Nakamura Continues Tuesday Run
GM Hikaru Nakamura won his third consecutive Titled Tuesday in the early tournament on February 21. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave followed up with a win in the late tournament. Both won with 9.5 points out of 11.
GM Fabiano Caruana was another top player of the day, finishing in the top five both times while coming a combined 0.5 point off the lead before tiebreakers.
Early Tournament
Nakamura began with 8/8, as he also did in last week's early tournament. This week, he got through GM Dmitry Andreikin in just 26 moves in the eighth round to reach that mark.
Nakamura hit an ultimately minor snag in the next couple of rounds. He was held to a draw by GM Denis Lazavik to end the perfect run and then lost to Caruana in round 10.
With the win, Caruana had recovered from a round-three loss to take a half-point lead on the field. However, his 99-move draw against GM Tuan Minh Le in the 11th round allowed Nakamura to catch up and pass Caruana on tiebreaks. Hikaru did it by scoring a win with the Dutch Defense (an opening he had played more often than most grandmasters in days past) over IM Bardiya Daneshvar.
And so, this time in a field of 515, Nakamura won his third straight Titled Tuesday, a feat which he has achieved before. In the late event, he would be going for an unprecedented fourth in a row.
February 21 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3204 | 9.5 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3079 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 42 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2936 | 9 | |
| 4 | 20 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2995 | 9 | |
| 5 | 9 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3036 | 9 | |
| 6 | 11 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 3029 | 9 | |
| 7 | 22 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3008 | 9 | |
| 8 | 70 | IM | @MatthewG-p4p | Matvey Galchenko | 2860 | 9 | |
| 9 | 8 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3042 | 8.5 | |
| 10 | 16 | IM | @bardiya_Daneshvar | Bardiya Daneshvar | 3004 | 8.5 | |
| 11 | 14 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3012 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 1 | GM | @VladimirKramnik | Vladimir Kramnik | 3062 | 8.5 | |
| 13 | 3 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3100 | 8 | |
| 14 | 29 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 2954 | 8 | |
| 15 | 51 | GM | @Bulldog167 | Leon Livaic | 2896 | 8 | |
| 16 | 5 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3049 | 8 | |
| 17 | 76 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2846 | 8 | |
| 18 | 48 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2901 | 8 | |
| 19 | 31 | GM | @igorkovalenko | Igor Kovalenko | 2931 | 8 | |
| 20 | 59 | GM | @Rakhmanov_Aleksandr | Aleksandr Rakhmanov | 2867 | 8 | |
| 38 | 217 | WIM | @PotapovaM | Margarita Potapova | 2588 | 7.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won $1,000 with Caruana settling for $750. Six players tied for third but just three won cash: GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan $350 in third place after tiebreaks, GM Arjun Erigaisi $200 in fourth, and Minh Le $100 in fifth. WIM Margarita Potapova won the $100 women's prize, scoring 7.5/11.
Late Tournament
In the late field of 391 players, Vachier-Lagrave's 9.5-point performance was enough to win outright ahead of four players tied on nine. Other than a loss in round three, he was perfect up until the final round.
Because of that early blip, however, Vachier-Lagrave did not move into first place until defeating GM Amin Tabatabaei in round nine.
Even then, Vachier-Lagrave was still only tied for first, but he followed up by dispatching the other player on 8/9, GM Matthias Bluebaum.
With Vachier-Lagrave now on 9/10, Caruana was the only other player who even had 8.5 points. When both of them made draws in the 11th round, "MVL" had an outright tournament victory.
In second place on the four-way tie was GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who with the black pieces defeated Nakamura in the final round to get there.
February 21 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 6 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 3096 | 9.5 | |
| 2 | 15 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3022 | 9 | |
| 3 | 38 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2926 | 9 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3100 | 9 | |
| 5 | 5 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3087 | 9 | |
| 6 | 20 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 2989 | 8.5 | |
| 7 | 4 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3101 | 8.5 | |
| 8 | 2 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3127 | 8.5 | |
| 9 | 8 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3057 | 8.5 | |
| 10 | 42 | IM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2900 | 8.5 | |
| 11 | 30 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2921 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 49 | IM | @c63_amg | people know me | 2849 | 8.5 | |
| 13 | 16 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3001 | 8 | |
| 14 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3183 | 8 | |
| 15 | 50 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 2831 | 8 | |
| 16 | 37 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 2899 | 8 | |
| 17 | 18 | IM | @KhazarBabazada007 | Khazar Babazada | 2967 | 8 | |
| 18 | 39 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2893 | 8 | |
| 19 | 19 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 2961 | 8 | |
| 20 | 12 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3011 | 8 | |
| 37 | 73 | IM | @nurgyulsalimova | Nurgyul Salimova | 2733 | 7.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Vachier-Lagrave's victory earned him $1,000. Fedoseev claimed $750 in second place and GM Gata Kamsky $350 in third. GM Nihal Sarin won $200 in fourth while Caruana won $100 in fifth place, for a total of $850 on the day. IM Nurgyul Salimova continues to score big in the late tournaments, winning another $100 women's prize.
Titled Tuesday is a tournament hosted for titled players every Tuesday by Chess.com, made up of two 11-round Swiss tournaments at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.
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.
