Newly-Crowned World Champion Nakamura Wins Another Tournament
GM Hikaru Nakamura, who won the Fischer Random World Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland on October 30, and is now in Toronto, Canada for the Chess.com Global Championship Finals starting November 2, found time to take home yet another Titled Tuesday trophy on November 1. He won the early tournament by a full point, scoring 10/11.
GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, who finished third early, then won the late tournament, edging out GM Alireza Firouzja on tiebreaks.
Early Tournament
Nakamura hardly broke a sweat, only drawing Sarana in round six and Deac in round 11 while winning every other game. However, it was not until Sarana lost in the very last round to Bortnyk that Nakamura had the tournament fully locked up, although even a Sarana win might not have been enough for him after tiebreaks.
Nakamura, who abandoned the 1.g4/1...g5 ploy of recent weeks in favor of more rational openings, defeated Bortnyk himself in round nine.
Sarana still managed to finish in second place on the basis of his strong start, which included a win over GM Daniil Dubov in the 10th round.
At the same time, however, Nakamura added his final win of the tournament, over national teammate GM Leinier Dominguez, keeping enough distance to win easily despite the final-round draw.
November 1 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3247 | 10 | 68 | |
| 2 | 9 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3040 | 9 | 58 | |
| 3 | 13 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3003 | 9 | 52.5 | |
| 4 | 21 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2948 | 9 | 50.5 | |
| 5 | 15 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2994 | 9 | 47.25 | |
| 6 | 10 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 2998 | 8.5 | 58.75 | |
| 7 | 12 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2991 | 8.5 | 52.75 | |
| 8 | 47 | GM | @Rakhmanov_Aleksandr | Aleksandr Rakhmanov | 2861 | 8.5 | 52.25 | |
| 9 | 25 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2933 | 8.5 | 44.75 | |
| 10 | 23 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2938 | 8.5 | 43 | |
| 11 | 5 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3030 | 8 | 57 | |
| 12 | 2 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 3092 | 8 | 52.25 | |
| 13 | 7 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 3004 | 8 | 50.5 | |
| 14 | 37 | IM | @Gareth-Bale11 | Mamikon Gharibyan | 2865 | 8 | 47.25 | |
| 15 | 59 | FM | @Chessmissile07 | Harsh Suresh | 2799 | 8 | 46 | |
| 16 | 52 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2844 | 8 | 41.5 | |
| 17 | 58 | GM | @Mikhail_Bryakin | Mikhail Bryakin | 2813 | 8 | 36 | |
| 18 | 49 | IM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2842 | 8 | 35.5 | |
| 19 | 11 | GM | @Sebastian | Leinier Dominguez Perez | 2995 | 7.5 | 46.5 | |
| 20 | 31 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2868 | 7.5 | 43.75 | |
| 34 | 127 | WGM | @Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2630 | 7 | 39 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won $1,000 for taking the tournament. Sarana finished second with the best tiebreaks out of four players on nine points, earning $750. Bortnyk won $350, GM Rasmus Svane $200, and Deac $100 for the next three places. WGM Meri Arabidze won the $100 women's prize with a 7/11 score.
Late Tournament
Attendance at the late event is starting to creep up on the early one. A few months ago, the early tournament could receive 80 or more extra players than the late one. This week, the late tournament drew 367 participants compared to exactly 400 earlier in the day. This was without Nakamura, who reasonably took the late tournament off with a bigger event starting Wednesday.
Bortnyk sped out to an 8/8 start, defeating GM Vugar Rasulov in the eighth round with a checkmate on move 36. At that point, Bortnyk led the field by a full point.
From there, however, he made three draws, including against Firouzja in round nine. Firouzja, who dropped a game back in round three, then ended the tournament with two wins to even the score back up with Bortnyk. Firouzja defeated GM Baadur Jobava in the final round with Black in just 28 moves.
Nonetheless, Bortnyk maintained the edge in the final standings for his fourth Titled Tuesday win of the year.
November 1 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 9 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3032 | 9.5 | 61.75 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3129 | 9.5 | 60.75 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3043 | 9 | 61 | |
| 4 | 174 | IM | @Vusatiuk_Vladimir | Volodymyr Vusatiuk | 2636 | 9 | 59 | |
| 5 | 12 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3011 | 9 | 54.5 | |
| 6 | 18 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2977 | 9 | 41.25 | |
| 7 | 15 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 2981 | 8.5 | 46.5 | |
| 8 | 44 | GM | @VojtechPlat | Vojtěch Plát | 2883 | 8.5 | 39.25 | |
| 9 | 69 | GM | @GM_Crest | Sergey Shipov | 2788 | 8 | 47.5 | |
| 10 | 28 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2908 | 8 | 45 | |
| 10 | 5 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3026 | 8 | 45 | |
| 10 | 124 | IM | @I_am_Javi | Ernesto Fernandez | 2823 | 8 | 45 | |
| 13 | 4 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 3092 | 8 | 41.5 | |
| 13 | 39 | GM | @DrVelja | Velimir Ivic | 2875 | 8 | 41.5 | |
| 13 | 121 | IM | @Leon-Black | Jake Kleiman | 2633 | 8 | 41.5 | |
| 16 | 23 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2931 | 8 | 41.25 | |
| 17 | 10 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 3003 | 8 | 38.5 | |
| 18 | 22 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra | 2929 | 8 | 37 | |
| 19 | 16 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2943 | 8 | 36 | |
| 20 | 8 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3007 | 7.5 | 45.75 | |
| 68 | 122 | IM | @karinachess1 | Karina Ambartsumova | 2596 | 6 | 27.25 |
(Full final standings here.)
Bortnyk took home $1,000, giving him the most total money on the day with $1,350. Firouzja won $750 in second while GM Jose Martinez won $350 for third place and IM Volodymyr Vusatiuk $200 for fourth. Deac finished fifth place yet again, for another $100 and a daily total of $200. The $100 women's prize went to IM Karina Ambartsumova, who scored 6/11.
Titled Tuesday is a weekly Chess.com event held for titled players. Two 11-round Swiss tournaments are contested every Tuesday, beginning at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.
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.
