Nakamura Wins April 13 Titled Tuesday
He had been dry for over two months but yesterday he was back. GM Hikaru Nakamura won the April 13 Titled Tuesday tournament with a 10/11 score. The American finished ahead of the trio GM Dmitry Andreikin, GM Baadur Jobava, and GM Sergei Zhigalko.
This week's Titled Tuesday tournament, held on April 13, had a total of 769 participants. As always, it was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control. Perhaps inspired to play on GM Garry Kasparov's birthday, the most accomplished Titled Tuesday player of all time Nakamura won yet again.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
This time, Nakamura got off to a great start as he won his first nine games. His crushing win in round six was nice:
Jobava, who had won his first seven games as well, lost to Naka in round eight. The Georgian GM lost a pawn in the opening and never saw it back:
Andreikin, the only player on 7.5/8, was Nakamura's next victim. Before showing their clash, here's Andreikin's win in round eight against GM Alireza Firouzja, the winner of the last two Titled Tuesdays. This game saw a pretty finish:
Andreikin vs. Nakamura was a textbook example of how to use the bishop pair and quite instructive to watch. However, while many textbooks (especially the old ones!) tend to leave better defensive options unmentioned, in this case, it seems quite clear where the position went from worse to lost for Andreikin:
April 13 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| # | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB | |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3173 | 10 | 82.5 | ||
| 2 | 8 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3016 | 9.5 | 71.5 | ||
| 3 | 23 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2983 | 9.5 | 62 | ||
| 4 | 27 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2922 | 9.5 | 53.75 | ||
| 5 | 5 | IM | @wonderfultime | Le Tuan Minh | 3042 | 9 | 59.75 | ||
| 6 | 37 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 2903 | 9 | 58.5 | ||
| 7 | 10 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2987 | 9 | 55.75 | ||
| 8 | 39 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Quparadze | 2909 | 9 | 54.25 | ||
| 9 | 80 | GM | @nrvisakh | Visakh NR | 2815 | 9 | 52 | ||
| 10 | 130 | FM | @Reader777 | (Undisclosed) | 2741 | 8.5 | 56.25 | ||
| 11 | 9 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2960 | 8.5 | 54.25 | ||
| 12 | 65 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2854 | 8.5 | 53 | ||
| 13 | 43 | IM | @AlexTriapishko | Alexandr Triapishko | 2884 | 8.5 | 51.75 | ||
| 14 | 33 | GM | @Sychev_Klementy | Klementy Sychev | 2903 | 8.5 | 51.5 | ||
| 15 | 74 | IM | @DeTimmerman | Mark Timmermans | 2796 | 8.5 | 50.75 | ||
| 16 | 25 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2903 | 8.5 | 50.25 | ||
| 17 | 38 | GM | @RD4ever | Rustam Khusnutdinov | 2871 | 8.5 | 49.25 | ||
| 18 | 93 | GM | @Vanina1989 | Valentina Gunina | 2782 | 8.5 | 47.75 | ||
| 18 | 76 | IM | @nrvignesh | Vignesh N.R | 2810 | 8.5 | 47.75 | ||
| 20 | 178 | GM | @DrVitman | (Undisclosed) | 2745 | 8.5 | 47 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won $750 for first place, Andreikin $400 for second, Jobava $150 for third, and GM Zhigalko $100 for fourth.
The $100 prize for the best female player went to GM Valentina Gunina (@Vanina1989) who scored 8.5/11 and finished 18th.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time (19:00 Central Europe).
