Familiar Faces Win Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Updated: Sep 4, 2024, 12:46 PM | 9 | Chess Event Coverage

The first Titled Tuesdays of September went to two regulars, GMs Alexey Sarana and Bogdan-Daniel Deac, who both scored 10 points. It was Sarana's fourth win of the year and Deac's second. Sarana needed tiebreaks over GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, while Deac won outright.

Early Tournament (Sarana, 10/11)
Late Tournament (Deac, 10/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

In the field of 765, Sarana appeared to be on cruise control for most of the tournament, achieving a 9/9 start, just one week after GM Jose Martinez proved that the hallowed grounds of an 11/11 score didn't belong to just GMs Magnus Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura. Carlsen was one of Sarana's victims in this tournament when they met in round seven.

Sarana's bid at perfection would end in the 10th round, however. Nepomniachtchi, who could have been aiming at perfection himself if not for an early loss (in round three), threw the standings into chaos by beating Sarana in a rook endgame.

Suddenly, in a tie not just with Nepomniachtchi but also GM Vugar Rasulov, and with Nepomniachtchi and Rasulov facing each other, Sarana needed to find one last win to keep his chances at first place alive. His opponent was GM Frederik Svane, and the position out of Svane's Nimzo-Indian Defense was not terribly promising, but Sarana quickly made it work.

Nepomniachtchi dispatched Rasulov to keep pace with Sarana, but the third-round loss came back to haunt him, and he lost the tiebreaks by just half a point despite winning his individual matchup with Sarana.

September 3 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	9		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3146	10	70.5
2	3		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3178	10	70
3	10		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3103	9.5	76.5
4	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3263	9	76.5
5	25		GM	@vugarrasulov	Vugar Rasulov	3057	9	74.5
6	23		GM	@tptagain	David Anton Guijarro	3047	9	72
7	47		GM	@Macho_2006	Mukhiddin Madaminov	2981	9	71.5
8	40		GM	@Volodar_Murzin	Volodar Murzin	3006	9	70
9	5		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3187	9	67
10	108		IM	@Aradhya2000	Aradhya Garg	2865	9	61.5
11	17		GM	@Duhless	Daniil Dubov	3086	9	59.5
12	129		NM	@KrolPawelTV	Paweł Kowalczyk	2822	9	56.5
13	94		GM	@Beca95	Aleksandar Indjic	2944	8.5	70.5
14	14		GM	@frederiksvane	Frederik Svane	3088	8.5	69.5
15	111		GM	@moro182	Luca Moroni Jr	2887	8.5	64.5
16	118		GM	@ENajer77	Evgeniy Najer	2826	8.5	61.5
17	88		GM	@michaelq2d5	Michael Brown	2889	8.5	58.5
18	20		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3048	8	75
19	69		IM	@MatthewG-p4p	Matvey Galchenko	2898	8	73.5
20	13		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3115	8	72.5
84	230		IM	@karinachess1	Karina Ambartsumova	2604	7	58.5

(Full final standings here.)

Sarana won the $1,000 for first, while Nepomniachtchi settled for the $750 for second. Jeffery Xiong finished an outright third place for $350. Carlsen won $200 for fourth place and Rasulov $100 for fifth, while IM Karina Ambartsumova earned the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Deac's path to victory in the late field of 525 was quite different from Sarana's earlier in the day. Deac never lost, but a draw in round six ended his perfection chances early. Another draw in round eight was the only other half-point he wouldn't claim.

Still, the result of Deac's second draw was a seven-way tie for second place on seven points—one that included both Carlsen and Nakamura—while GM Oleksandr Bortnyk had 7.5 points for the lead. Bortnyk only made a draw in the ninth round, but you can't blame him too much, as it came against Carlsen. That was a better result for both of them than for Nakamura's loss to GM Jakhovir Sindarov. The only player besides Sindarov to win among those who entered the round on seven points was Deac, against IM Rud Makarian.

Somehow, Deac was just getting started. Now co-leading with Bortnyk and Sindarov on eight points, Deac took care of Bortnyk himself in the 10th round while Carlsen toppled Sindarov, setting up a Deac–Carlsen clash in the final round. Seemingly unintimidated by receiving the second move in this all-important clash, Deac kept the computer evaluation close throughout, until the reigning world champion (reigning blitz champion, of course, and rapid!) blundered into a surprisingly simple discovery tactic.

Sweeping into second place behind Deac was GM Matthias Bluebaum, who started 6/6, made three straight draws in rounds seven through nine, then won his last two contests, wrapping things up against GM David Paravyan.

September 3 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	4		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3187	10	73
2	18		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3065	9.5	72
3	19		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3052	9	75
4	12		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3043	9	72
5	11		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3115	9	68
6	16		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3067	9	66
7	10		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3126	9	61.5
8	17		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3048	8.5	73.5
9	55		GM	@pouya21	Pouya Idani	2906	8.5	71
10	3		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3178	8.5	69.5
11	44		GM	@GMKrikor	Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian	2889	8.5	66
12	115		FM	@Joshukid	Joshua Colas	2735	8.5	64
13	5		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3146	8.5	63.5
14	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3263	8.5	60
15	30		IM	@Kacparov	Kacper Drozdowski	2967	8	79.5
16	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3213	8	77
17	35		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2928	8	70
18	50		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2871	8	68.5
19	22		GM	@OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	3015	8	68.5
20	23		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	3000	8	66.5
28	121		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2714	7.5	74

(Full final standings here.)

Deac won $1,000 for first place and Bluebaum $750 for second. Makarian took third to claim $350, with GM Daniel Naroditsky finishing fourth for $200 and Bortnyk $100 for fifth. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina finished in 28th place and won the $100 women's prize, which wasn't the day's only positive development for her:

Titled Cup Standings

With her late performance, Goryachkina now leads the women's standings, with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and IM Polina Shuvalova tied for second, a mere half-point behind. This one is going down to the wire.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	198.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@MagnusCarlsen	190.5	GM Magnus Carlsen
3	@Jospem	186.0	GM Jose Martinez
4	@mishanick	186.0	GM Alexey Sarana
5	@Polish_fighter3000	185.5	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	141.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2-t	@Flawless_Fighter	141.0	IM Polina Shuvalova
2-t	@ChessQueen	141.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
4	@Meri-Arabidze	138.0	IM Meri Arabidze
5	@Sanyura	136.0	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (182.5 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (169.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (118.0 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.