Sindarov Ends Carlsen's Perfect Bid, Wins Tournament

NathanielGreen

Jul 17, 2024, 8:21 AM | 9 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Jeffery Xiong won the early edition of Titled Tuesday on July 16 outright with 10 points, his first since 2022. GM Javokhir Sindarov then won his first-ever Titled Tuesday late in a shocking turn of events. Like Xiong, Sindarov scored 10 points, but he needed both a final-round win and the tiebreak advantage over GM Magnus Carlsen after Carlsen began the tournament with a 10/10 score.

Early Tournament (Xiong, 10/11)
Late Tournament (Sindarov, 10/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

The early tournament, with 650 players, was no less competitive than the late tournament. By round seven, all perfect bids had ended after Sindarov was defeated by GM Denis Lazavik. Two rounds later, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi burst into the sole lead by winning against GM Matthias Bluebaum.

Nepo's lead did not last long, however, after being held to a draw in the 10th round, while Xiong caught up in the standings with a win over GM Hikaru Nakamura.

And thus the stage was set for Xiong and Nepomniachtchi to face off in the last round with their first Titled Tuesday win of the year on the line. Xiong took the white pieces and responded to the Nepomniachtchi's Sicilian Defense with an offbeat line. Eventually they castled to opposite sides of the board, but there were few middlegame fireworks. Instead, a strange endgame developed with Xiong having a queen, bishop, and passed b-pawn, while Nepomniachtchi had a queen, no other pieces, and four connected passed pawns on the kingside. Except for Nepomniachtchi's brief chance on moves 71-72, the result was advantage Xiong.

Nepomniachtchi still held onto fourth place but was jumped in the standings by GM Alireza Firouzja and Bluebaum, who defeated Sindarov and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, respectively, in the final round.

July 16 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	8		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3114	10	71
2	2		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3174	9.5	78.5
3	6		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3123	9.5	71
4	10		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3088	9	75
5	37		GM	@penguingm1	Andrew Tang	2970	9	69
6	4		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3131	9	69
7	21		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3040	9	66.5
8	39		GM	@Vaathi_Coming	Aravindh Chithambaram	2952	9	64
9	12		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3082	8.5	76.5
10	38		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2940	8.5	73.5
11	30		GM	@VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	2993	8.5	73
12	17		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3030	8.5	73
13	41		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2946	8.5	71.5
14	9		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3075	8.5	71
15	34		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2975	8.5	71
16	48		GM	@Igor_Janik	Igor Janik	2916	8.5	70
17	59		FM	@Eagle_2019	Mamedov Edgar	2876	8.5	69.5
18	24		GM	@Shield12	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	3000	8.5	69.5
19	16		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3040	8.5	69.5
20	14		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3049	8.5	68
62	79		GM	@KaterynaLagno	Kateryna Lagno	2817	7	71.5

(Full final standings here.)

Xiong won $1,000 for his efforts, while Firouzja won $750 and Bluebaum $350. Nepomniachtchi held onto fourth place and $200, GM Andrew Tang took home $100 in fifth place, and GM Kateryna Lagno won the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Bigger fireworks were in store for the 571 competitors in the late event as Carlsen appeared to be racing to his second career 11/11 Titled Tuesday performance (previously on July 4, 2023), which would have tied Nakamura's all-time.

Carlsen's 10 wins in the first 10 rounds did not come against easy opponents, who did not get any easier as the tournament wore on. In the eighth round, he broke a tie in the standings with GM Alexey Sarana. In the ninth round, Carlsen beat Firouzja with Black.

Carlsen entered the 10th round with a half-point lead. A nearly flawless win with White against his 2018 World Championship opponent, GM Fabiano Caruana, put Carlsen on the doorstep of perfection.

Players in this position often have a decision to make: secure the tournament victory with a draw or go for the history. Carlsen's opening choice of the Two Knights Defense with Black made it clear he wanted a fight. Sindarov won a pawn in one of the standard lines but fell way behind in development. Every queenside piece was on its starting square on move 13 in a line that had nonetheless been reached a couple of times before in games but never between players of this caliber.

Carlsen never got the pawn back but inflicted enough damage to White's pawn structure to retain drawing chances. However, Sindarov eventually won a second pawn, then a third, and then a fourth, which was finally enough for Carlsen to throw in the towel on his perfect bid.

Worse for Carlsen, tiebreaks favored Sindarov by just 2.5 points, giving the Uzbekistani teenager first place, with Carlsen forced to settle for second.

18 yaşındaki Özbek büyükusta Sindarov, son oyunda Magnus Carlsen'i mağlup etti ve Titled Cup'da şampiyon oldu pic.twitter.com/4njcHNuh77
— Emre Hasgüleç (@emrehasgulec) July 16, 2024

July 16 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	9		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3111	10	70.5
2	2		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3226	10	68
3	27		IM	@MITerryble	Renato Terry	2984	9	75
4	3		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3178	9	75
5	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3227	9	74
6	10		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3078	9	69
7	4		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3172	9	65.5
8	12		GM	@GM_dmitrij	Dmitrij Kollars	3026	8.5	66.5
9	41		IM	@MatthewG-p4p	Matvey Galchenko	2906	8.5	66
10	43		GM	@KaydenTroffChess	Kayden Troff	2919	8.5	65
11	15		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3031	8.5	64.5
12	29		GM	@h4parah5	Jaime Santos Latasa	2948	8.5	64
13	23		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	2978	8.5	64
14	92		IM	@Fins0905	John Bartholomew	2775	8.5	57
15	39		GM	@DominguezOnYoutube	Leinier Dominguez Perez	2933	8	73
16	6		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3106	8	73
17	25		GM	@penguingm1	Andrew Tang	2988	8	72
18	11		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3067	8	70
19	14		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3030	8	69.5
20	18		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3001	8	69.5
77	41		IM	@TatjanaVasilevich	Tatjana Vasilevich	2632	7	51.5

(Full final standings here.)

Sindarov won $1,000 with Carlsen taking the $750 second-place prize. Five players tied for third, with tiebreaks giving IM Renato Terry $350, Firouzja $200, and Nakamura $100, while GM Jose Martinez and Caruana were on the outside looking in. For Firouzja, it gave him $950 on the day after his earlier second-place performance. IM Tatjana Vasilevich won the $100 women's prize with seven points.

Titled Cup Standings

We have a new name in the top five: Carlsen, despite playing at least 20 Tuesdays fewer than anyone above him. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk extended her lead in the women's standings this week from one point to two but is also only 2.5 points ahead of third. The leaders in the other three sections keep rolling, too.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	198.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@Polish_fighter3000	185.0	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3	@mishanick	184.5	GM Alexey Sarana
4	@Jospem	182.0	GM Jose Martinez
5	@MagnusCarlsen	181.5	GM Magnus Carlsen

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@ChessQueen	140.5	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2	@Goryachkina	138.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@Flawless_Fighter	138.0	IM Polina Shuvalova
3-t	@Meri-Arabidze	136.5	IM Meri Arabidze
5	@karinachess1	134.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (180.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (168.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (114.0 points)

The Titled Cup fantasy game Chess Prophet continues as well. Current standings can be found here. (Login required.)

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

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.