Nakamura Sweeps Titled Tuesday After Battles With Carlsen

GM Hikaru Nakamura pulled off another Titled Tuesday sweep, his third, by scoring 9.5/11 in both of the day's events. This one may be his most impressive of the three, as GM Magnus Carlsen joined the field for both events. Carlsen finished fifth in the late event. GM Fabiano Caruana also had a successful day, finishing fifth place early and third late.

• Early Tournament
• Late Tournament

Early Tournament

Round seven was the highlight of the early tournament as Nakamura and Carlsen, both on perfect 6/6 scores, faced off. It was the first time Nakamura and Carlsen have battled directly in Titled Tuesday this year, despite Carlsen's two previous appearances in the event in the past months. The game itself was a rather uneventful draw but significant nonetheless.

Theirs was not the only high-profile matchup of the tournament. Two more turned out to be decisive to the outcome: GM Dmitry Andreikin defeated Carlsen in round eight, and Nakamura defeated Caruana in round 10.

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk also scored an upset over Carlsen, in the final round, to leap into second place. 

Carlsen's result and his wry, Carlsen-esque reaction afterward ultimately produced a little bit of playful give-and-take.

we noticed you've been struggling with white recently 🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/frovePIAN0

— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 27, 2022

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won the $1,000 first-place prize, with Bortynk winning $750 for second place and GM Manuel Petrosyan $350 for third. Andreikin, the only player on nine points, earned $200 in fourth place. Caruana emerged from an 11-way tie on 8.5/11 to win the $100 fifth-place prize. WGM Xiaobing Gu, with 7/11, won the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

After outlasting 459 players in the early tournament, Nakamura needed a 10th-round victory over GM Baadur Jobava to emerge victorious from the 368-player late field.

Jobava recovered in the final round to defeat GM Rodrigo Vasquez and reach nine points out of 11.

Jobava thus tied for second place with three other players but retained the tiebreak advantage over all of them. They were some big names as well: Carlsen, Caruana, and GM Daniel Naroditsky. 

Carlsen did not lose any games in the second tournament, instead making draws against Jobava, GM Jorden van Foreest, Nakamura, and GM Daniel Dardha. Naturally, we must show the day's other Nakamura-Carlsen battle here. It happened in round nine this time and lasted quite a bit longer than the first.

It was Dardha who, after holding a draw against Carlsen in round 10, was Caruana's last victim as the American finished in third place. Despite losing games to FM Guenther Wachinger in round one and GM Gata Kamsky in round eight, Caruana won every other game. His nine wins were, in fact, the most of the late tournament.

September 27 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura's additional $1,000 gave him $2,000 on the day. Jobava won $750 for second place. Caruana added $350 for a daily total of $450, while Naroditsky won $200 for fourth place and Carlsen $100 for fifth place. (A hundred bucks is a hundred bucks whether you're Carlsen or someone else!) IM Anna Sargsyan, scoring 6.5/11, won her third $100 women's prize in the last two weeks.

Titled Tuesday is a weekly Chess.com event for titled players. Two 11-round Swiss tournaments are played every Tuesday, starting at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.