Jeffery Xiong Wins Dec. 29 Titled Tuesday
GM Jeffery Xiong won the December 29 Titled Tuesday tournament. The American grandmaster edged out GMs Alan Pichot, Dmitry Andreikin, Vladimir Fedoseev, and Vahap Sanal on tiebreak.
This week's Titled Tuesday tournament had a total of 717 participants. It was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
This time it was the Russian GM Boris Savchenko (@tigra) who had the best start. Despite his perfect 7/7, he is not in the top 20 after 11 rounds because of a poor finish: two draws and two losses.
In his seventh-round game, Savchenko walked his king up the board and was rewarded with a mating tactic:
In round 10, two well-known commentators faced each other: GMs Daniel Naroditsky (@DanielNaroditsky) and GM Robert Hess (@GMHess). White was in a sacrificial mood but never got a real attack off the ground:
That meant that Hess was playing for the big bucks this time, but the tournament lasted one round too long for the American GM. He fell low on time and then saw his king under attack against Andreikin (@FairChess_on_YouTube):
Xiong's biggest scalp was eight-time Russian Champion GM Peter Svidler (@PSvidler), who didn't fully equalize out of the opening. His king was a constant worry and at one point, he lost his e-pawn. Xiong finished it with decent technique:
GM Hikaru Nakamura also played—shortly after his match with GM Levon Aronian in the Airthings Masters—but left the tournament after seven rounds, having suffered two losses by then.
His game in round three was wild. So much had happened before we pick it up at move 68, a terrible mouse slip or blunder:
Dec. 29 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Place | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | 22 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 9.5 | 65.25 | |
| 2 | 56 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 9.5 | 61.5 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 9.5 | 60 | |
| 4 | 6 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 9.5 | 59.5 | |
| 5 | 38 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 9.5 | 58.75 | |
| 6 | 21 | GM | @ChessWarrior7197 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 9 | 61.25 | |
| 7 | 40 | GM | @GMHess | Robert L. Hess | 9 | 57 | |
| 8 | 10 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 9 | 55 | |
| 9 | 74 | GM | @sergiochess83 | Sergey Grigoriants | 9 | 54.75 | |
| 10 | 27 | GM | @erichansen | Eric Hansen | 9 | 52 | |
| 11 | 427 | NM | @NMShanMeruga | Shanmukha Meruga | 9 | 43.5 | |
| 12 | 8 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 8.5 | 56.75 | |
| 13 | 98 | FM | @kingofthenil | Mahel Boyer | 8.5 | 50.75 | |
| 14 | 60 | FM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 8.5 | 50.25 | |
| 14 | 31 | GM | @AryanTari | Aryan Tari | 8.5 | 50.25 | |
| 16 | 39 | GM | @kirillshevchenko | Kirill Shevchenko | 8.5 | 49.25 | |
| 17 | 16 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 8.5 | 47.75 | |
| 18 | 26 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 8.5 | 45.25 | |
| 19 | 41 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 8.5 | 44.75 | |
| 20 | 28 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 8.5 | 44.25 |
(Full final standings here.)
Xiong won $750 for first place, Pichot $400 for second, Andreikin $150 for third, and Fedoseev $100 for fourth. The $100 prize for the best female player went to WFM Ekaterina Miroshnik (@KaterinaMiroshnik), who scored 7/11.
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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