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Haik Martirosyan Wins Record-Breaking Titled Tuesday
Haik Martyrosian. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Haik Martirosyan Wins Record-Breaking Titled Tuesday

PeterDoggers
| 23 | Chess Event Coverage

19-year-old GM Haik Martirosyan of Armenia won this month's Titled Tuesday tournament. With 888 titled players, including top GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian NepomniachtchiMaxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Hikaru Nakamura, it was by far the biggest edition ever held.

With many countries under a (partial) coronavirus lockdown, a high turnout for our Titled Tuesday events in April was expected. The participation of almost nine hundred players was a surprise nonetheless.

Admittedly, the whopping 888 participants in the late edition last Tuesday was partly related to a mishap with the early edition. That 585-player event, unfortunately, had to be canceled after four rounds due to server issues that were resolved in time for the second tournament.

If that second tournament proved one thing, it was that the problems were not related to the number of players! With three hundred extra participants and a few sighs of relief, this tournament ran smoothly.

Here's a nice win by GM Anish Giri from the early edition:

Anish Giri
A nice start of the evening for Anish Giri. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Because of the removal of the earlier tournament, the prize fund for the late edition was doubled to $2,200. This attracted a total of 170 GMs, 191 IMs, 273 FMs, 12 WGMs, 23 WIMs, 17 WFMs, 67 CMs, 14 WCMs and 121 NMs.

Besides Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, Giri, and Nakamura, the list of famous names also included e.g. GMs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Vladislav Artemiev, Leinier Dominguez, Parham Maghsoodloo, Jorden van Foreest, Le Quang Liem, Nihal Sarin, and Alexandra Kosteniuk. Regular commentators such as GM Robert Hess and IM Daniel Rensch couldn't resist playing either.

Among quite a few participants who were streaming while playing was Nakamura. The American speed demon reached 5/5 thanks to this quick win over his compatriot GM Jeffery Xiong:

Nakamura's stream of the tournament.

A crucial game in the tournament was Nakamura's clash with Martirosyan in the penultimate round. It was a Fianchetto King's Indian where it was White who got a winning attack when his light-squared bishop started dominating the position.

Haik Martyrosian
Harik Martyrosian. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Martirosyan managed to stay half a point ahead of the pack as he held world championship candidate Nepomniachtchi to a draw in the final round. In fact, it was Nepo who held the draw after not getting enough compensation for a sacrificed pawn:

Ian Nepomniachtchi
Ian Nepomniachtchi. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Among the players trailing the winner by half a point was Caruana. The world number-two was in pretty good shape and won eight games, but he stumbled in round four against the Lithuanian IM Tomas Laurusas who confused him in the opening:

Martyrosian won the $1,000 first prize for finishing clear first with 8.5/9. Caruana shared second place with GMs Aryan Tari, Zaven Andriasian, Grigoriy Oparin, Daniil Lintchevski, IM Serg Zavgorodniy, and FM Irakli Akhvlediani. All won $142.86.

Nepomniachtchi won the Chess.com streamers' prize of $200 which was given as 40 gifted subs to his channel.

April 2020 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

# Fed Title Name Handle Rtg Pts SB
1 GM Haik Martyrosian @Micki-taryan 3099 8.5 46.25
2 GM Aryan Tari @AryanTari 2911 8 45
3 GM Zaven Andriasian @Zaven_ChessMood 2912 8 44.25
4 GM Grigoriy Oparin @OparinGrigoriy 2993 8 43.5
5 GM Fabiano Caruana @FabianoCaruana 3058 8 42
6 IM Serg Zavgorodniy @Zavgorodniy_Serg 2740 8 41.5
7 GM Daniil Lintchevski @klounessa 2955 8 39.5
8 FM Irakli Akhvlediani @Irakli_Akhvlediani 2703 8 38.5
9 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi @lachesisQ 3153 7.5 43.75
10 IM Siva Mahadevan @swimmerchess 2841 7.5 43.25
11 IM Tomas Laurusas @IMTominho 2844 7.5 43
12 GM Vladislav Artemiev @Sibelephant 3146 7.5 41.5
13 GM Mikhail Antipov @Antipov_Mikhail_Al 2913 7.5 41.25
14 GM Georg Meier @GeorgMeier 3012 7.5 40.75
15 GM Parham Maghsoodloo @Parhamov 3089 7.5 40
16 GM Eltaj Safarli @Eltaj_Safarli 3067 7.5 36.25
17 GM Jose Martinez @Jospem 2901 7 43.75
18 GM Jorden van Foreest @joppie2 3022 7 39.25
19 GM Milos Perunovic @Batica1984 2837 7 39
20 GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan @Sam_ChessMood 2912 7 38.5


Find more information about our Titled Tuesday tournaments here.

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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