Korobov Wins April's Final Titled Tuesday
The last Titled Tuesday tournament in the month of April was won by GM Anton Korobov. The Ukrainian grandmasters scored 8.5/9 and finished ahead of a group of 10 players on 8 points, including GM Alexander Grischuk and GM Hikaru Nakamura.
The next Titled Tuesday will be played on May 5, 2020 at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.
Korobov (@GOGIEFF) isn't a regular participant in our Titled Tuesday events, but that might change after his success in this week's event. Winning the $750 first prize is a likely motivation for the Ukrainian to try his luck some more.
It's fascinating to see that, for a few weeks in a row now (Titled Tuesdays are now held weekly at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 CEST on our server.), super grandmasters like Grischuk and Nakamura keep trying but keep on missing out on that top spot.
This is partly related to the fact that nine rounds might be not enough for a playing field that now has over a thousand participants each week. Even with so many players, we continue to have a sole (and worthy) winner with 8.5/9. Chess.com is considering adding some changes to the format soon.
Korobov was definitely in excellent shape as he started with a perfect 8/8. By then, a slightly disappointing but very sensible nine-move draw in the final round was enough to keep the distance with the rest of the pack.
The winner's games all have something in common: strictly classical, logical chess based on solid positional grounds and decided by better calculation in the tactical phase. Here's a nice combination from his game in round two—a game which, admittedly, had one flaw:
Both Grischuk (@Grischuk) and Nakamura (@Hikaru) suffered early losses in the tournament and then won all other games to come just half a point shy of first place. The American grandmaster went down as early as the first round when Serbian FM Filip Kumic (@Confer77) managed to bamboozle him with highly aggressive play:
Korobov won the $750 first prize for finishing clear first with 8.5/9. A group of 10 grandmasters, including Grischuk, Nakamura, and Oleksandr Bortnyk, scored half a point less and all won $55.
GM Antoaneta Stefanova (@GMStefanova) won the $100 prize for the best female player, and Bortnyk won the Chess.com streamers' prize of $100 that was given as 20 gifted subs to his channel.
Bortnyk's stream last Tuesday.
April 28, 2020 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Players on 7.5 or more)
| # | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | 14 | GM | @GOGIEFF | Anton Korobov | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 2 | 88 | IM | @Angry_Twin | Andrey Drygalov | 8 | 45 | |
| 3 | 60 | GM | @Sychev_Klementy | Klementy Sychev | 8 | 42.75 | |
| 4 | 10 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 8 | 42 | |
| 5 | 67 | GM | @GM_Levan_Pantsulaia | Levan Pantsulaia | 8 | 41.75 | |
| 6 | 23 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 8 | 41.5 | |
| 7 | 160 | GM | @Man-Chuk | Manuel Petrosyan | 8 | 41 | |
| 8 | 3 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 8 | 40.5 | |
| 9 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 8 | 39.5 | |
| 10 | 137 | GM | @Spartakus1975 | Spartak Vysochin | 8 | 37.75 | |
| 11 | 122 | GM | @Jumbo | Rinat Jumabayev | 8 | 35.5 | |
| 12 | 6 | GM | @2Vladimirovich90 | Dmitry Andreikin | 7.5 | 42.5 | |
| 13 | 118 | GM | @GukeshDommaraju | Gukesh D | 7.5 | 38.75 | |
| 14 | 9 | GM | @GeorgMeier | Georg Meier | 7.5 | 37.5 | |
| 15 | 79 | IM | @19283645 | David Gorodetzky | 7.5 | 37.25 | |
| 16 | 16 | GM | @YQPerez | Yasser Quesada Perez | 7.5 | 36.75 | |
| 17 | 75 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 7.5 | 35.75 | |
| 18 | 52 | IM | @swimmerchess | Siva Mahadevan | 7.5 | 35.25 | |
| 19 | 54 | GM | @Borsch7 | Maxim Matlakov | 7.5 | 33.25 | |
| 20 | 96 | GM | @Durarbayli | Vasif Durarbayli | 7.5 | 30 |
(Full final standings here.)
See also:
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.”
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