Xiong Wins April 27 Titled Tuesday
GM Jeffery Xiong won the April 27 Titled Tuesday tournament. One of four players to finish with 9.5/11, Xiong held the tiebreak advantage over GM Sam Sevian, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, and GM Conrad Holt, who finished 2nd-4th, respectively. Xiong had last won the event on December 29, 2020.
613 titled players participated in this week's Titled Tuesday tournament. As usual, it was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control. Several players, such as last week's winner GM Hikaru Nakamura, were preoccupied with either the Candidates Tournament or the New In Chess Classic.
The live broadcast of the tournament.
The tournament was decided during a wild final four rounds. Holt defeated Xiong in round eight in a battle between the tournaments last two undefeated players, after Xiong erred in mutual time trouble and lost on time. Meanwhile, Sevian defeated GM Vladimir Fedoseev to move into clear second with three rounds left.
Sevian defeated Holt in their round nine game to move into the lead, while Xiong recovered with a win against GM Aravindh Chithambaram. This led to a round 10 matchup between Xiong and Sevian, which Xiong won in fine fashion.
Sevian recovered against GM Dmitrij Kollars in round 11 (below) to rejoin the leaders and finish in second on tiebreaks, but Xiong's short draw against GM Anton Demchenko was good enough to secure the tournament victory.
Armenia's Ter-Sahakyan made a late run, winning all his games in rounds 7-10, to finish third (amongst three Americans in the top four). He and Holt played each other in round 11 and a win could have delivered either the tournament, but they drew to both retain their top-four spots.
April 27 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| # | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 3 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3011 | 9.5 | 73.5 | |
| 2 | 10 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 2974 | 9.5 | 67.25 | |
| 3 | 22 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2924 | 9.5 | 65.75 | |
| 4 | 46 | GM | @dretch | Conrad Holt | 2858 | 9.5 | 64.25 | |
| 5 | 11 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2952 | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 6 | 27 | GM | @Andreikka | Andrey Esipenko | 2893 | 9 | 63.25 | |
| 7 | 84 | GM | @attack2mateU | Razvan Preotu | 2784 | 9 | 55 | |
| 8 | 15 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 2938 | 9 | 54.25 | |
| 9 | 18 | GM | @rpragchess | Praggnanandhaa R. | 2910 | 9 | 54 | |
| 10 | 89 | IM | @jacky72 | Costachi, Mihnea | 2762 | 9 | 50.5 | |
| 11 | 4 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 2992 | 8.5 | 57 | |
| 12 | 23 | GM | @VerdeNotte | Gawain Jones | 2895 | 8.5 | 53.75 | |
| 13 | 48 | FM | @Kranke007 | Khazar Babazada | 2831 | 8.5 | 52.75 | |
| 14 | 33 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2876 | 8.5 | 51.75 | |
| 15 | 70 | GM | @OK97 | Ori Kobo | 2764 | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 16 | 110 | FM | @adnan_nn | Adnan Nadimifar | 2730 | 8.5 | 50 | |
| 17 | 43 | IM | @Manticore17 | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2836 | 8.5 | 47.75 | |
| 18 | 47 | GM | @Vanina1989 | Valentina Gunina | 2823 | 8 | 54.5 | |
| 19 | 8 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 2964 | 8 | 53.5 | |
| 20 | 31 | IM | @AlexTriapishko | Alexandr Triapishko | 2874 | 8 | 51.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Xiong won $750 for first place, Sevian $400 for second, Ter-Sahakyan $150 for third, and Holt $100 for fourth.
For the third week in a row, the $100 prize for the best female player went to GM Valentina Gunina (@Vanina1989) who scored 8/11 and finished 18th.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time (19:00 Central Europe).
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.
