Near-Perfect 10s Carry Sarana, Nihal To Victory
GM Alexey Sarana and GM Nihal Sarin were the winners of Titled Tuesday on September 19, both of them scoring 9.5 points in the first 10 rounds. Sarana won the early event convincingly, leading by a full point entering the final round. To outlast GM Hikaru Nakamura for first place in the late event, however, Nihal needed both a head-to-head victory and a tiebreak advantage.
Early Tournament
A field of 591 players couldn't stop Sarana from a nearly perfect start and, ultimately, a 10/11 score. GM Jose Martinez was on a perfect seven points through seven rounds, but Sarana ended that run in round eight.
With Sarana running away with things, the tournament became a fight for second place. GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov went a long way to securing it in round nine, defeating GM Alireza Firouzja in a game that turned when Firouzja allowed his dark squares to become severely weakened.
Vokhidov ended up tied for second with GM Tuan Minh Le, with a difference between them of a mere two points of tiebreaks.
The draw Sarana made in the final round to clinch outright first place was interesting on at least one other front: It ended by repetition, the threefold positions happening on move 86, move 88... and move 102. The unexpected ending was a mercy of sorts for any remaining spectators, as the position had been dead drawn for some time.
September 19 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 5 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3118 | 10 | 78 | |
| 2 | 24 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2967 | 9.5 | 72 | |
| 3 | 13 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3017 | 9.5 | 70 | |
| 4 | 2 | GM | @viditchess | Vidit Gujrathi | 3105 | 9 | 71 | |
| 5 | 8 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3069 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 6 | 9 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3034 | 9 | 69 | |
| 7 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3244 | 9 | 67.5 | |
| 8 | 58 | IM | @the_chess_child | Ilamparthi A R | 2834 | 9 | 65 | |
| 9 | 21 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 2949 | 9 | 58 | |
| 10 | 52 | GM | @Cayse | Martyn Kravtsiv | 2869 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 11 | 34 | GM | @BlueWizzard | Denes Boros | 2887 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
| 12 | 28 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 2922 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 13 | 49 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2882 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 14 | 37 | NM | @MightyGMpretender | Antonio Kozak | 2879 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 15 | 17 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2967 | 8.5 | 60.5 | |
| 16 | 64 | IM | @chesskov1982 | Dennis Brokken | 2804 | 8.5 | 55.5 | |
| 17 | 19 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 2945 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 18 | 14 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2995 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 19 | 59 | IM | @yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 2860 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 20 | 44 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2869 | 8 | 71 | |
| 41 | 119 | IM | @Flawless_Fighter | Polina Shuvalova | 2702 | 7.5 | 65.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Sarana won $1,000 for his third Titled Tuesday win of the year. Vokhidov won $750 in second place and Le $350 in third. GM Vidit Gujrathi finished fourth for $200 and Martinez fifth for $100, while an additional four players on nine points (including Nakamura) just missed the prizes. IM Polina Shuvalova claimed the $100 women's prize with 7.5/11.
Late Tournament
Nihal, like Sarana early, started 9.5/10. His fifth through 10th rounds were a gauntlet that included four eventual top-eight finishers in the tournament, among them Nakamura; in round eight, Nihal became the first player to beat him in the late tournament. After 35 moves of near-equality, it was Nihal who started to slip, but he eventually righted the ship all the way to a win.
As Nihal continued to win, defeating GM David Paravyan and Firouzja in the next two rounds, Nakamura stayed in range with two victories of his own. In round 10 against GM Matthias Bluebaum, the computer found Nakamura's exchange sacrifice with 20.c6 dubious, but he eventually got two connected passed pawns on the queenside for it. Bluebaum was unable to hold.
At that point, however, Nihal and Nakamura somewhat backed into place in the final round, though no one else was enough of a threat for it to matter too much. Nihal couldn't beat GM Dmitry Andreikin, who sneaked into fifth place. Fortunately for Nihal, Nakamura only made a draw with 13-year-old, fourth-place FM Sina Movahed, and the huge schedule Nihal had faced gave him a healthy tiebreaker advantage.
September 19 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 4 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3131 | 9.5 | 78 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3249 | 9.5 | 64.5 | |
| 3 | 14 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3060 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 4 | 17 | FM | @Sina_Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3004 | 9 | 72 | |
| 5 | 8 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3089 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 6 | 13 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3035 | 9 | 67 | |
| 7 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3012 | 8.5 | 71 | |
| 8 | 42 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2876 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 9 | 3 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 3102 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 10 | 47 | GM | @GadimbayliA | Abdulla Gadimbayli | 2856 | 8.5 | 65 | |
| 11 | 53 | IM | @Arystanner | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2823 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 12 | 7 | GM | @ChessWarrior7197 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 3063 | 8.5 | 63.5 | |
| 13 | 16 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3007 | 8.5 | 63 | |
| 14 | 19 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2982 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 15 | 43 | GM | @VitaliyBernadskiy | Vitaliy Bernadskiy | 2869 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 16 | 26 | GM | @hansen | Eric Hansen | 2921 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 17 | 22 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 2957 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 18 | 31 | GM | @Hrant_ChessMood | Hrant Melkumyan | 2910 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 19 | 67 | GM | @maciek_92 | Maciej Klekowski | 2772 | 8 | 60.5 | |
| 20 | 227 | CM | @filipluczak05 | Filip Luczak | 2674 | 8 | 57 | |
| 51 | 86 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2686 | 7 | 56 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nihal earned $1,000 with the victory, while Nakamura took home $750 in second. Paravyan finished third for $350, Movahed fourth for $200, and Andreikin fifth for $100, while GM Parham Maghsoodloo, also on nine points, was just outside in sixth. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 women's prize with seven points.
Chess.com hosts Titled Tuesday as a weekly 11-round Swiss tournament for titled players. There are two tournaments each Tuesday, first at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time and then at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).
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.
