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Carlsen Passes Nakamura In Another Perfect Tuesday

Carlsen Passes Nakamura In Another Perfect Tuesday

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NathanielGreen
Staff
| 14 | Chess Event Coverage

Hope you were watching Titled Tuesday on April 8, where GM Magnus Carlsen won the second tournament with a perfect 11/11 score. It was Carlsen's third perfect Titled Tuesday, moving him into the sole lead in that statistic ahead of GM Hikaru Nakamura's two. Carlsen's performance, good enough to lead the field by two full points, stole the show from GM Nihal Sarin, who earlier in the day won by 1.5 points with a 10.5 score.

Carlsen also moved into a tie for first with Nakamura in the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix standings.

Late Tournament

As usual, when the late tournament features a perfect score, we'll cover it first. Carlsen initially achieved the feat of an 11/11 back on July 4, 2023, and followed up with another on August 6, 2024. Both of those perfect scores also came in the late event, which this time included 391 participants. Nakamura put up one in 2021 and another in 2023, so Carlsen's three straight calendar years with a perfect Titled Tuesday extends a preexisting record.

Unsurprisingly, the only real drama in this tournament was whether Carlsen would reach 11 points. His last coleader of the tournament was GM Christopher Yoo, who would ultimately finish in second place, after just six rounds. But in his seventh-round game against Carlsen, Yoo was no match. Yoo played fine; Carlsen was just nearly flawless.

That was in fact the last time anyone would be within half a point of Carlsen, let alone tied. In the ninth round, his lead reached 1.5 points, giving him the chance to clinch the tournament with a round to spare. Carlsen would get Black against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in that round, but no matter his pieces or his opponent, Carlsen could not be denied this day.

There was still one more goal to achieve, and with the tournament in hand, there was no risk in going for it. But, whereas Carlsen sailed to victory with highly accurate performances in each of rounds seven through 10, he was in trouble for much of his final round matchup against GM Rasmus Svane. Even so, one misstep from Svane—the innocuous-looking capture of a pawn—was all it took for Carlsen to break through on the other side of the board and hit the jackpot.

Yoo, GM Jose Martinez, and IM Marco Materia tied for second place on "just" nine points, with Yoo having the best tiebreaks following his win over GM Etienne Bacrot in the final round.

The final prizes went to GM Jules Moussard and WIM Margarita Potapova, but of course Carlsen stole the show. Here are all 11 of his wins in the tournament for your viewing pleasure:

April 8 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 1 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3314 11 78
2 12 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3090 9 77
3 8 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3123 9 69.5
4 24 IM @scarabee43 Marco Materia 3024 9 61
5 38 GM @Annawel Jules Moussard 2958 8.5 72.5
6 15 GM @Indianlad S.L. Narayanan 3058 8.5 71.5
7 29 GM @rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 3015 8.5 71.5
8 4 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3141 8.5 66.5
9 11 GM @BogdanDeac Bogdan Daniel Deac 3058 8.5 65.5
10 10 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3104 8 77.5
11 19 GM @MrTattaglia Adam Kozak 3045 8 77
12 5 GM @Konavets Sam Sevian 3145 8 76.5
13 46 GM @baki83 Etienne Bacrot 2935 8 75
14 16 GM @frederiksvane Frederik Svane 3058 8 71.5
15 21 GM @AryanTari Aryan Tari 3018 8 71
16 37 GM @Zhigalko_Sergei Sergei Zhigalko 2956 8 67.5
17 36 GM @MetiForce Mahdi Gholami Orimi 2962 8 64
18 57 GM @Gabrielian_Artur Artur Gabrielian 2881 8 62.5
19 42 GM @1stSecond Nikita Meshkovs 2937 8 59
20 53 FM @GoltsevDmitry2000 Goltsev Dmitry 2890 8 58.5
55 104 WIM @PotapovaM Margarita Potapova 2706 6.5 67.5

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Carlsen $1,000, Yoo $750, Martinez $350, Materia $200, Moussard $100, Potapova $100. 

Early Tournament

Normally, Nihal leading a field of 607 with 10.5 points would be Titled Tuesday's bigger story, but Carlsen just had to take the spotlight this week. Nihal had to fight one extra round than Carlsen to become the last perfect player, reaching 8/8 with a win over IM Liam Putnam.

