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Carlsen Withstands Loss To Nakamura To Take Titled Tuesday

Carlsen Withstands Loss To Nakamura To Take Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen
| 34 | Chess Event Coverage

After GM Hans Niemann edged out GM Vladimir Kramnik on tiebreaks in the early Titled Tuesday of September 24, GM Magnus Carlsen won outright in the late event, his only blemish being a ninth-round loss to GM Hikaru Nakamura, who finished second.


Early Tournament

With 765 players in the early field, the final standings certainly attracted a lot of interest.

How Niemann and Kramnik got there—in the tournament, although how they got here in their careers is its own story—was a bit different. While Kramnik only got one win and two draws in his first three games, Niemann was on his way to a perfect 9/9 start. Kramnik would go on to win his final eight games, but he was a little behind the ball on tiebreaks after his early draws.

Niemann's run at perfection would finally end in the 10th round against GM Oleksandr Bortnyk. Niemann again had a solid position, but his king ended up wandering too far into the center of the board and found itself in a mating net.

The result of that game was a mess atop the standings with one round to go, as four players were now tied on nine points: Niemann, Kramnik, Bortnyk, and GM Alexey Sarana. The good news for scheduling was that none had played each other yet, and so the stage was set with Niemann facing Sarana and Kramnik facing Bortnyk.

The Kramnik–Bortnyk game ended first. Kramnik's passed queenside pawns broke through, and for one brief moment (move 40) he had three queens on the board. Bortnyk resigned a couple moves thereafter.

The pressure was now on both Niemann and Sarana to win their contest. They had come out of a Nimzo-Indian Defense with Niemann, playing Black, a pawn up, and also having a similar advantage as Kramnik: passed a- and b-pawns. A correct exchange sacrifice followed, and Niemann converted without trouble, with Bortnyk playing all the way to checkmate.

In the end, Bortnyk's swindle in round nine got him third place, and didn't hurt Niemann, who won his third Titled Tuesday of the year, denying Kramnik his first.

September 24 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 4 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3172 10 74.5
2 40 GM @VladimirKramnik Vladimir Kramnik 2983 10 70.5
3 6 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3124 9 78.5
4 71 GM @superchess02 Iniyan P 2942 9 74
5 10 GM @Andreikka Andrey Esipenko 3077 9 73.5
6 17 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3065 9 72.5
7 35 FM @rezamahdavi2008 Reza Mahdavi 3004 9 70
8 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3260 9 67
9 31 GM @frederiksvane Frederik Svane 3015 9 65.5
10 8 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3080 9 64.5
11 120 IM @NeoTerNemo Alexey Grachev 2838 9 64
12 97 FM @wqws Kaivalya Sandip Nagare 2864 9 63
13 2 GM @Sam_ChessMood Samvel Ter-Sahakyan 2926 9 58.5
14 11 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3080 8.5 76
15 39 GM @DrVelja Velimir Ivic 2970 8.5 72
16 23 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3017 8.5 70.5
17 18 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3052 8.5 70.5
18 42 GM @Shankland Sam Shankland 2968 8.5 70.5
19 82 GM @sokidze Ihor Samunenkov 2903 8.5 68.5
20 68 GM @Nitzan_Steinberg Nitzan Steinberg 2925 8.5 61.5
51 216 FM @ketster Ekaterina Goltseva 2706 7.5 67

(Full final standings here.)

Niemann claimed the $1,000 first place prize with Kramnik settling for a claim on the $750 for second place. Bortnyk won the $350 for third place, with GM Iniyan Paneerselvam earning $200 in fourth and GM Andrey Esipenko $100 in fifth. FM Ekaterina Goltseva had the highest women's score for that $100 prize.

Late Tournament

Whereas the top two finishers in the early tournament could be characterized one way, the top two finishers to emerge from the late tournament field of 531 have their own reputation. Carlsen couldn't quite match Niemann's 9/9 start, but 8/8 was pretty good. It just couldn't survive an encounter with Nakamura. After just 25 moves, Carlsen was already below five seconds on his clock, and he missed a tactic that Nakamura, still with about 20 seconds left, was able to exploit.

Fortunately for Carlsen, Nakamura had already lost a game, in the sixth round against eventual third-place finisher GM Vincent Keymer. With the three of them, as well as Niemann and GM Dmitry Andreikin, now tied on eight points with two rounds left, only Carlsen would end up winning both of those final games.

The 10th round was a rather messy affair. GM Daniel Naroditsky took out Keymer from a half-point back, Carlsen defeated Andreikin in an endgame slog, and Nakamura ended Niemann's threat to sweep the day... by winning on time in a losing position. 

And so it was down to Carlsen and Nakamura in the final round, but they couldn't play each other. Naroditsky again played the role of spoiler, holding Nakamura to a draw, while Carlsen scored a quick knockout of GM Bogdan Daniel Deac.

And so, in the end, there was no tie this time, just Carlsen's ninth Titled Tuesday victory of the year, putting him one away from joining Nakamura in the double figures.

September 24 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3308 10 81.5
2 2 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3283 9.5 69.5
3 11 GM @VincentKeymer Vincent Keymer 3127 9 80
4 4 GM @DanielNaroditsky Daniel Naroditsky 3158 9 73
5 32 GM @Harsha_Bharathakoti Harsha Bharathakoti 2993 9 69.5
6 15 GM @Grischuk Alexander Grischuk 3066 9 69
7 18 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3072 9 69
8 10 GM @FabianoCaruana Fabiano Caruana 3109 9 63
9 5 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3179 8.5 78.5
10 17 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3063 8.5 72.5
11 21 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 3055 8.5 72.5
12 9 GM @vi_pranav Pranav V 3103 8.5 63
13 3 GM @nihalsarin Nihal Sarin 3168 8.5 63
14 8 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3110 8.5 54
15 6 GM @BogdanDeac Bogdan Daniel Deac 3178 8 74.5
16 45 CM @stollenmonster Egor Baskakov 2925 8 73.5
17 23 IM @MITerryble Renato Terry 3031 8 71
18 60 GM @Binary010 David Brodsky 2886 8 70.5
19 19 GM @Msb2 Matthias Bluebaum 3046 8 69.5
20 16 IM @Rud_Makarian Rudik Makarian 3061 8 69
43 138 GM @Goryachkina Aleksandra Goryachkina 2700 7.5 56

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won the $1,000 first place prize. Nakamura took second place outright for $750. Keymer took third for $350, Naroditsky fourth for $200, GM Harsha Bharathakoti fifth for $100, and GM Aleksandra Goryachkina the $100 women's prize.

Titled Cup Standings

Carlsen continues to creep up on Nakamura, but time may be short, especially if Nakamura can score a few more 10-point tournaments in the last three months. In the women's standings, Goryachkina's late performance opened up a one-point lead.

Open

# Username Score Player
1 @Hikaru 198.5 GM Hikaru Nakamura
2 @MagnusCarlsen 192.0 GM Magnus Carlsen
3 @Jospem 187.0 GM Jose Martinez
4-t @mishanick 186.0 GM Alexey Sarana
4-t @jefferyx 186.0 GM Jeffery Xiong

Women

# Username Score Player
1 @Goryachkina 143.0 GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2 @Flawless_Fighter 142.0 IM Polina Shuvalova
3 @ChessQueen 141.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
4 @Meri-Arabidze 138.5 IM Meri Arabidze
5-t @annasargsyan_m 136.5 IM Anna Sargsyan
5-t @karinachess1 136.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (183.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (169.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (119.5 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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