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Nakamura Scores 10.5/11, Wins On Tiebreaks, Then Sweeps

Nakamura Scores 10.5/11, Wins On Tiebreaks, Then Sweeps

NathanielGreen
| 33 | Chess Event Coverage

It's always tough to stop GM Hikaru Nakamura, but it's becoming nigh impossible in Titled Tuesday. He swept both tournaments on May 14, the second time in just the past four weeks, giving him a total of 12 victories for the year when no one else has more than three.

In an unprecedented occurrence, a score of 10.5/11, one mere draw from perfection, was not enough to win the early tournament. Nakamura and GM Alexander Grischuk both scored 10.5 points, but Nakamura played the slightly tougher schedule and won on the tiebreak score, while Grischuk was forced to settle for second place. The late tournament was less of a doozy, with Nakamura scoring 9.5 points, but a full point less was somehow good enough to win outright this time.


Early Tournament

In a jumbo jet-sized field of 747 players in the early tournament, two of them stole the show. Outside of their draw in round nine—yes, against each other—Nakamura and Grischuk both scored a perfect 10/10. When someone scores 10.5 points, we don't usually show their draw, especially a boring 28-move draw, but this one was historic by Titled Tuesday standards. Stockfish gave Grischuk a marginal edge in the final position, but not enough that anyone would blame him for taking the draw.

Nakamura and Grischuk's full-point lead on everyone else was now half a point, so neither player could let up, and neither player did. In round 10, Nakamura took out GM Tuan Minh Le in 50 moves with 11 seconds on his clock, then Grischuk kept pace by beating GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in 60 moves with just three seconds to go.

Surely the 11th round would now be decisive, yes? By no means. Nakamura would face GM Anish Giri, who was still only a half-point behind the leaders, meaning a win for Giri would have him leapfrog Nakamura in the standings. Grischuk, meanwhile, faced GM Matthias Bluebaum, for whom a win would tie Grischuk in the standings.

But, of course, Nakamura and Grischuk both won again. Nakamura did so first, avoiding Giri's likely Najdorf Sicilian with 4.Qxd4, winning a pawn on move 19, then giving it back on move 43 but winning just 13 moves later as his connected passed pawns on the queenside began to march.

Grischuk, meanwhile, got into a slugfest with Bluebaum that lasted 116 moves, although some bitter-end fighting from Bluebaum lengthened the proceedings. According to the tablebase, Grischuk was winning from move 63 onward, and had multiple avenues to victory on every turn (with the formal exception of capturing the bishop on move 101).

Unfortunately, for Grischuk, it wasn't enough. Based on the tiebreak system, the fact he was facing a player on 8.5 points in the final round, while Nakamura got one on nine points, was already a bad sign. On the other hand, finishing in second place with a 95% score is one way to hit the record books.

May 14 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3235 10.5 80.5
2 4 GM @Grischuk Alexander Grischuk 3140 10.5 77
3 20 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3017 9.5 67
4 17 GM @AnishOnYoutube Anish Giri 3038 9 74
5 39 FM @snowlord Ivan Yeletsky 2959 9 74
6 9 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3069 9 73.5
7 77 IM @the_chess_child Ilamparthi A R 2911 9 71
8 6 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3092 9 69.5
9 27 GM @rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 2984 9 68
10 69 GM @platy3 Alan Pichot 2892 9 66.5
11 10 GM @Msb2 Matthias Bluebaum 3069 8.5 77
12 3 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3110 8.5 72
13 5 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3103 8.5 71
14 18 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3002 8.5 68
15 22 GM @FormerProdigy David Navara 2999 8.5 67.5
16 15 GM @DominguezOnYoutube Leinier Dominguez Perez 3022 8.5 66
17 16 GM @sergoy Sergey Drygalov 3011 8.5 65.5
18 8 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3047 8.5 64.5
19 114 GM @chito89 Axel Bachmann 2843 8.5 63
20 235 FM @Hope_6 Airat Sadubayev 2695 8.5 61.5
21 628 WFM @czechbul17 Patricie Naymanova 2295 8.5 56

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $1,000 while Grischuk, unbelievably, had to settle for the second-place prize of $750. GM Jose Martinez finished outright third on 9.5 points and earned $350. Giri, despite his final round loss, finished fourth for $200 while FM Ivan Yeletzky came in fifth and earned $100. WFM Patricie Naymanova, seeded 628/747, scored 8.5 points to finish in a surprising 21st place, and claimed the $100 women's prize. 

