Titled Tuesday: Svidler Winning With Grunfeld
GM Peter Svidler won his first ever Titled Tuesday on February 9. Helped by his beloved Grunfeld, the eight-time Russian champion grandmaster was the only player to score 10/11 and finished ahead of GM Aleksandar Indjic (@Beca95) and IM Liam Vrolijk (@LiamVrolijk).
This week's Titled Tuesday tournament had a total of 729 participants. It was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
On paper, one of the favorites was definitely GM Alireza Firouzja. Early in the event, the Iranian prodigy was fortunate (twice!) in his game with the Ukrainian GM Vladimir Onischuk (@Onischuk_V).
It was Svidler who defeated Firouzja when both players were on 5.5/6. Svidler played the Grunfeld and followed an old recommendation of his against a sideline with Bg5. Interestingly, he then maneuvered his fianchetto bishop from g7 to d6 and played as if it were an Exchange Queen's Gambit.
After nine rounds, the Kazakh grandmaster Rustam Khusnutdinov (@RD4ever) was the sole leader with 8.5/9. With the black pieces, Svidler, who had dropped two half-points, defeated the leader, again following his trusted Grunfeld repertoire.
Svidler pulled through with yet another Grunfeld win with the black pieces in the final round. This time he defeated GM Rasmus Svane (@rasmussvane), who was slightly better in an endgame when he played a few inaccurate moves in a row.
Feb. 9 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | 34 | GM | @PSvidler | Peter Svidler | 10 | 70.75 | |
| 2 | 26 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 9.5 | 63.5 | |
| 3 | 35 | IM | @LiamVrolijk | Liam Vrolijk | 9.5 | 60.25 | |
| 4 | 30 | GM | @BilodeauA | Kirill Alekseenko | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 5 | 38 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 9 | 61 | |
| 6 | 57 | GM | @Onischuk_V | Vladimir Onischuk | 9 | 57 | |
| 7 | 41 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 9 | 55.5 | |
| 8 | 44 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 9 | 54 | |
| 9 | 7 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 9 | 53.5 | |
| 10 | 43 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 9 | 52 | |
| 11 | 33 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 9 | 50.75 | |
| 12 | 25 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Quparadze | 8.5 | 59 | |
| 13 | 2 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 8.5 | 56 | |
| 14 | 45 | GM | @RD4ever | Rustam Khusnutdinov | 8.5 | 52.5 | |
| 15 | 47 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 8.5 | 52.25 | |
| 16 | 46 | GM | @bocah_sakit | Novendra Priasmoro | 8.5 | 50.5 | |
| 17 | 48 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 8.5 | 48.75 | |
| 18 | 31 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 8.5 | 46.25 | |
| 19 | 14 | IM | @renatoterrylujan | Renato Terry | 8.5 | 43.25 | |
| 20 | 32 | IM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 8.5 | 39.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Svidler won $750 for first place, Indjic $400 for second, Vrolijk $150 for third, and GM Kirill Alekseenko $100 for fourth. Vrolijk's result was especially excellent; we also mentioned him last week for coming in 10th place twice.
The $100 prize for the best female player went to the Peruvian WIM Ann Lindsay Chumpitaz Carbajal, who scored 8/11.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time (19:00 Central Europe).
Check out Peter’s new podcasts The Chess News Podcast and Masters and Matches! Also, don’t miss Peter’s book The Chess Revolution.
Peter Doggers is Chess.com’s Senior Global Correspondent. Between 2007 and 2013, his website ChessVibes was a major source for chess news and videos, acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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