Compatriots Claim Titled Tuesday
One country was consistently at the top of Titled Tuesday on August 5 as GMs Amin Tabatabaei, Parham Maghsoodloo, Sina Movahed all scored 10/11 in one of the day's events. The scores were enough for Tabatabaei to win the early event outright and for Maghsoodloo to win on tiebreaks. Other notable performances included GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda finishing in the top five in both events and GM Bibisara Assaubayeva finishing 17th in the late event to claim the women's prize.
Early Tournament
In the early field of 489 players, Tabatabaei was the only one not to lose a game, and through seven rounds he hadn't even made a draw. Upon finally being held to one in the eighth round against IM Renato Terry, Tabatabaei found himself in a tie for first with GM Nils Grandelius.
Their game was rather equal for the most part until Grandelius began to lose his way as move 30 approached. The next five moves saw Tabatabaei start to give the advantage back away, until Grandelius fell into a mate-in-three despite material remaining equal. Tabatabaei did not miss that opportunity.
Tabatabaei again led the field by half a point, and he never gave the sole lead back. In the 10th round, he defeated one of the players directly behind him, GM Andrew Tang, while the other, IM Almas Rakhmatullaev, made a draw with Duda.
Tabatabaei now only needed a draw to clinch outright victory, which he accomplished against GM Jose Martinez. Rakhmatullaev, meanwhile, managed to take outright second place by defeating GM Aleksandr Shimanov in a 17-move miniature. (Be careful when you open the diagonal across from a fianchettoed bishop!)
A five-way tie for third ended with Duda on top of that heap ahead of GMs Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Minh Le after he beat Tang in the final round. Duda had the game pretty well in hand by move 25, and while it ran another 45 moves beyond that, he never lost control.
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk led all women to round out the prize winners.
August 5 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 20 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3114 | 10 | 77.5 | |
| 2 | 24 | IM | @AlmasRakhmatullaev | Almas Rakhmatullaev | 3063 | 9.5 | 71.5 | |
| 3 | 9 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3139 | 9 | 77 | |
| 4 | 25 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 3073 | 9 | 72.5 | |
| 5 | 15 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3101 | 9 | 69 | |
| 6 | 7 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3131 | 9 | 66 | |
| 7 | 16 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3102 | 9 | 64.5 | |
| 8 | 29 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 3033 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 9 | 5 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3162 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 10 | 14 | GM | @Grandelicious | Nils Grandelius | 3101 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 11 | 49 | GM | @Durarbayli | Vasif Durarbayli | 3007 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 12 | 85 | IM | @atbenina64 | Abtin Atakhan | 2873 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 13 | 28 | GM | @FGHSMN | Bharath Subramaniyam | 3029 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 14 | 17 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3091 | 8 | 77 | |
| 15 | 18 | GM | @penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3048 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 16 | 32 | GM | @hansen | Eric Hansen | 2998 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 17 | 10 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3113 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 18 | 60 | GM | @kachsona | Nikolozi Kacharava | 2895 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 19 | 54 | IM | @Kirill_Klukin | Kirill Klukin | 2927 | 8 | 65 | |
| 20 | 19 | GM | @Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3067 | 8 | 60.5 | |
| 54 | 117 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2801 | 7 | 59.5 |
Prizes: Tabatabaei $1,000, Rakhmatullaev $750, Duda $350, Vokhidov $200, Le $100, Kosteniuk $100.
Late Tournament
Maghsoodloo did Tabatabaei one better in the late field of 353, starting out 8/8, which he reached with a win over GM Hikaru Nakamura in the eighth round. At the end of a long haul of rook and knight endgame maneuvers, Nakamura simply fell into a one-move fork on move 70.
Maghsoodloo's streak finally ended in the very next round when Movahed got the better of him. The losing move was rather less obvious this time, but 34.exf4 soon led to a crushing mating attack.
Both players were now tied, and both won out to hold their spots—Movahed also scoring a win over Nakamura, in round 10—but Movahed's tiebreaks were worse than Maghsoodloo's despite his head-to-head victory.
Beneath them was a six-way tie, 1.5 points back. Tabatabaei and last week's early winner GM Maksim Chigaev were among them, but the paid spots went to Nakamura, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, and Duda. In an amusing twist after his eighth-round setback, Nakamura's own knight-forking-rook tactic against GM Vasif Durarbayli turned the tables.
August 5 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 10 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3168 | 10 | 79.5 | |
| 2 | 5 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3199 | 10 | 76 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3340 | 8.5 | 79.5 | |
| 4 | 6 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3162 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
| 5 | 7 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3139 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 6 | 18 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 3066 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 7 | 12 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3114 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 8 | 25 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3006 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3177 | 8 | 78.5 | |
| 10 | 29 | GM | @Durarbayli | Vasif Durarbayli | 3007 | 8 | 76 | |
| 11 | 14 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3084 | 8 | 74 | |
| 12 | 43 | FM | @GoltsevDmitry2000 | Goltsev Dmitry | 2960 | 8 | 72 | |
| 13 | 19 | GM | @Annawel | Jules Moussard | 3000 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 14 | 15 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 3045 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 15 | 51 | FM | @ArtemDyachuk | Artem Dyachuk | 2913 | 8 | 67 | |
| 16 | 52 | GM | @BirdMaster3000 | Raven Sturt | 2890 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 17 | 84 | IM | @SaraBlackPanther | Bibisara Assaubayeva | 2796 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 18 | 77 | IM | @Happy1712Drummer | Viktor Dmitrenko | 2824 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 19 | 2 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3288 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 20 | 39 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2992 | 8 | 58 |
Prizes: Maghsoodloo $1,000, Movahed $750, Nakamura $350, Bortnyk $200, Duda $100 ($450 total), Assaubayeva $100.
Grand Prix Qualifiers
The Titled Tuesday Grand Prix concluded back on May 27. Congratulations to the Speed Chess Championship qualifiers!
SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
| 1 | @MagnusCarlsen | 98.5 | GM | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2 | @Hikaru | 95.0 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
| 3 | @LiemLe | 93.0 | GM | Liem Le |
| 4 | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | 93.0 | GM | Arjun Erigaisi |
| 5 | @DenLaz | 92.5 | GM | Denis Lazavik |
| 6 | @Jospem | 92.0 | GM | Jose Martinez |
| 7 | @wonderfultime | 92.0 | GM | Tuan Minh Le |
| 8 | @HansOnTwitch | 92.0 | GM | Hans Niemann |
Women's SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
| 1 | @ChessQueen | 74.5 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| 2 | @Flawless_Fighter | 72.5 | IM | Polina Shuvalova |
| 3 | @Goryachkina | 72.0 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina |
| 4 | @karinachess1 | 70.5 | IM | Karina Ambartsumova |
| 5 | @Meri-Arabidze | 69.0 | IM | Meri Arabidze |
| 6 | @Sanyura | 68.0 | WGM | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya |
| 7 | @anasta10 | 68.0 | FM | Anastasia Avramidou |
| 8 | @jinbojinbo | 67.0 | GM | Zhu Jiner |
Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) did not have SCC places on the line, but there were cash prizes in each of these categories. The winners were:
Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.5 points (won $2,500)
Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points (won $2,500)
Girls: WGM Anna Shukhman (@speshka), 66.5 points (won $1,000)
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).
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.