Late Tournament

Mundanity returned for the field of 544 in the late tournament. No sky-high second place scores, just another victory for Nakamura. It wasn't that way the whole time, with Nakamura suffering a shock loss in the second round to FM Lucas Do Valle Cardoso.

From, there, however, Nakamura scored 8.5/9, only drawing GM Benjamin Bok in round 10. Nakamura's seven-game winning streak from games three through nine included victories over GM Fabiano Caruana in round seven and Martinez in round nine. Nakamura's Trompowsky Attack against Caruana quickly transposed into a Queen's Gambit Declined, but the more familiar opening ground didn't help stop the Nakamura train.

Bok did manage to slow it down, however, and the result was that GM Daniil Dubov led the tournament with 9/10 entering the final round, while Nakamura, Bok, Caruana, and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda were tied on 8.5 points.

It's another bit of Nakamura's devil magic to turn that situation into an outright victory, but indeed he did. It helped, of course, that he had the opportunity to take Dubov down himself.

From there it was a matter of Caruana and Duda drawing each other in 47 moves while Bok lost to Bluebaum. And there you had it, another Nakamura victory in Titled Tuesday.

May 14 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3240 9.5 71
2 6 GM @Duhless Daniil Dubov 3125 9 77
3 11 GM @Msb2 Matthias Bluebaum 3086 9 74
4 10 GM @FabianoCaruana Fabiano Caruana 3094 9 69.5
5 2 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3209 9 67
6 21 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3016 9 66.5
7 22 GM @rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 2995 9 65
8 7 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3115 9 63.5
9 19 IM @MITerryble Renato Terry 3029 9 61
10 15 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3062 8.5 72
11 13 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3057 8.5 70.5
12 17 GM @DominguezOnYoutube Leinier Dominguez Perez 3024 8.5 68.5
13 14 GM @Sanan_Sjugirov Sanan Sjugirov 3038 8.5 63.5
14 8 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3086 8.5 62
15 9 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3078 8.5 58.5
16 18 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3023 8 77
17 64 FM @artin10862 Artin Ashraf 2903 8 72.5
18 62 IM @Szparu Milosz Szpar 2903 8 71.5
19 12 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3045 8 71
20 29 GM @Durarbayli Vasif Durarbayli 2948 8 69
38 180 GM @jinbojinbo Jiner Zhu 2678 7.5 64

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won another $1,000, for the daily total of $2,000. Dubov managed to hold second place in the eight-player tie on nine points behind Nakamura, earning $750. Bluebaum finished third for $350, Caruana fourth for $200, and—oh, yeah—GM Magnus Carlsen also played, finishing in fifth place for $100. GM Jiner Zhu was the $100 women's prize winner with 7.5 points.

Titled Cup Standings

We had a change atop the women's standings, with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk scoring eight points in the early tournament, her 20th appearance of the year, and replacing GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in first place. Meanwhile, Nakamura gained two more points in the Titled Cup standings, to 194, and it seems within reach by the end of the year to average 10 points in his top 20 performances.

GM Denis Lazavik continues to lead the juniors, with GM Christopher Yoo 15.5 points behind but possibly having the ability to make noise down the line; Yoo's top scores are already higher but he needs to match Lazavik's consistency.

GM Gata Kamsky continues to hold a safe lead among seniors, while WCM Veronika Shubenkova's 27.5-point advantage in the girls section is the largest of any section leader's. 

Open

# Username Score Player
1 @Hikaru 194.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura
2 @Polish_fighter3000 182.5 GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3 @mishanick 180.5 GM Alexey Sarana
4 @Jospem 178.5 GM Jose Martinez
5 @jefferyx 176.0 GM Jeffery Xiong

Women

# Username Score Player
1 @ChessQueen 137.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2 @Goryachkina 134.5 GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3 @Meri-Arabidze 130.5 IM Meri Arabidze
3 @karinachess1 130.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova
5 @Sanyura 121.0 IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (172.5 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (164.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (102.0 points)

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

Titled Tuesday


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).

NathanielGreen
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.

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