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Nakamura Nearly Wins Tuesday Despite Missing Round; Sindarov, Lazavik Take It Instead

Nakamura Nearly Wins Tuesday Despite Missing Round; Sindarov, Lazavik Take It Instead

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NathanielGreen
Staff
| 15 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Javokhir Sindarov won the early Titled Tuesday on March 25 on tiebreaks ahead of World Champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju and GM Hikaru Nakamura, although Nakamura scored his 9.5 points in just 10 games after missing round three, which also hurt his tiebreak scores. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won her third straight women's prize.

The late tournament was won by GM Denis Lazavik outright with 10 points, his second straight week winning the second event of the day, while GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave secured a fourth-place finish in both of the day's events. At the conclusion of the day, Nakamura had regained the lead in the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix standings.

Procedural note: Next week, the late tournament permanently moves up an hour, henceforth starting at 4 p.m. ET/22:00 CET.

Early Tournament

It's unclear why Nakamura didn't get a game in the third round of the 592-player event, as he tried to. Gukesh also didn't score a point in the round, but that was from losing a game. It was the last time during the tournament that the top three finishers didn't score at least half a point.

Sindarov and Vachier-Lagrave were the last perfect players, reaching 7/7 before drawing each other in the eighth round. In the ninth round, Sindarov took the outright lead with a win over GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, and he would remain in first place for the rest of the tournament.

Sindarov's outright lead was only possible because Vachier-Lagrave lost to Nakamura in a quite similar game: pretty even throughout the middlegame, before Black pulled away in the ending.

In the 10th round, Sindarov drew with Nakamura, while Gukesh moved into a tie for first with a win over GM Jeffery Xiong—another win for Black.

Sindarov and Gukesh made a draw in the last round, but it was a strange one. It's not clear why White should be winning at the end, at least not clear enough for Sindarov to find the path, such that he went for the repetition instead. But the computer finds several alternatives that win.

The other final-round game everyone was watching was Nakamura versus GM Magnus Carlsen, who, despite his opponent and his own chance at moving into a tie for first place, did not seem to take the game very seriously: he opened with half of Fool's Mate, 1.f3, or the Barnes—the worst first move in chess. Maybe he felt bad about Nakamura's missing game? (Ha. No.) Of course, a dumb opening isn't enough to sink Magnus Carlsen, but too many bad moves oughta do it, even for the greatest, and that's what happened on moves 26 and 29.

Nakamura missing the third round probably feels slightly less bad than had it happened in the 10th or 11th, but it's probably in fact worse, since the earlier the round, the more likely a win. As it was, taking third place with only 10 games is an impressive accomplishment. But Sindarov will take the win.

March 25 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 9 GM @Javokhir_Sindarov05 Javokhir Sindarov 3184 9.5 78
2 27 GM @GukeshDommaraju Gukesh D 3058 9.5 70
3 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3322 9.5 67.5
4 7 GM @LyonBeast Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3213 9 76.5
5 14 GM @penguingm1 Andrew Tang 3102 9 69
6 15 GM @VincentKeymer Vincent Keymer 3107 9 67
7 17 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3099 9 67
8 8 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3171 9 64.5
9 24 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3048 8.5 77.5
10 3 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3243 8.5 76
11 18 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3079 8.5 67.5
12 6 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3203 8.5 65.5
13 32 IM @TrahtarBelarus Artiom Stribuk 2996 8.5 64
14 68 FM @snowlord Ivan Yeletsky 2911 8.5 58
15 38 FM @artin10862 Artin Ashraf 2978 8.5 51.5
16 48 GM @Durarbayli Vasif Durarbayli 2960 8 69.5
17 13 GM @NikoTheodorou Nikolas Theodorou 3084 8 69.5
18 59 GM @SavelijTartakover Dmitry Kryakvin 2928 8 69
19 12 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3098 8 68.5
20 11 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3122 8 68.5
46 79 GM @ChessQueen Alexandra Kosteniuk 2832 7.5 50

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Sindarov $1,000, Gukesh $750, Nakamura $350, Vachier-Lagrave $200, Tang $100, Kosteniuk $100.

Late Tournament

Lazavik started 9/9 in the field of 487, and the back third of those first nine rounds were a gauntlet: first Carlsen went down, then Vachier-Lagrave, then GM Alireza Firouzja. It's hard to know which of these games to showcase, so let's just see all three:

Firmly in first, a full point ahead of anyone else, Lazavik now stepped off the gas instead of going for the rare 11/11 perfect score. But draws in the last two rounds didn't keep him from the outright victory. One of those draws, against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, came against the eventual second-place finisher.

From there, Duda faced Carlsen in the final round. Carlsen took this game a little more seriously, playing a theoretical Sicilian—not a Barnes. Sometimes you have to beat Carlsen twice to actually win, and that's what happened, with Duda gaining a big edge but losing it for a few moves in the endgame before Carlsen's final error.

Below Lazavik and Duda would be a six-way tie on nine points, and Firouzja's 28-move win over GM Jose Martinez earned him the best tiebreaks to obtain third place.

March 25 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak
1 4 GM @DenLaz Denis Lazavik 3241 10 75.5
2 8 GM @Polish_fighter3000 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 3172 9.5 76
3 1 GM @Firouzja2003 Alireza Firouzja 3252 9 81.5
4 3 GM @LyonBeast Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3235 9 78
5 25 GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3024 9 65.5
6 9 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3128 9 62.5
7 1 GM @LiemLe Liem Le 3121 9 61
8 124 IM @Brave_spirit12 Eldiar Orozbaev 2767 9 55.5
9 2 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3251 8.5 81.5
10 10 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3148 8.5 77.5
11 6 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3177 8.5 75.5
12 7 GM @FabianoCaruana Fabiano Caruana 3163 8.5 69
13 11 GM @Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 3121 8 74.5
14 15 GM @ChristopherYoo Christopher Woojin Yoo 3068 8 73.5
15 14 GM @penguingm1 Andrew Tang 3087 8 73.5
16 24 GM @Annawel Jules Moussard 2995 8 73
17 5 GM @Javokhir_Sindarov05 Javokhir Sindarov 3178 8 73
18 19 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3052 8 70
19 72 GM @tjallkompall Kjetil Lie 2843 8 66
20 45 FM @IMchanged Felix Ilinca 2915 8 66
70 126 IM @Meri-Arabidze Meri Arabidze 2689 7 49

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Lazavik $1,000, Duda $750, Firouzja $350, Vachier-Lagrave $200 (daily total: $400), Paravyan $100, Arabidze $100. Daily totals: 

Grand Prix Standings

Other than the slight reshuffling at the top half, no changes to the overall standings. 

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @Hikaru 92.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura
2 @MagnusCarlsen 91.5 GM Magnus Carlsen
3 @DenLaz 91.5 GM Denis Lazavik
4 @Jospem 91.0 GM Jose Martinez
5 @Oleksandr_Bortnyk 90.5 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk
6 @Msb2 89.5 GM Matthias Bluebaum
7 @GHANDEEVAM2003 89.5 GM Arjun Erigaisi
8 @wonderfultime 89.5 GM Tuan Minh Le

With her two straight impressive weeks, Kosteniuk now leads the women's standings. As in the open leaderboard, the same eight players are the top eight.

Rk Username Score Title Name
1 @ChessQueen 72.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2 @Flawless_Fighter 71.0 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 @Fh2411 65.0 IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham
7 @anasta10 64.5 FM Anastasia Avramidou
8 @jinbojinbo 64.0 GM Jiner Zhu

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), 81.5 points

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

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 62.5 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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