Near-Perfect 10s Carry Sarana, Nihal To Victory

Near-Perfect 10s Carry Sarana, Nihal To Victory

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GM Alexey Sarana and GM Nihal Sarin were the winners of Titled Tuesday on September 19, both of them scoring 9.5 points in the first 10 rounds. Sarana won the early event convincingly, leading by a full point entering the final round. To outlast GM Hikaru Nakamura for first place in the late event, however, Nihal needed both a head-to-head victory and a tiebreak advantage.


Early Tournament

A field of 591 players couldn’t stop Sarana from a nearly perfect start and, ultimately, a 10/11 score. GM Jose Martinez was on a perfect seven points through seven rounds, but Sarana ended that run in round eight.

With Sarana running away with things, the tournament became a fight for second place. GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov went a long way to securing it in round nine, defeating GM Alireza Firouzja in a game that turned when Firouzja allowed his dark squares to become severely weakened.

Vokhidov ended up tied for second with GM Tuan Minh Le, with a difference between them of a mere two points of tiebreaks.

The draw Sarana made in the final round to clinch outright first place was interesting on at least one other front: It ended by repetition, the threefold positions happening on move 86, move 88… and move 102. The unexpected ending was a mercy of sorts for any remaining spectators, as the position had been dead drawn for some time.

September 19 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

























Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 5 GM @mishanick Aleksei Sarana 3118 10 78
2 24 GM @Shield12 Shamsiddin Vokhidov 2967 9.5 72
3 13 GM @wonderfultime Tuan Minh Le 3017 9.5 70
4 2 GM @viditchess Vidit Gujrathi 3105 9 71
5 8 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3069 9 69.5
6 9

GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3034 9 69
7 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3244 9 67.5
8 58 IM @the_chess_child Ilamparthi A R 2834 9 65
9 21 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 2949 9 58
10 52 GM @Cayse Martyn Kravtsiv 2869 8.5 72.5
11 34 GM @BlueWizzard Denes Boros 2887 8.5 68.5
12 28 FM @artin10862 Artin Ashraf 2922 8.5 66.5
13 49

GM @TimofeevAr Artem Timofeev 2882 8.5 66.5
14 37 NM @MightyGMpretender Antonio Kozak 2879 8.5 65.5
15 17 GM @TigrVShlyape Gata Kamsky 2967 8.5 60.5
16 64 IM @chesskov1982 Dennis Brokken 2804 8.5 55.5
17 19 GM @SantoBlue Vahap Sanal 2945 8 72.5
18 14 GM @rasmussvane Rasmus Svane 2995 8 72.5
19 59 IM @yosephtaher Yoseph Theolifus Taher 2860 8 71.5
20 44

FM @JimDiGrease Ivan Zemlyanskii 2869 8 71
41 119

IM @Flawless_Fighter Polina Shuvalova 2702 7.5 65.5

(Full final standings here.)

Sarana won $1,000 for his third Titled Tuesday win of the year. Vokhidov won $750 in second place and Le $350 in third. GM Vidit Gujrathi finished fourth for $200 and Martinez fifth for $100, while an additional four players on nine points (including Nakamura) just missed the prizes. IM Polina Shuvalova claimed the $100 women’s prize with 7.5/11.

Late Tournament

Nihal, like Sarana early, started 9.5/10 late. His fifth through 10th rounds were a gauntlet that included four eventual top-eight finishers in the tournament, among them Nakamura; in round eight, Nihal became the first player to beat him in the late tournament. After 35 moves of near-equality, it was Nihal who started to slip, but he eventually righted the ship all the way to a win.

As Nihal continued to win, defeating GM David Paravyan and Firouzja in the next two rounds, Nakamura stayed in range with two victories of his own. In round 10 against GM Matthias Bluebaum, the computer found Nakamura’s exchange sacrifice with 20.c6 dubious, but he eventually got two connected passed pawns on the queenside for it. Bluebaum was unable to hold.

At that point, however, Nihal and Nakamura somewhat backed into place in the final round, though no one else was enough of a threat for it to matter too much. Nihal couldn’t beat GM Dmitry Andreikin, who sneaked into fifth place. Fortunately for Nihal, Nakamura only made a draw with 13-year-old, fourth-place FM Sina Movahed, and the huge schedule Nihal had faced gave him a healthy tiebreaker advantage.

September 19 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

























Number Rk Fed Title Username Name Rating Score Tiebreak 1
1 4 GM @nihalsarin Nihal Sarin 3131 9.5 78
2 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3249 9.5 64.5
3 14

GM @dropstoneDP David Paravyan 3060 9 73.5
4 17 FM @Sina_Movahed Sina Movahed 3004 9 72
5 8 GM @FairChess_on_YouTube Dmitry Andreikin 3089 9 69.5
6 13 GM @Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 3035 9 67
7 15 GM @Oleksandr_Bortnyk Oleksandr Bortnyk 3012 8.5 71
8 42 GM @Beca95 Aleksandar Indjic 2876 8.5 69.5
9 3 GM @Njal28 Aram Hakobyan 3102 8.5 68
10 47 GM @GadimbayliA Abdulla Gadimbayli 2856 8.5 65
11 53 IM @Arystanner Arystanbek Urazayev 2823 8.5 64
12 7 GM @ChessWarrior7197 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3063 8.5 63.5
13 16 GM @jefferyx Jeffery Xiong 3007 8.5 63
14 19

GM @BillieKimbah Maxim Matlakov 2982 8.5 59.5
15 43 GM @VitaliyBernadskiy Vitaliy Bernadskiy 2869 8 69.5
16 26 GM @hansen Eric Hansen 2921 8 66.5
17 22 GM @GMBenjaminBok Benjamin Bok 2957 8 66.5
18 31 GM @Hrant_ChessMood Hrant Melkumyan 2910 8 64.5
19 67 GM @maciek_92 Maciej Klekowski 2772 8 60.5
20 227 CM @filipluczak05 Filip Luczak 2674 8 57
51 86

GM @Goryachkina Aleksandra Goryachkina 2686 7 56

(Full final standings here.)

Nihal earned $1,000 with the victory, while Nakamura took home $750 in second. Paravyan finished third for $350, Movahed fourth for $200, and Andreikin fifth for $100, while GM Parham Maghsoodloo, also on nine points, was just outside in sixth. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 women’s prize with seven points.

Titled Tuesday

Chess.com hosts Titled Tuesday as a weekly 11-round Swiss tournament for titled players. There are two tournaments each Tuesday, first at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time and then at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).

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