Deac Edges Out Carlsen After Nakamura Wins Another
For the third week in a row, GM Hikaru Nakamura took home first place in a Titled Tuesday tournament. This week it earned him $2,000 of a $5,000 prize fund in the early event on January 31. Normal prizes resumed for the late tournament, won by GM Bogdan Daniel Deac.
Both winners scored 9.5 points and needed tiebreaks to finish ahead of a 2018 World Championship participant: GM Fabiano Caruana placed second early, and GM Magnus Carlsen came in second place late.
Early Tournament
Nakamura began the early tournament, which included 576 players, on a 6/6 score before hitting a roadblock against Caruana in round seven.
Caruana, who had drawn with IM Ruben Kollner in round two, padded his lead over Nakamura in the eighth round, defeating GM Vugar Rasulov, while Nakamura drew GM Matthias Bluebaum.
However, it would be their performances against eighth-place GM Baadur Jobava that ultimately decided the outcome. In the ninth round, Jobava defeated Caruana while Nakamura checkmated Rasulov.
Both players were now on 7.5/9, and neither lost again. However, Nakamura's final-round win over Jobava was enough to claim the tournament.
January 31 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3162 | 9.5 | |
| 2 | 12 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3056 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 147 | FM | @BegmuratovKh2010 | Khumoyun Begmuratov | 2882 | 9 | |
| 4 | 45 | IM | @KhazarBabazada007 | Khazar Babazada | 2965 | 9 | |
| 5 | 46 | GM | @sergoy | Sergey Drygalov | 2944 | 9 | |
| 6 | 20 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 3044 | 8.5 | |
| 7 | 3 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3114 | 8.5 | |
| 8 | 8 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2989 | 8.5 | |
| 9 | 30 | GM | @Sebastian | Leinier Dominguez Perez | 2966 | 8.5 | |
| 10 | 95 | GM | @baki83 | Etienne Bacrot | 2853 | 8.5 | |
| 11 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3019 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 10 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3033 | 8.5 | |
| 13 | 60 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2901 | 8.5 | |
| 14 | 35 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2946 | 8 | |
| 15 | 6 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3041 | 8 | |
| 16 | 16 | GM | @Denis_Makhnyov | Denis Makhnev | 2942 | 8 | |
| 17 | 9 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3067 | 8 | |
| 18 | 7 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3034 | 8 | |
| 19 | 47 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 2907 | 8 | |
| 20 | 38 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 2979 | 8 | |
| 30 | 210 | WGM | @jinbojinbo | Jiner Zhu | 2649 | 7.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura took home the $2,000 first-place prize, while Caruana won $1,500. FM Khumoyun Begmuratov claimed third place, $700. IM Khazar Babazada finished fourth for $400, and GM Sergey Drygalov fifth for $200. WGM Jiner Zhu won this week's $200 women's prize, scoring 7.5 points.
Late Tournament
The last perfect score, now in a late field of 451, was again 6/6. This time, however, it was held by three players, none of whom won in round seven: GMs Masoud Mosadeghpour, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Yu Yangyi. In fact, all three wound up barely outside the top five on scores of 8.5/11 each. Deac contributed by defeating Duda in round eight.
By the time the final round arrived, the tournament standings were still a mess. Five players shared the lead with scores of 8.5/10: Mosadeghpour, Yu, Deac, Carlsen, and Caruana. Another six players had eight points.
Deac faced one of the eight-point players, GM Daniil Dubov, and needed 71 moves to stay apace with the field.
The only other player on 8.5 to win his game, however, was Carlsen, and he did it against Caruana. It was enough to come in second place but not enough to displace Deac on the tiebreak scores.
In a bit of a glitch-in-the-Matrix moment, both tournaments ended with two players on 9.5 points, three players on 9 points, and eight players on 8.5/11.
January 31 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 14 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3067 | 9.5 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3211 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 34 | GM | @Zkid | Steven Zierk | 2964 | 9 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3114 | 9 | |
| 5 | 16 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3019 | 9 | |
| 6 | 36 | GM | @Masmos97 | Masoud Mosadeghpour | 2974 | 8.5 | |
| 7 | 8 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3074 | 8.5 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | @chesspanda123 | Yu Yangyi | 3107 | 8.5 | |
| 9 | 9 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3056 | 8.5 | |
| 10 | 7 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3088 | 8.5 | |
| 11 | 15 | GM | @Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 3029 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 12 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3034 | 8.5 | |
| 13 | 22 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 2977 | 8.5 | |
| 14 | 5 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3091 | 8 | |
| 15 | 27 | GM | @Sebastian | Leinier Dominguez Perez | 2966 | 8 | |
| 16 | 49 | GM | @Cayse | Martyn Kravtsiv | 2885 | 8 | |
| 17 | 35 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2942 | 8 | |
| 18 | 42 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2901 | 8 | |
| 19 | 13 | GM | @NotYetFinish | José Martínez | 3014 | 8 | |
| 20 | 130 | GM | @MomchilPetkov05 | Momchil Petkov | 2749 | 8 | |
| 32 | 76 | IM | @nurgyulsalimova | Nurgyul Salimova | 2780 | 7.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Deac won $1,000, while Carlsen took home $750. GM Steven Zierk won the $350 third place prize, with GM Wesley So winning $200 in fourth place and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk $100 in fifth. IM Nurgyul Salimova, who recently made a splash in the Bulgarian Championship, won the $100 women's prize for the second time in three weeks.
Titled Tuesday is a tournament hosted by Chess.com for titled players every Tuesday, consisting of two 11-round Swiss tournaments each week 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.
