Nakamura Streams, Wins Titled Tuesday Ahead Of Firouzja

There's more news about GM Hikaru Nakamura this week, as the American grandmaster won the May 12 edition of Titled Tuesday with 9.5/10, finishing ahead of the Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja and 1,083 other participants.

The next Titled Tuesday will be played on May 19 at 10 a.m. Pacific / 19:00 Central Europe.

Nakamura almost never skips Titled Tuesday. Besides, among many other participants, in recent months he invariably streams his play on his channel as well. The question of whether this streaming is affecting his chess is an old one and related to Nakamura's drop in Elo—he is now the world number-18 at 2736 and 80 points below his all-time peak.

Yesterday @Hikaru showed that he's capable of playing online chess to his own high standards while commenting on it. He won the tournament alone with 9.5/10, the same score as the last time he won, on June 4, 2019. It was the 10th time he has won Titled Tuesday, which is a record.

He dropped half a point in the third round in a long game with Indian GM @VishnuPrasanna. He was winning out of the opening, then even more, but somehow Vishnu came back and was even briefly winning himself. In a completely level endgame, Nakamura tried for a bit, but the draw was inevitable.

But that was it. The night belonged to Nakamura as he won the next seven games in a row to reach 9.5/10, which nobody else managed. Here's his last-round game against GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk, a blitz specialist who won Titled Tuesday with a perfect 9/9 on October 4, 2016.

The fans were also thrilled about the participation of Firouzja, who had been absent for a while. The Iranian prodigy suffered an early loss in round three but was still playing for the marbles in the final round after six straight wins. His faced Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (@Azerichess), who blundered a full piece in an equal endgame:

The moment when co-leader @Shakhmamedyarov blunders a piece vs Firouzja and @GMHikaru knows he's winning #TitledTuesday. :-) pic.twitter.com/Eu2a3Zx7op

— ChesscomNews (@ChesscomNews) May 12, 2020

Nakamura won the $750 first prize for finishing clear first with 9.5/10. He also got the Chess.com streamers' prize of $100 that was given as 20 gifted subs to his channel.

Firouzja shared the second place only with GM Le Quang Liem (@LiemLe); both earned $275. A group of 10 players got their $10 share of the $100 fourth prize. GM @KaterynaLagno won the $100 prize for the best female player.

May 12, 2020 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Players on 8.5 or more)

(Full final standings here.)

See also:

• Titled Tuesday Now Every Week With Increased Prizes