Jeffery Xiong Wins Nov. 3 Titled Tuesday
GM Jeffery Xiong won the November 3 Titled Tuesday tournament, only his second Titled Tuesday victory so far. The American grandmaster finished on a fantastic 10/11 and remained undefeated.
Xiong had won once before, on April 18, 2017, which was also a qualifier for the Speed Chess Championship of that year. Like then, Xiong finished in clear first place in this week's tournament, an 11-round Swiss at a 3+1 time control with a total of 702 participants.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
There was a very surprising leader after seven rounds: IM Loic Travadon (@lolo9292), who was the only player left with a 100 percent score.
The French IM won his seventh game against the Indian talent GM Raunak Sadhwani (@RaunakSadhwani2005) in a game that can only be called The Dance of the Knights.
That was where the fun ended for Travadon, who lost three games in a row. In round eight, he was nicely outplayed by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (@ChessWarrior7197).
Xiong started with five wins before drawing with GMs Hikaru Nakamura (@Hikaru) and Vladimir Fedoseev (@Bigfish1995). The young American GM then won four games in a row to clinch the title, also profiting from the move-less draw between the other two players who were on 9/10, Sadhwani and the Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest (@joppie2).
Xiong's last-round win was against none other than GM Alireza Firouzja (@Firouzja2003). The American player surely knew his way in the Closed Sicilian, but it was only in the endgame that Firouzja blundered:
November 3 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 10 | 57 | |
| 2 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 9.5 | 64.5 | |
| 3 | GM | @RaunakSadhwani2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 9.5 | 62.25 | |
| 4 | GM | @joppie2 | Jorden van Foreest | 9.5 | 52.5 | |
| 5 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 9 | 66 | |
| 6 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 9 | 61 | |
| 7 | GM | @Baby_Legs | Arik Braun | 9 | 60.5 | |
| 8 | GM | @Chopper1905 | Mustafa Yilmaz | 9 | 57 | |
| 9 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 9 | 56.5 | |
| 10 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 9 | 55 | |
| 11 | GM | @Onischuk_V | Vladimir Onischuk | 8.5 | 61.5 | |
| 12 | GM | @BilodeauA | Kirill Alekseenko | 8.5 | 57.25 | |
| 13 | GM | @AnishOnYoutube | Anish Giri | 8.5 | 55 | |
| 14 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 8.5 | 51.75 | |
| 14 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Quparadze | 8.5 | 51.75 | |
| 16 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 8.5 | 50.5 | |
| 17 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 8.5 | 49.75 | |
| 18 | IM | @swimmerchess | Siva Mahadevan | 8.5 | 48.25 | |
| 19 | FM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 8.5 | 46.75 | |
| 19 | GM | @LiemLe | Liem Le | 8.5 | 46.75 |
Xiong won the $750 first prize, GM Daniil Dubov (@Duhless) won $400, Sadhwani $150, and Van Foreest $100. The $100 prize for the best female player went to GM Valentina Gunina (@Vanina1989) 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) with a weekly prize fund of $1,600.
