Savchenko Wins Titled Tuesday Against Multi-Tournamenting Nakamura

NM Lessler-SEA

Updated: Sep 28, 2021, 3:45 PM | 33 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Boris Savchenko won Titled Tuesday on September 28 with a score of 10/11 after declining an early draw offer and beating GM Hikaru Nakamura in the final round. It was his second-ever Titled Tuesday win and his first since 2018. GM Federico Perez Ponsa and GM Rustam Khusnutdinov came in second and third respectively, each with 9.5/11.

In an impressive and memorable twist, Nakamura competed in two tournaments at once, playing in Titled Tuesday while simultaneously playing in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour!

516 titled players competed in this week's Titled Tuesday, which was the usual 11-round Swiss at a 3+1 time control. The event drew special attention because of its more than doubled $5,000 prize fund, a consequence of server issues that affected last week's event.

Live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by WGM Nemo Zhou.

The decisive game was played in the final round between Nakamura and Savchenko. After just a few moves, Nakamura offered a draw, which Savchenko bravely declined. (A draw would've given them both 9.5/11 points, but Nakamura was likely well ahead on tiebreaks, and both Perez Ponsa and Khusnutdinov would end up getting 9.5/11 as well.) Nakamura gained a decisive advantage, but then he blundered with 26.Bg5 letting Savchenko back in the game.

Before the final round, Nakamura seemed to be dominating the tournament. He won his first eight games, putting him in clear first with 8/8. This feat was even more notable because he was actually competing in two tournaments at once! Many spectators expressed awe and disbelief that he was dominating Titled Tuesday while simultaneously playing against GM Wesley So in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. (In fact, after a few quick draws, he went on to beat So in both blitz tiebreak games.)

Nakamura winning his eighth consecutive game in a wild time scramble

Nakamura made draws in rounds 9 and 10, allowing Savchenko to catch up in the standings. Savchenko's win against GM Sanan Sjugirov in round 10 was critical. The game appeared to be dynamically balanced until White captured a poisoned pawn on a7, allowing Black to make threats on the back rank. Savchenko's 32...Kf7! was an extremely strong prophylactic move, avoiding future checks and thus strengthening Black's attack.

Also critical was Savchenko's ninth-round win over GM Artem Timofeev. The opening was a Classical Sicilian, and after the thematic knight sacrifice 23.Nd5!, Savchenko had a winning position. A few later errors let Timofeev back into the game, but Savchenko ended up claiming the win in a time scramble.

September 28 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	SB	Prize
1	56		GM	tigra	Boris Savchenko	2871	10	67	$2,500.00
2	39		GM	Genghis_K	Federico Perez Ponsa	2900	9.5	59.5	$1,334.00
3	30		GM	RD4ever	Rustam Khusnutdinov	2906	9.5	57.5	$500.00
4	1		GM	Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3191	9	65	$334.00
5	13		GM	hanzo_hasashi1	Nodirbek Yakubboev	2973	9	57
6	45		GM	Igor_Lysyj	Igor Lysyj	2870	9	54
7	6		GM	Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	2986	8.5	59
8	19		GM	kuli4ik	Mikhail Demidov	2935	8.5	57.75
9	22		GM	OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	2927	8.5	56.75
10	23		GM	Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	2905	8.5	54.25
11	28		GM	Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2896	8.5	52
12	113		IM	SaraBlackPanther	Bibisara Assaubayeva	2708	8.5	51.25	$334.00
13	9		GM	Alexander_Zubov	Alexander Zubov	2976	8.5	49
14	59		GM	xamax2000	Max Warmerdam	2811	8.5	48.25
15	110		IM	mat_kolosowski	Mateusz Kołosowski	2720	8.5	36.25
16	26		GM	rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2897	8	52
16	12		GM	penguingm1	Andrew Tang	2967	8	52
18	15		IM	ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	2920	8	51
19	31		GM	TimofeevAr	Artem Timofeev	2873	8	50
20	93		GM	Sethu0025	Sethuraman S.P	2790	8	48

(Full final standings here.)

Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament that runs each week on Chess.com for titled players. It begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European every Tuesday.