Tang Wins Titled Tuesday While Naroditsky Suffers Turbulence

GM Andrew Tang won the November 17th Titled Tuesday tournament, his second Titled Tuesday victory. Like the last two winners, GM Jeffrey Xiong and GM David Paravyan, Tang finished on an impressive 10/11 score.

blitz > bullet 😎#c9win https://t.co/aQUvPYR3RN

— Andrew Tang (@penguingm1) November 17, 2020

Despite Tang's brilliance, the story of the tournament was GM Daniel (Danya) Naroditsky, who started with an amazing 9.5/10. He faced Tang in the last round and then suddenly lost his internet connection. It came back with just six seconds left in the game, which was not enough to survive. Why did he lose his connection? Danya played the whole event on a cross-country flight! This was his post-game reaction.

The tournament, an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control, had a total of 775 participants. The top seed was GM Hikaru Nakamura, who recovered from an early loss to take second place with 9.5/11. Naroditsky also scored 9.5/11 and finished in third after his final round loss. Here's the dramatic battle for first place.

Despite his luck in the last game, Tang fully deserved his victory. He recovered from a round two loss to GM Mikhail Golubev by winning nine games in a row! One of the fastest players alive, Tang won multiple games with tactical tricks in mutual time pressure. This game from round four against FM Mihailo Djokic was a clean win, featuring an unusual imbalance of two rooks against three minor pieces.

As mentioned earlier, Daniel Naroditsky led the event with 9.5/10 before his internet connection issues. In round 10, he defeated GM Baadur Jobava in a wild game. Black was much better for most of it, but when White went for an all-out attack, it didn't take long before he delivered mate on the board.

♖ In a must-win situation, @GmNaroditsky comes from behind and closes out the game with a beautiful attack! #TitledTuesday ♖ pic.twitter.com/SB5QLlwoxC

— Chess.com (@chesscom) November 17, 2020

November 17 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Tang took home $700 for first place. Nakamura received $400 for second place. Naroditsky took $150 for third place. Fourth place earned $150 for GM Maksim Chigaev. The $100 prize for the top woman finisher went to  IM Alina Kashlinskaya.

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) with a weekly prize fund of $1,600.