Now-Familiar Names Top Titled Tuesday
Two Titled Tuesday regulars, GMs Denis Lazavik and Oleksandr Bortnyk, won the event on July 23. For Lazavik, it was his third of the year, and his first ever with a score of 10.5 points. Bortnyk, who once scored a perfect 9/9 back when the tournament was only nine rounds, won his second of the year, scoring 10 points. In a rarity, neither player required tiebreaks.
I won Titled Tuesday , probably my best result ever , 10 of 11 beat Magnus and Hikaru !! Thank you all who cheered for me :) See you all tomorrow on Arena Kings :)
— Oleksandr Bortnyk (@BortnykChess) July 23, 2024
Early Tournament
A field of 680 players in the early field could not stop Lazavik, whose only semi-setback came early, a fifth-round draw against GM Jaime Santos. It was in fact GM Andrey Esipenko who was the last player with a perfect score, but his 7/7 start came to an end against Lazavik after Esipenko dropped a pawn early on.
Lazavik gained the outright lead in the next round after beating GM Denis Kadric, and never looked back—all the more impressive given that his final two obstacles were GMs Alireza Firouzja and Hikaru Nakamura. A win for Nakamura would have resulted in chaos atop the standings, but Lazavik came out of a long, early-middlegame sequence a pawn ahead, then kept winning pawns to turn a rook-and-opposite-colored-bishop ending into a relatively straightforward win.
Esipenko, who held a draw against Nakamura in the ninth round, won in the last two rounds to retain second place, the latter of these victories coming against IM Ryo Chen (the under-10 ChessKid Youth Champion back in 2020).
July 23 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 4 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3170 | 10.5 | 76.5 | |
| 2 | 31 | GM | @Andreikka | Andrey Esipenko | 3021 | 9.5 | 74.5 | |
| 3 | 22 | IM | @Zohid6 | Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov | 3010 | 9.5 | 64 | |
| 4 | 2 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3179 | 9 | 77.5 | |
| 5 | 12 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 3070 | 9 | 70.5 | |
| 6 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3225 | 8.5 | 79 | |
| 7 | 8 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3093 | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 8 | 51 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2938 | 8.5 | 76 | |
| 9 | 76 | GM | @Kiborg95 | Denis Kadric | 2893 | 8.5 | 76 | |
| 10 | 98 | IM | @chenxiaoyuer | Ryo Chen | 2827 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 11 | 7 | GM | @Javokhir_Sindarov05 | Javokhir Sindarov | 3108 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 12 | 15 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3053 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 13 | 5 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3094 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 14 | 37 | IM | @Kirill_Klukin | Kirill Klukin | 2948 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 15 | 25 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2992 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 16 | 6 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3105 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 17 | 56 | FM | @Eagle_2019 | Mamedov Edgar | 2896 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
| 18 | 124 | IM | @Arystanner | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2772 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 19 | 11 | FM | @Prizant_academy | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 3081 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 20 | 36 | GM | @h4parah5 | Jaime Santos Latasa | 2974 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 79 | 159 | IM | @karinachess1 | Karina Ambartsumova | 2680 | 7 | 62 |
(Full final standings here.)
Lazavik won $1,000 for his efforts, while Esipenko earned $750 and third-place IM Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov $350. Firouzja managed fourth place for $200, while GM Ian Nepomniachtchi finished fifth for $100, as 16 players on 8.5 points just missed a chance at the top five. IM Karina Ambartsumova won the $100 women's prize with seven points.
Late Tournament
Bortnyk and GM Nihal Sarin were the last perfect players out of the 545 hopefuls who joined the late tournament, and they would retain the top two spots for the rest of the tournament as well.
In fact, they would remain tied until the very end, when Nihal made a draw with GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the final round while Bortnyk toppled GM Dmitrij Kollars. Like Lazavik against Nakamura earlier, Bortnyk had enough pawns to render the drawish opposite-colored bishops moot.
One reason Bortnyk and Nihal continuously shared the lead for the first 10 rounds was their success against the eventual third-place finisher, some grandmaster by the name of Magnus Carlsen. Bortnyk defeated him in the seventh round...
... and then Nihal won their ninth-round matchup. Carlsen played both openings in an unusual manner, as he sometimes does in blitz games, with 1.e4 c5 2.Be2 against Bortnyk and 1.h3 against Nihal.
After beating Esipenko with relatively normal opening moves, Carlsen got GM Mikhail Demidov as his final-round opponent and double-fianchettoed for the win with Black and a third-place finish.
GM Jeffery Xiong and Nakamura rounded out the top five after beating GMs Dmitry Andreikin and Arjun Erigaisi, respectively.
July 23 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 13 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3068 | 10 | 77 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3201 | 9.5 | 71 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3242 | 9 | 82 | |
| 4 | 8 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3089 | 9 | 80.5 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3225 | 9 | 76 | |
| 6 | 11 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3053 | 9 | 66 | |
| 7 | 19 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 2993 | 9 | 65 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3105 | 9 | 63 | |
| 9 | 41 | GM | @Durarbayli | Vasif Durarbayli | 2927 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 10 | 12 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3022 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 11 | 7 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3093 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 12 | 14 | GM | @Andreikka | Andrey Esipenko | 3021 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 13 | 10 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 3031 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 14 | 37 | GM | @baki83 | Etienne Bacrot | 2915 | 8.5 | 63 | |
| 15 | 24 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2963 | 8.5 | 60.5 | |
| 16 | 9 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3067 | 8 | 74 | |
| 17 | 36 | GM | @frederiksvane | Frederik Svane | 2931 | 8 | 73 | |
| 18 | 16 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3005 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 19 | 5 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3103 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 20 | 15 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 3007 | 8 | 68 | |
| 44 | 155 | IM | @Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2673 | 7.5 | 58.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Bortnyk won $1,000 for first place and Nihal $750 for second. Carlsen won $350, Xiong $200, and Nakamura $100 to round out the top five, while three more players on nine points ended up on the outside looking in due to tiebreaks. IM Meri Arabidze won the $100 women's prize, scoring 7.5 points.
Titled Cup Standings
Carlsen gained a spot, now in fourth, while a tie between Lazavik and GM Jose Martinez replaced him in fifth. Few changes from last week elsewhere.
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 | @MagnusCarlsen | 182.5 | GM Magnus Carlsen |
| 5t | @Jospem | 182.0 | GM Jose Martinez |
| 5t | @DenLaz | 182.0 | GM Denis Lazavik |
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 | 137.5 | IM Meri Arabidze |
| 5 | @karinachess1 | 135.0 | IM Karina Ambartsumova |
Other Category Leaders
Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (182.0 points)
Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (168.5 points)
Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (115.0 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 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.
