Praggnanandhaa Wins August 3 Titled Tuesday
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won his first Titled Tuesday on August 3, with a score of 9.5/11. He won on tiebreaks over GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and GM Dmitry Andreikin, who also scored 9.5/11. In fourth place was GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan with the best tiebreaker score of players on 9/11.
473 titled players played this week in Titled Tuesday. The tournament was the typical 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.
Live broadcast of this week's tournament, which aired only at Twitch.tv/ChesscomEvents, hosted by WFM Alessia Santeramo.
July had been dominated by three tournament victories for GM Hikaru Nakamura, but this Tuesday he was playing in the Chessable Masters rapid tournament. Most other strong TT regulars, like Bortnyk and Andreikin, were playing here, but Praggnanandhaa edged them all out to win the event.
The last perfect player this week was IM Minh Le with 7/7. After a round-eight draw, he found an unusual mate-in-one against Bortnyk in round nine. It wasn't the easiest one to see, a so-called "model mate" where Black's only two remaining pieces both contributed.
Unfortunately for Le, he lost in round 10 to GM Jose Martinez after missing a stalemate opportunity.
Meanwhile, Andreikin miraculously saved a draw against Pragnanandhaa after losing his queen in the early middlegame.
Those results put Martinez in the lead entering the final round, but he fell to Bortnyk after time trouble cost him a large advantage.
It wasn't quite enough for Bortnyk to claim the tournament, however, as Praggnanandhaa beat Le to jump into first place.
August 3 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 14 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 2969 | 9.5 | 64.75 | |
| 2 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2974 | 9.5 | 62.5 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3041 | 9.5 | 59.5 | |
| 4 | 39 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2864 | 9 | 59 | |
| 5 | 41 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2862 | 9 | 57.75 | |
| 6 | 6 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 2995 | 9 | 54.5 | |
| 7 | 10 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 3006 | 9 | 53.5 | |
| 8 | 52 | IM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2812 | 9 | 50 | |
| 9 | 7 | GM | @ChessWarrior7197 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2964 | 8.5 | 59.25 | |
| 10 | 20 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2945 | 8.5 | 54.75 | |
| 11 | 28 | GM | @erichansen | Eric Hansen | 2884 | 8.5 | 51.25 | |
| 12 | 17 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2934 | 8.5 | 40.75 | |
| 13 | 1 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 3025 | 8 | 56 | |
| 14 | 18 | IM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2925 | 8 | 55.5 | |
| 15 | 9 | GM | @LOVEVAE | Wei Yi | 2916 | 8 | 50.25 | |
| 16 | 5 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2962 | 8 | 50 | |
| 17 | 57 | IM | @rend1987 | sayed javad alavi moghadam | 2786 | 8 | 49 | |
| 17 | 33 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2857 | 8 | 49 | |
| 19 | 36 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2857 | 8 | 48.75 | |
| 20 | 54 | GM | @K_A_S_T_O_R | Rodrigo Vasquez | 2762 | 8 | 48 |
(Full final standings here.)
Praggnanandhaa won $750 for first place, with Bortnyk earning $400 for second and Andreikin $150 for third. Ter-Sahakyan took home $100 for fourth place. By a quarter-point of tiebreaks, GM Valentina Gunina edged out IM Bibisara Assaubayeva for the $100 prize for the top woman player.
Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for titled players held every week on Chess.com. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European every Tuesday.
