Nakamura Wins For A Third Straight Week

NathanielGreen

Updated: Mar 13, 2024, 9:36 AM | 9 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac were the winners of Titled Tuesday on March 12. For Nakamura, it was his third week in a row with a win and his first early tournament win in that time. For Deac, it was his first win in over a year. Coincidentally, Nakamura won the other event that day as well.

Nakamura won outright after starting out with a 9/9 score. Deac started 8/8 but then needed tiebreaks over GM Jeffery Xiong.

Early Tournament (Nakamura, 10 /11)
Late Tournament (Deac, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

Possibly due to Daylight Saving Time beginning in the United States but not yet in Europe, only 420 players played in the early tournament. The result was not particularly in doubt, with Nakamura's perfect start extending for nine rounds before a couple of late draws.

IM Yoseph Taher surprisingly matched Nakamura for six rounds, but was no match when they met in round seven. Well, to be fair, the game lasted 76 moves, with Nakamura keeping the position semi-closed until going for a pawn break on move 71 (!) against which Taher immediately lost control of the game.

Two rounds later, Nakamura stayed perfect against GM Hans Niemann.

Nakamura now led by a full point. Already having two perfect Titled Tuesdays in his career, he was satisfied with draws in his last two games to lock up the tournament. And good luck beating Nakamura when he just needs draws.

As the final round began, the tournament came down to a fight for second place. The contest between GMs Tuan Minh Le and Jose Martinez ended up being the critical battle of the round. Martinez had gotten to 8.5/10 in part because GM Vladimir Kramnik now refuses to play him and resigned on move two back in round five—reminiscent of another incident well over a year ago now—for Martinez's third straight win over Kramnik in three straight Titled Tuesdays.

Against Le, though, Martinez gradually lost control of the game and the standings. Le won to finish second, while Martinez ended up in seventh.

March 12 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3254	10	83
2	10		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3091	9.5	73.5
3	34		IM	@yosephtaher	Yoseph Theolifus Taher	2978	9	81
4	12		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3057	9	76.5
5	4		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3131	9	73.5
6	6		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3110	9	67.5
7	5		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3105	8.5	76.5
8	7		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3111	8.5	73
9	13		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3046	8.5	71.5
10	20		GM	@VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	2999	8.5	69
11	15		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3020	8.5	62.5
12	17		GM	@sergoy	Sergey Drygalov	3024	8	74
13	16		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3051	8	74
14	22		GM	@BilodeauA	Kirill Alekseenko	3006	8	74
15	27		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	2968	8	72.5
16	72		IM	@AlmasRakhmatullaev	Almas Rakhmatullaev	2852	8	72
17	18		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	2999	8	69
18	32		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2926	8	68.5
19	14		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3012	8	65.5
20	50		IM	@MatthewG-p4p	Matvey Galchenko	2903	8	61.5
43	65		IM	@Flawless_Fighter	Polina Shuvalova	2843	7	65.5

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won another $1,000, while Le took home $750. Four players finished on nine points, Taher claiming $350, GM Denis Lazavik earning $200 in fourth, and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda winning $100 in fifth, while GM Alexey Sarana finished a tough-luck sixth with the worst tiebreaks.

IM Polina Shuvalova won the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Participation recovered to 528 players for the late event, a rare occasion where the late event was busier than the early one.

In the seventh round, Deac did something no one had achieved only a few hours earlier: he beat Nakamura.

After one more win, now against Duda, Deac was finally held to a draw by GM Dmitry Andreikin. But Deac picked up right where he left off, toppling Sarana in the 10th round.

Like Nakamura, Deac entered the final round with 9.5 points and a full point ahead of three players. Deac did not finish his tournament so cleanly, though, with Xiong pulling off the rare feat of moving into a tie for first by defeating the tournament leader in the last round.

Unfortunately for Xiong, but luckily for Deac, the tiebreaks worked out in Deac's favor, and so the Romanian's hot start paid off in full anyway.

March 12 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	15		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3098	9.5	73.5
2	11		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3105	9.5	67.5
3	6		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3129	9	72.5
4	12		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3079	9	69.5
5	5		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3129	9	67.5
6	13		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3072	9	67
7	17		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3066	9	64.5
8	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3246	8.5	77.5
9	29		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3012	8.5	76.5
10	24		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3020	8.5	70.5
11	3		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3135	8.5	67
12	16		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3058	8.5	64.5
13	81		GM	@KaydenTroffChess	Kayden Troff	2843	8.5	61
14	42		GM	@jcibarra	José Ibarra	2932	8.5	54
15	98		GM	@CarlosAlbornoz	Carlos Albornoz	2846	8	78.5
16	32		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	2990	8	73.5
17	40		GM	@Anton_Demchenko	Anton Demchenko	2984	8	70.5
18	25		GM	@BilodeauA	Kirill Alekseenko	3015	8	70
19	61		GM	@ContrVersia	Valery Kazakouski	2880	8	66.5
20	101		FM	@Rud_2008	Rudolf Pashikyan	2806	8	66
94	143		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2660	6.5	48

(Full final standings here.)

Deac won $1,000 for his efforts, while Xiong settled for $750. This time, five players finished tied for third on nine points. Andreikin had the best tiebreaks in that group and won $350 in third place, while GM Alexander Grischuk was next for $200. The $100 prizes went to Sarana in fifth (somewhat making up for the near-miss earlier) and GM Aleksandra Goryachkina with the top women's score.

Titled Cup Standings

Players' worst performances are now starting to not count in their top 20 results, with Duda and Andreikin in particular benefiting for the moment. In the women's standings, Goryachkina moved into a tie for first with IM Karina Ambartsumova, while GM Gata Kamsky now leads the senior standings ahead of GM Alex Rustemov. CM Artem Bardyk still leads the juniors, although Lazavik and GM Pranav Venkatesh are both within 12 points despite playing in much fewer tournaments. Finally, WCM Veronika Shubenkova retains a sizable lead in the girls' standings.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	183.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@mishanick	171.5	GM Alexey Sarana
3	@Polish_fighter3000	169.0	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
4	@Jospem	165.0	GM Jose Martinez
5	@FairChess_on_YouTube	145.5	GM Dmitry Andreikin

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@karinachess1	124.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova
1	@Goryachkina	124.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@ChessQueen	72.5	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
4	@Sanyura	71.5	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
5	@Fh2411	70.0	IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: CM Artem Bardyk (120.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (143.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (68.0 points)

The new Titled Cup fantasy game Chess Prophet continues as well. Current standings can be found here. (Login required.)

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

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.