Candidates Win On Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Updated: Feb 14, 2024, 11:07 AM | 7 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and GM Kirill Alekseenko, two former world championship candidates, emerged from tied standings to win Titled Tuesday on February 13. Duda needed to overcome four other players in tiebreaks, while Alekseenko only had to outscore GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Early Tournament (Duda, 9.5/11)
Late Tournament (Alekseenko, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

In a rare turn of events, three players started on a perfect 7/7: Duda, GM Yuriy Kuzubov, and IM Mukhiddin Madaminov. Over the next two rounds, Duda and Kuzubov only scored a half-point each, while Madaminov went 2/2 to take a commanding lead. But he never won again, losing consecutive games to GMs Minh Le and Denis Lazavik and falling to sixth place.

Duda, who also came from behind in his previous Titled Tuesday win back on January 23, did it again by beating IM Sergiy Zavgorodniy and GM Matthias Bluebaum in the final two rounds.

Kuzubov also finished ahead of Madaminov, in second place, by beating GM Dmitry Andreikin (below) and IM-elect Sina Movahed.

Madaminov's fall left things wide open, although Duda and Kuzubov's equally hot start through seven rounds gave them the advantage over the other three players who joined them on 9.5 points.

Lazavik was one of them, and the only one in the top five to not lose a game in the tournament, after his win over Madaminov in round 11.

February 13 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	11		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3078	9.5	77
2	58		GM	@KuzubovYuriy	Yuriy Kuzubov	2975	9.5	76
3	19		GM	@GOGIEFF	Anton Korobov	3042	9.5	71.5
4	14		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3075	9.5	69
5	2		GM	@Bigfish1995	Vladimir Fedoseev	3179	9.5	68.5
6	24		IM	@PLAYER_2006_M	Mukhiddin Madaminov	3030	9	81
7	9		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3084	9	79.5
8	12		GM	@GM_dmitrij	Dmitrij Kollars	3061	9	69
9	34		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	2987	9	66
10	55		GM	@Vaathi_Coming	Aravindh Chithambaram	2926	9	60.5
11	27		GM	@Njal28	Aram Hakobyan	3004	9	60.5
12	4		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3083	8.5	73.5
13	21		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3028	8.5	72.5
14	3		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3157	8.5	72.5
15	23		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3009	8.5	71
16	29		FM	@Sina_Movahed	Sina Movahed	3007	8.5	69.5
17	85		IM	@WhiteKnight2612	Rohith Krishna	2900	8.5	69.5
18	16		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3037	8.5	67.5
19	20		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3000	8.5	66.5
20	30		GM	@FGHSMN	Bharath Subramaniyam.H	2979	8.5	61
68	336		WGM	@ama18	Mobina Alinasab	2618	7.5	56

(Full final standings here.)

Duda won $1,000 and Kuzubov $750 thanks to the one-point edge in tiebreaks. GM Anton Korobov finished third for $350, Lazavik fourth for $200, and GM Vladimir Fedoseev fifth for $100. WGM Mobina Alinasab won the women's prize, scoring 7.5 points for $100.

Late Tournament

Alekseenko led the late tournament almost wire-to-wire, starting 8/8. His biggest win in that start turned out to be the one in round seven against fellow 2020/21 candidate Vachier-Lagrave.

After following that with a win over GM Fabiano Caruana, Alekseenko lost his only game of the tournament in round nine to GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac, which put Deac into the tournament lead. It didn't last, as he lost immediately to Vachier-Lagrave.

Entering the final round, Alekseenko and Vachier-Lagrave shared the tournament lead on nine points, with Deac and GM Jose Martinez tied for third on 8.5 points and a mess of 13 players behind them on eight points. Because Alekseenko and Vachier-Lagrave had already played, they did not have the chance to secure draws against each other. But they secured draws anyway, Alekseenko against GM Hikaru Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave against Martinez.

Deac also drew, with Fedoseev, but with so many players half a point back, his position wasn't safe. Indeed, Deac fell to sixth, passed by: GM Alexander Grischuk (defeating Bluebaum), GM David Paravyan (defeating GM Vladimir Kramnik with 84% accuracy against Kramnik's 78%), and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk (defeating GM Benjamin Bok). The Paravyan game was legitimately the most interesting of the group, with him exchanging a piece for three pawns in the early middlegame.

February 13 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	42		GM	@BilodeauA	Kirill Alekseenko	3006	9.5	78.5
2	4		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3184	9.5	70
3	7		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3105	9	75
4	15		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3063	9	72.5
5	14		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3065	9	71.5
6	23		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan-Daniel Deac	3039	9	71.5
7	18		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3049	9	70
8	13		GM	@SpeedofLight0	Andrew Hong	3063	9	69.5
9	46		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	2960	8.5	74
10	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3307	8.5	73.5
11	5		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3149	8.5	70.5
12	3		GM	@Bigfish1995	Vladimir Fedoseev	3166	8.5	62.5
13	9		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3068	8.5	54.5
14	17		GM	@Konavets	Sam Sevian	3062	8.5	52
15	11		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3057	8	78
16	51		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2948	8	74.5
17	64		GM	@dretch	Conrad Holt	2901	8	73
18	21		GM	@LiemLe	Liem Le	3024	8	72
19	29		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	2994	8	71.5
20	41		GM	@Shankland	Sam Shankland	2948	8	70.5
45	110		IM	@Flawless_Fighter	Polina Shuvalova	2756	7.5	58

(Full final standings here.)

Alekseenko won the $1,000 first-place prize with Vachier-Lagrave, settling for the $750 second-place position. Grischuk and Paravyan earned $350 and $200, respectively, for third and fourth. The $100 prizes went to Bortnyk in fifth place and IM Polina Shuvalova as the highest-scoring woman, with 7.5 points.

Titled Cup Standings

All Titled Cup leaders in the open, women, juniors, seniors, and girls categories retained their number-one position this week. We are still about a month away from having enough tournaments in the Cup that players' lowest scores will drop off. Until then, players who don't miss a week will have an even greater advantage.

The new Titled Cup fantasy game Chess Prophet continues as well. Current standings can be found here.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	117.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@dropstoneDP	108.5	GM David Paravyan
3	@mishanick	102.5	GM Alexey Sarana
4	@Jospem	102.0	GM Jose Martinez
5	@Zhigalko_Sergei	101.5	GM Sergei Zhigalko
6	@Msb2	101.5	GM Matthias Bluebaum

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@karinachess1	81.0	IM Karina Ambartsumova
2	@Goryachkina	72.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@Sanyura	58.5	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
4	@Atousa	47.5	WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan
5	@ChessQueen	46.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: CM Artem Bardyk (80.5 points)

Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov (91.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (45.0 points)

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.