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Coveted Perfect Score Returns To Titled Tuesday

Coveted Perfect Score Returns To Titled Tuesday

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NathanielGreen
Staff
| 24 | Chess Event Coverage

On February 4, GM Liem Le became the fourth player ever, and the first of 2025, to post a perfect 11/11 score in Titled Tuesday. He joins GMs Hikaru Nakamura (twice), Magnus Carlsen (twice), and Jose Martinez in accomplishing the feat. GM Alexey Sarana then won the late tournament with 10 points; he, too, won outright without the need for tiebreaks.

GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac scored 17.5 points across both tournaments and is now the leader of the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix standings.

Early Tournament

Le's final rival for the honor of a perfect score in the field of 943 players was GM Oleksandr Bortnyk (last week's Freestyle Friday victor), who also began 7/7. Their eighth-round bout was well-played and fairly even until Bortnyk tried a little too hard to push his queenside pawns.

Le defeated GM Grigoriy Oparin in the ninth round, and then his bid at perfection got very serious in round 10 against Nakamura. Le developed a winning endgame position, which he gave away for only one move when both players missed—but the computer does not—that the bishop actually is safe for Black to take on move 56.

For most of the final round, it appeared that GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu would stop Le at 10 points and potentially take the tournament for himself in the process (tiebreaks would have been close). That's when disaster struck for the reigning champion at Tata Steel Chess: with 2.1 seconds to play 45...Qh2# and win the game, he flagged.

The internet was abuzz, with Agadmator and GM Fabiano Caruana getting involved.

Also, in the final round, GMs Ediz Gurel and Adam Kozak defeated Bortnyk and Oparin, respectively, to finish second and third—although it took the third tiebreak to determine that (the old Sonneborn–Berger score that used to be the only tiebreak). Nakamura and GM Levon Aronian rounded out the top five, with IM Karina Ambartsumova earning the women's prize.

February 4 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 8 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3165 11 69
2 5 GM @gurelediz Ediz Gürel 3135 9.5 69
3 46 GM @MrTattaglia Adam Kozak 3026 9.5 69
4 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3293 9 80.5
5 16 GM @LevonAronian Levon Aronian 3094 9 77
6 3 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3182 9 72.5
7 29 GM @artooon Pranesh M 3044 9 69.5
8 26 GM @Annawel Jules Moussard 3042 9 68
9 29 GM @rpragchess Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 3052 9 67.5
10 18 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3071 9 67
11 22 GM @Philippians46 Andy Woodward 3073 9 67
12 13 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3084 9 66
13 34 IM @DonkyDonkyDonkey Eray Kilic 3026 9 63.5
14 27 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3068 8.5 76
15 40 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3012 8.5 73.5
16 32 GM @Sanan_Sjugirov Sanan Sjugirov 3019 8.5 72.5
17 25 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3058 8.5 71
18 70 GM @mitrabhaa Mitrabha Guha 2968 8.5 70.5
19 20 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3066 8.5 69.5
20 21 GM @Indianlad S.L. Narayanan 3039 8.5 68.5
80 213 IM @karinachess1 Karina Ambartsumova 2731 7.5 53.5

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Le $1,000, Gurel $750, Kozak $350, Nakamura $200, Aronian $100, Ambartsumova $100.

Alas, the 1,000-player milestone still awaits. When that mark is finally hit, the top 30 players will all receive prizes.

Late Tournament

While the early tournament had three fewer players than last week, the late tournament picked up a couple, reaching 654. Once again, 7/7 was the last perfect score, and this time, it was Caruana who held it, defeating GM Jaime Santos in round seven, while Sarana and Martinez drew each other to reach 6.5/7. 

Sarana began to take control of the tournament by defeating Caruana in round eight, although it took almost 100 moves to do so.

The outright lead for Sarana came when he won again in round nine, against IM Ravan Aliyev, while Martinez lost to GM Hans Niemann. Sarana wouldn't let the lead go, defeating Niemann himself in the 10th round.