In the next round, Nihal settled for a draw with IM Talibov Shiroghlan, keeping his tournament lead at half a point. In round 10, Nihal got back on the winning track, taking down Martinez, but his lead remained at a half-point as GM Minh Le simultaneously took down Shiroghlan.

Le was the only player within range of Nihal, and they played each other in the final round, so a draw for Nihal would guarantee at least a share of first place. Their game was a wild one, which was spent either mostly equal or with a significant edge to Nihal, except on two moves when Le had a chance to all but secure victory. The first chance was somewhat difficult to spot, but the second was, shockingly, a mate-in-one.

The four players tied on 8.5 points entering the round all made draws, and so Nihal's half-point lead ballooned to its final form of 1.5 points. Second-place Le's 10th-round win over Shiroghlan wasn't quite as impressively-played as some of his other victories, such as in round eight against GM Var Akobian.

There would in fact end up being a nine-way tie for second place on nine points. Tiebreaks shook out with Le, GM Nils Grandelius, Shiroghlan, and GM Pranesh M taking paid spots, while GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won the women's prize. 

April 8 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 2 GM @nihalsarin Nihal Sarin 3212 10.5 76.5
2 18 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3080 9 76.5
3 36 GM @Grandelicious Nils Grandelius 3061 9 75
4 93 IM @Talibovv06 Talibov Shiroghlan 2907 9 73
5 26 GM @artooon Pranesh M 3045 9 71.5
6 43 GM @ContrVersia Valery Kazakouski 2987 9 68.5
7 44 GM @Shankland Sam Shankland 3006 9 68.5
8 62 GM @ViciousTitas Titas Stremavicius 2961 9 65
9 27 GM @Shield12 Shamsiddin Vokhidov 3029 9 65
10 50 IM @scarabee43 Marco Materia 2982 9 62
11 25 GM @OparinGrigoriy Grigoriy Oparin 3048 8.5 73.5
12 51 GM @superchess02 Iniyan P 2972 8.5 65
13 29 GM @JSPrepz Johan-Sebastian Christiansen 3014 8.5 64
14 42 GM @Durarbayli Vasif Durarbayli 2984 8.5 62
15 64 GM @MetiForce Mahdi Gholami Orimi 2957 8.5 60
16 41 GM @Vaathi_Coming Aravindh Chithambaram 2973 8.5 51.5
17 7 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3114 8 77.5
18 46 IM @LiamPutnam2008 Liam Putnam 3002 8 75
19 47 GM @lilleper1 Jonas Bjerre 2962 8 68
20 14 GM @vi_pranav Pranav V 3072 8 68
40 104 GM @ChessQueen Alexandra Kosteniuk 2840 7.5 65

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Nihal $1,000, Le $750, Grandelius $350, Shiroghlan $200, Pranesh $100, Kosteniuk $100.

Grand Prix Standings

Le moved into the eighth and final qualifying place in the main Grand Prix standings with just seven weeks to go.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @MagnusCarlsen 94.0 GM Magnus Carlsen
2 @Hikaru 94.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura
3 @DenLaz 92.0 GM Denis Lazavik
4 @LiemLe 91.5 GM Liem Le
5 @Jospem 91.5 GM Jose Martinez
6 @GHANDEEVAM2003 90.5 GM Arjun Erigaisi
7 @Oleksandr_Bortnyk 90.5 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk
8 @wonderfultime 90.5 GM Minh Le

Some players gained points in the women's standings, but the makeup and order of the top eight are unchanged from last week.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @ChessQueen 74.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2 @Flawless_Fighter 72.0 IM Polina Shuvalova
3 @karinachess1 70.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova
4 @Meri-Arabidze 68.0 IM Meri Arabidze
5 @Sanyura 67.5 WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
6 @jinbojinbo 66.5 GM Jiner Zhu
7 @Fh2411 65.5 IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham
8 @anasta10 64.5 FM Anastasia Avramidou

Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) do not have SCC places on the line, but there will be cash prizes in each of these categories. The current leaders are:

Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.0 points

Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 63.5 points

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).

The next Titled Tuesday to hit 1,000 participants will award prizes to the top 30 players.

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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