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Ties Rule Day As Firouzja, Yoo Win Titled Tuesday

Ties Rule Day As Firouzja, Yoo Win Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen
| 7 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Alireza Firouzja and GM Christopher Yoo won the Titled Tuesday events of September 17, both needing tiebreaks even though Firouzja scored 10 points while Yoo scored 9.5 points. GM Jeffery Xiong and GM Jose Martinez, respectively, were the runners-up. 

For Firouzja, it was his fourth win of the year, and for Yoo, his second.


Early Tournament

Despite the ongoing 45th Olympiad, 757 participants found their way into the early tournament, including a few who are playing in the Olympiad, such as GM Magnus Carlsen.

Firouzja made a draw in round four, so it was Xiong who was the favorite after reaching an 8/8 score. In round nine, however, Firouzja asserted that the tournament was instead his to lose when he trapped Xiong's rook on the sixth rank.

Firouzja would still need to earn it, as his next battle came with Black against GM Hikaru Nakamura. And while that's not a good situation for winning in 26 moves like he did in the previous round, Firouzja needed only 38 to outplay his esteemed opponent.

Meanwhile, the setback to Firouzja ended up being Xiong's only one of the tournament, as he wrapped up with wins against GMs David Paravyan and Oleksandr Bortnyk. Thanks to Firouzja's draw in the final round against GM Aram Hakobyan, Xiong's win over Bortnyk even brought him back into a tie for first, but it wasn't quite enough.

September 17 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 5 GM @Firouzja2003 Alireza Firouzja 3188 10 79
2 12 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3109 10 76
3 27 GM @Njal28 Aram Hakobyan 3047 9.5 70.5
4 2 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3287 9 81.5
5 10 GM @DanielNaroditsky Daniel Naroditsky 3041 9 78
6 11 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3101 9 72.5
7 33 GM @Volodar_Murzin Volodar Murzin 3012 9 72.5
8 67 FM @ELECTRODYNAMIC_DRACULA Havard Haug 2910 9 70
9 3 GM @lachesisQ Ian Nepomniachtchi 3194 9 66.5
10 17 GM @Msb2 Matthias Bluebaum 3051 9 63
11 685 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3106 9 50.5
12 26 IM @Rud_Makarian Rudik Makarian 3020 8.5 73.5
13 9 GM @Duhless Daniil Dubov 3100 8.5 71.5
14 6 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3132 8.5 71
15 39 GM @mitrabhaa Mitrabha Guha 2991 8.5 69
16 21 GM @shimastream Aleksandr Shimanov 3050 8.5 68.5
17 42 IM @mbojan Bojan Maksimović 2963 8.5 67.5
18 65 FM @Eagle_2019 Mamedov Edgar 2905 8.5 63.5
19 55 GM @FXDon77 Xu Yi 2936 8 78
69 245 FM @Leebit02 Liya Kurmangaliyeva 2670 7 71.5

(Full final standings here.)

Firouzja won the $1,000 first-place prize with Xiong settling for $750 for second. Hakobyan finished third place outright for $350. The remaining prizes were $200 to Nakamura in fourth, $100 to GM Daniel Naroditsky in fifth, and $100 to FM Liya Kurmangaliyeva for the women's prize.

Late Tournament

With 508 late participants, a streak of having 500+ players in every tournament continued, one that dates back to April 16, or 23 weeks and 46 tournaments.

Unlike the early tournament winner, Yoo wasn't able to beat Nakamura, losing their sixth-round matchup. Nakamura extended his perfect start to 7/7 against GM Andrey Esipenko, unable to resist an underpromotion at the very end (who can?) before finally making two consecutive draws.

At the same time, the setback to Nakamura was the only game out of the first 10 that Yoo wouldn't win. By the time he beat GM Daniil Dubov in the 10th round, Yoo was tied with Nakamura atop the standings.

In the final round, Yoo played a 32-move draw with GM Andrew Hong, giving Nakamura the chance to claim the tournament. What happened instead, though, was that Martinez won a dramatic endgame.

As a result, Yoo's final draw was actually enough to clinch the tournament. Martinez caught up with him in overall points, but didn't have enough tiebreak juice to make the ultimate difference.

September 17 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 18 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3053 9.5 72.5
2 5 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3138 9.5 71
3 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3285 9 75.5
4 10 IM @MITerryble Renato Terry 3069 9 73
5 26 GM @Vaathi_Coming Aravindh Chithambaram 3003 9 70
6 2 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3248 9 68.5
7 19 GM @artooon Pranesh M 3023 9 65
8 15 GM @SpeedofLight0 Andrew Hong 3048 9 64.5
9 105 IM @WorriedEgg Aaron Jacobson 2774 9 61.5
10 3 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3123 8.5 75.5
11 41 GM @VitaliyBernadskiy Vitaliy Bernadskiy 2935 8.5 65
12 38 IM @chenxiaoyuer Ryo Chen 2889 8.5 59
13 7 GM @Duhless Daniil Dubov 3078 8 82.5
14 17 IM @Rud_Makarian Rudik Makarian 3026 8 75
15 6 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3104 8 72
16 22 GM @Fandorine Maksim Chigaev 2990 8 70
17 55 IM @Alexander_Khlebovich Alexander Khlebovich 2882 8 68.5
18 14 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3020 8 66.5
19 42 GM @evgchess5 Evgeny Alekseev 2904 8 65.5
20 16 GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3013 8 65.5
65 141 IM @Fh2411 Le Thao Nguyen Pham 2629 7 56.5

(Full final standings here.)

Yoo won the $1,000 for first and Martinez took the $750 for second. Nakamura won another $350, reaching $550 on the day, for his third place finish. IM Renato Terry finished fourth for $200 and GM Aravindh Chithambaram fifth for $100. The $100 women's prize went to IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham.

Titled Cup Standings

With his second-place finish Xiong moved into a tie for fifth in the Titled Cup standings, and IM Karina Ambartsumova did the same in the women's standings.

Open

# Username Score Player
1 @Hikaru 198.5 GM Hikaru Nakamura
2 @MagnusCarlsen 191.0 GM Magnus Carlsen
3 @Jospem 187.0 GM Jose Martinez
4 @mishanick 186.0 GM Alexey Sarana
5-t @Polish_fighter3000 185.5 GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
5-t @jefferyx 185.5 GM Jeffery Xiong

Women

# Username Score Player
1 @Goryachkina 142.0 GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2 @Flawless_Fighter 141.5 IM Polina Shuvalova
3 @ChessQueen 141.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
4 @Meri-Arabidze 138.0 IM Meri Arabidze
5-t @Sanyura 136.0 IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
5-t @karinachess1 136.0 IM Karina Ambartsumova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (183.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (169.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (119.0 points)

The Titled Cup fantasy game Chess Prophet continues as well. Current standings can be found here. (Login required.)

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).

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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