 | 8.5 | 46.25 | |
| 8 | 38 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 2917 | 8 | 49.5 | |
| 9 | 6 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3044 | 8 | 48 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2926 | 8 | 47.5 | |
| 11 | 29 | GM | @Hrant_ChessMood | Hrant Melkumyan | 2928 | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 12 | 11 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3015 | 8 | 46 | |
| 13 | 25 | IM | @Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 2951 | 8 | 39.25 | |
| 14 | 28 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2923 | 7.5 | 47.75 | |
| 15 | 94 | IM | @GothamChess | Levy Rozman | 2696 | 7.5 | 45.25 | |
| 16 | 7 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3024 | 7.5 | 44.5 | |
| 16 | 46 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 2883 | 7.5 | 44.5 | |
| 18 | 22 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2941 | 7.5 | 42.25 | |
| 19 | 47 | GM | @ActorXu | Yi Xu | 2846 | 7.5 | 41.5 | |
| 20 | 63 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2818 | 7.5 | 39 | |
| 21 | 73 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2777 | 7.5 | 38.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won $1,000 for his late victory and $1,750 in total for the day. Andreikin pocketed $750 for second place, bumping his Tuesday total to $850. Paravyan won $300 for third place while IM Denis Lazavik won $100 for finishing fifth. Tabatabaei's $150 prize for fourth place put him at $450 for the day, while the $100 won by Kosteniuk gave her a sum of $200.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly Swiss tournament held every Tuesday for titled players only. The two events every week start at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 23:00 Central European.
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.
