Blitz Specialist Sweeps Titled Tuesday
After winning Titled Tuesday five times in 2022, GM Jose Martinez entered the October 17, 2023 edition with more than a dozen top-five finishes in 2023 but no victories on the year. He changed that by sweeping this week's event. Martinez, who routinely holds a Chess.com blitz rating of 3100 or more and also has a 2700+ FIDE blitz rating, became the fifth player to win both Titled Tuesdays on the same day. He joined GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja in accomplishing the feat.
Martinez even won the early event on the rare 10.5/11 score before scoring 9.5 points late, which was also good enough to win without tiebreaks.
Early Tournament
There were 528 players in the early field, with other tournaments, such as the U.S. Championship and Qatar Masters, occupying several players. Martinez ran away with the event, finishing a full point ahead of second place and 1.5 points ahead of third.
His only missing half-point was from an eighth-round draw against Firouzja, which actually left the tournament in a three-way tie for first between them and IM Mykola Bortnyk. In the ninth round, Firouzja made a draw with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, while Martinez took care of Bortnyk.
Martinez and Firouzja both won in round 10, leaving things at a half-point margin. But while Firouzja lost again in the final round, Martinez defeated Duda.
October 17 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3134 | 10.5 | 74 | |
| 2 | 15 | IM | @Arystanner | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2852 | 9.5 | 54.5 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3087 | 9 | 77 | |
| 4 | 14 | IM | @Mykola-Bortnyk | Mykola Bortnyk | 2985 | 9 | 71.5 | |
| 5 | 9 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3025 | 9 | 68.5 | |
| 6 | 80 | IM | @I_am_Javi | Ernesto Fernandez | 2793 | 9 | 66.5 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | @Krakozia | Denis Khismatullin | 3021 | 9 | 64.5 | |
| 8 | 19 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2949 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 9 | 74 | GM | @ActorXu | Xu Yi | 2821 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 10 | 5 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3051 | 8.5 | 71 | |
| 11 | 33 | GM | @MikaelyanArman | Arman Mikaelyan | 2875 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 12 | 36 | GM | @adotand | Pranav Anand | 2865 | 8.5 | 65 | |
| 13 | 13 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2978 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 14 | 462 | FM | @Bauman_Guy | Konstantin Popov | 2868 | 8.5 | 49.5 | |
| 15 | 53 | GM | @AvitalBor | Avital Boruchovsky | 2861 | 8 | 75 | |
| 16 | 12 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2981 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 17 | 57 | FM | @Iball95 | Vakhlamov Igor | 2841 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 18 | 27 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2892 | 8 | 70 | |
| 19 | 4 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3059 | 8 | 70 | |
| 20 | 56 | FM | @PeshkaCh | Tykhon Cherniaiev | 2819 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 41 | 99 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2721 | 7.5 | 58 |
(Full final standings here.)
Martinez won $1,000 for his efforts. IM Arystanbek Urazayev, who missed the first round, claimed $750 in second place. Firouzja finished third for $350, Bortnyk fourth for $200, and GM Alexey Sarana fifth for $100. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won the $100 women's prize with a 7.5/11 score.
Late Tournament
For some time, it did not appear Martinez would also win in the late field of 390 participants. He had made two draws by round five, while GM Fabiano Caruana would reach a perfect 8/8 with wins like this wild one against Duda in round seven.
But Martinez and Caruana faced off in the ninth round, where Martinez defeated the back-to-back U.S. champion to move into a tie for first place.
While Martinez kept winning, checkmating GM Vincent Keymer in the endgame round 10, Caruana only added half a point in his final two games.
Duda, meanwhile, had recovered from his seventh-round game against Caruana to win three straight. In the 10th round, he beat GM David Anton to slide into a tie for second place entering the final round.
As a result, Martinez vs. Duda was once again the final-round matchup, with Martinez leading by half a point. This time, both players were fine with a draw, and they used the infamous Berlin repetition to get it. Duda stayed the half-point back of Martinez, but had the best tiebreaks in the entire field to finish in second place on nine points.
Caruana's last-round loss to GM Matthias Bluebaum kept him out of the top five while Bluebaum moved into fourth. The $60,000 that Caruana just won at the U.S. Championship should help reduce the sting a bit.
October 17 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3152 | 9.5 | 63 | |
| 2 | 5 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3072 | 9 | 75 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | @Baku_Boulevard | Rauf Mamedov | 3022 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3087 | 9 | 67.5 | |
| 5 | 34 | FM | @Bauman_Guy | Konstantin Popov | 2911 | 9 | 62.5 | |
| 6 | 11 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2999 | 9 | 59.5 | |
| 7 | 2 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3098 | 8.5 | 75 | |
| 8 | 24 | GM | @tptagain | David Anton Guijarro | 2934 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 9 | 7 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3033 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | @MikaelyanArman | Arman Mikaelyan | 2910 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 11 | 18 | GM | @h4parah5 | Jaime Santos Latasa | 2944 | 8.5 | 62.5 | |
| 12 | 160 | FM | @Dhaydon19 | David Haydon | 2602 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 13 | 14 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2949 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 14 | 17 | GM | @AryanTari | Aryan Tari | 2945 | 8 | 69 | |
| 15 | 21 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2911 | 8 | 69 | |
| 16 | 46 | GM | @eljanov | Pavel Eljanov | 2856 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 17 | 22 | IM | @AradNazari | Arad Nazari | 2920 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 18 | 13 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2963 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 19 | 41 | IM | @mind1mover | Vuk Damjanovic | 2893 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 20 | 3 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 3075 | 7.5 | 70.5 | |
| 28 | 118 | IM | @karinachess1 | Karina Ambartsumova | 2637 | 7.5 | 61.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Martinez added another $1,000 to his prizes for the day for a total of $2,000. Duda won $750 in second place, GM Rauf Mamedov $350 in third, and Bluebaum $200 in fourth. The $100 prizes were claimed by FM Konstantin Popov in fifth place and IM Karina Ambartsumova with 7.5/11 for the top women's score.
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).
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.