Sarana's only rival at the top spot entering the final round was his opponent in that round, GM Alan Pichot. Sarana obtained a draw on move 60 and had the tournament in the bag.

Meanwhile, Martinez toppled GM Jan Gustafsson to grab second place on tiebreaks over Pichot, even though neither player really gained an edge in the engine evaluation. Instead, thematic to the last round earlier in the day, Gustafsson ran out of time. He was trying to deal with the apparent threat of 46.Rxg7+ (where the computer finds the 45...Rd8 counterattack on White's queen to retain equality).

Fourth place went to Carlsen, who was never quite in the first-place running due to back-to-back losses in rounds five and six—including to his old colleague Gustafsson (here's Gustafsson's German stream of that game)—but was a perfect 9/9 elsewhere. Caruana took fifth, while IM Polina Shuvalova led all women in the standings.

February 4 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 6 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3152 10 76
2 10 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3120 9.5 75.5
3 27 GM @platy3 Alan Pichot 3040 9.5 71.5
4 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3206 9 79
5 7 GM @FabianoCaruana Fabiano Caruana 3122 9 78.5
6 37 GM @h4parah5 Jaime Santos Latasa 2990 9 72.5
7 2 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3180 9 71.5
8 50 GM @GMAkobianSTL Varuzhan Akobian 2931 9 64
9 41 GM @1stSecond Nikita Meshkovs 2952 9 59
10 80 GM @JanistanTV Jan Gustafsson 2906 8.5 71.5
11 71 GM @GMVignirVatnar Vignir Vatnar Stefansson 2915 8.5 70.5
12 22 GM @amintabatabaei Amin Tabatabaei 3073 8.5 70.5
13 16 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3062 8.5 70
14 8 GM @LevonAronian Levon Aronian 3088 8.5 66.5
15 30 GM @tptagain David Anton Guijarro 2989 8.5 66
16 3 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3150 8.5 60
17 67 IM @Legit Krzysztof Raczek 2955 8.5 60
18 23 GM @Annawel Jules Moussard 3028 8.5 54
19 15 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3067 8 77.5
20 57 GM @Matibar Mateusz Bartel 2923 8 77.5
66 76 IM @Flawless_Fighter Polina Shuvalova 2842 7 63

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Sarana $1,000, Martinez $750, Pichot $350, Carlsen $200, Caruana $100, Shuvalova $100.

Grand Prix Standings

Next week, players' lowest scores will begin dropping out of Grand Prix consideration. For now, Deac took the standings lead after Nakamura sat out the late tournament, while GM David Anton moved into second and Nakamura retained third. Oparin replaced GM Rasmus Svane in the top eight.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @BogdanDeac 84.0 GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac
2 @tptagain 83.0 GM David Anton Guijarro
3 @Hikaru 80.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura
4 @jefferyx 79.0 GM Jeffery Xiong
5 @NikoTheodorou 78.0 GM Niko Theodorou
6 @OparinGrigoriy 77.0 GM Grigoriy Oparin
7 @Kacparov 77.0 IM Kacper Drozdowski
8 @Msb2 76.5 GM Matthias Bluebaum

Ambartsumova continues to lead in the women's standings.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @karinachess1 64.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova
2 @anasta10 52.5 FM Anastasia Avramidou
3 @rollercoaster29 48.0 WFM Kalyani Sirin
4 @Meri-Arabidze 46.0 IM Meri Arabidze
5 @Mirchi_26 43.5 WCM Swara Lakshmi Nair
6 @Flaweless_Fighter 42.5 IM Polina Shuvalova
7 @Sanyura 41.5 WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
8 @Navyblue1 40.5 NM Guadalupe Montano Vicente

Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), youths (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) do not have SCC places on the line, but there will be cash prizes in each of these categories as well. The current leaders are:

Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov (@alexrustemov), 71.5 points

Youth: IM Ilan Schnaider (@IlanSchnaider), 68.0 points

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 48.0 points

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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