Nakamura Just Won't Stop Winning Titled Tuesday
The Speed Chess Grand Prix might be over, but that didn't stop GM Hikaru Nakamura from winning yet another Titled Tuesday tournament. The American grandmaster finished half a point ahead of Russian GM Daniil Dubov and Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov.
Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players continues, now once again under the traditional name of Titled Tuesday. Starting at 10 a.m. Pacific Time (19:00 Central Europe) each week, the format has been changed from the Grand Prix events that were held over the last 20 weeks.
It is now an 11-round Swiss without a knockout bracket. The time control is three minutes with a one-second increment. The weekly prize fund is $1,600 with $750 going to the winner.
This week the winner is, once again, Nakamura. The American speed demon wins more of these tournaments than any other player, thereby strengthening his reputation even further.
The tournament had a total of 693 players. Nakamura finished on 9.5/11, ahead of a group of nine grandmasters who scored 9/11. Besides Dubov and Eljanov, they included big names such as GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Sergey Karjakin.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
One of the players who was doing well in the first half was GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The Azerbaijani grandmaster was on his way to reaching 6/6 when he suddenly mouse-slipped terribly—basically a move before White would have resigned.
The following win by Nakamura against another Azeri player saw an interesting moment. A brave king run could have saved White:
After 10 rounds Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev was in sole first place with 9/10. The Russian GM is another familiar name on Tuesdays and one of the four players who has qualified for the Speed Chess Championship Main Event via the Grand Prix series.
Nakamura needed to beat Artemiev in the final round and did so with the Hippopotamus opening:
October 20 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 9.5 | 55.5 | |
| 2 | GM | @eljanov | Pavel Eljanov | 9 | 58 | |
| 2 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 9 | 58 | |
| 4 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 9 | 57.75 | |
| 5 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 9 | 57.25 | |
| 6 | GM | @SergeyKarjakin | Sergey Karjakin | 9 | 56.75 | |
| 7 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 9 | 55.5 | |
| 8 | GM | @LittlePeasant | Alejandro Ramirez | 9 | 52.5 | |
| 8 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 9 | 52.5 | |
| 10 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksey Sarana | 9 | 51.5 | |
| 11 | GM | @tptagain | David Anton Guijarro | 8.5 | 57 | |
| 12 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Quparadze | 8.5 | 55.25 | |
| 13 | GM | @Azerichess | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 8.5 | 54 | |
| 14 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 8.5 | 53 | |
| 14 | GM | @Illingworth | Max Illingworth | 8.5 | 53 | |
| 16 | GM | @AryanTari | Aryan Tari | 8.5 | 52.25 | |
| 17 | IM | @renatoterrylujan | Renato Terry | 8.5 | 50.5 | |
| 18 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 8.5 | 49.5 | |
| 19 | FM | @Aleksey_Sorokin | Aleksey Sorokin | 8.5 | 49 | |
| 20 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 8.5 | 46.75 |
Nakamura won the $750 first prize. Having the exact same Sonneborn-Berger score, Dubov and Eljanov shared second and third prizes and got $275 each. Artemiev and GM Vugar Rasulov shared the $100 for shared fourth. The $100 prize for the best female player went to WGM Elena Tomilova (@TomiLen).
