Nakamura Wins November 2 Titled Tuesday
GM Hikaru Nakamura won the November 2 Titled Tuesday outright with 9.5/11, followed by a three-way tie for second place at 9 points out of 11. When the dust settled, that put GM Daniel Naroditsky in second place, GM Sergei Zhigalko in third, and GM Alexander Zubov in fourth.
452 players competed in Titled Tuesday this week, once again played as an 11-round Swiss tournament with a 3+1 time control.
Live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by NM James Canty III.
The regularity of a Nakamura victory in Titled Tuesday (he has nearly 30 tournament wins all-time) contrasted with the rarity of 9.5/11 sufficing to win it without the tiebreaker (it usually takes at least 10 points to win outright) made this specific win unique. Yet it was nearly the case that neither the regularity nor the rarity came to be.
Zhigalko, not Nakamura, held sole first place entering the final round, a position he'd enjoyed since becoming the last perfect player in round seven. However, Zubov beat Zhigalko in the final round, the former moving into the top four while leaving the latter in third.
Nakamura took advantage with a win over GM Mikhail Demidov to move into first, while Naroditsky achieved second with a victory over FM Frederik Svane.
The top two players played some notable games before the last round, of course. One was their draw in the 10th round, while two other wins came against two other fan favorites.
Nakamura held off IM Minh Le in a round seven endgame after finding 77...Rxc3.
And Naroditsky beat GM Baadur Jobava in a tense fight in the sixth round.
November 2 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB | Prize |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3263 | 9.5 | 71.25 | $750 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3046 | 9 | 67 | $400 | |
| 3 | 16 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2961 | 9 | 64.5 | $150 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 2984 | 9 | 54 | $100 | |
| 5 | 36 | FM | @KhazarBabazada007 | 2812 | 8.5 | 57.75 | |||
| 6 | 8 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2988 | 8.5 | 56.75 | ||
| 7 | 5 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3004 | 8.5 | 55.75 | ||
| 8 | 14 | IM | @swimmerchess | Siva Mahadevan | 2925 | 8.5 | 55.25 | ||
| 9 | 15 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2931 | 8.5 | 53.25 | ||
| 10 | 38 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 2862 | 8.5 | 51.5 | ||
| 11 | 17 | IM | @Manticore17 | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2931 | 8.5 | 51 | ||
| 12 | 25 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 2889 | 8.5 | 50.75 | ||
| 13 | 64 | IM | @vinniethepooh | Aditya Mittal | 2774 | 8.5 | 43.25 | ||
| 14 | 26 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2887 | 8 | 52.25 | ||
| 15 | 10 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2958 | 8 | 48.75 | ||
| 16 | 47 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 2801 | 8 | 47 | ||
| 17 | 105 | FM | @Vazabanga | 2658 | 8 | 45.5 | |||
| 18 | 184 | FM | @frederiksvane | Frederik Svane | 2849 | 8 | 45 | ||
| 18 | 58 | GM | @chessdjw | Dennis Wagner | 2761 | 8 | 45 | ||
| 20 | 9 | GM | @Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 2953 | 8 | 42.5 | ||
| 55 | 92 | WIM | @PotapovaM | Margarita Potapova | 2631 | 7 | 32 | $100 |
(Full final standings here.)
WIM Margarita Potapova won the $100 prize for the top-finishing woman.
Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for titled players run on Chess.com every week. It begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European every Tuesday.
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.
