Martinez Wins December 14 Titled Tuesday
With a victory in the final round, GM Jose Martinez won Titled Tuesday on December 14 with a score of 10/11. Coming in second place was last week's victor, GM Jeffery Xiong, with 9.5/11. GM Alexey Sarana and NM Valery Sviridov had the best tiebreaks among players on nine points, for third and fourth place, respectively.
Titled Tuesday drew 587 players this week, the most since June 8. Perhaps we will see 600+ next week. The tournament was, as usual, an 11-round Swiss tournament at a 3+1 time control.
The live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by IM David Pruess.
After a comeback win over Sviridov in round 10, Martinez was sole leader with 9/10 entering the final round. There he faced GM Hikaru Nakamura, who was in a crowd of five players tied for second on 8.5/10. A draw to assure a tie for first wasn't an option for Martinez given Nakamura's tournament situation. A tense game followed which was not decided until Nakamura surprisingly flagged with 40...Qd4 available.
Despite his round 10 result, Sviridov ended up finishing fourth on the strength of a perfect start. No fewer than 10 players reached 5/5, but only Sviridov made 6/6 (before losing to Nakamura the next round).
Xiong's second-place finish was quite the recovery from a first-round loss against FM Marek Karas. A round-nine draw against Nakamura was the only other game Xiong did not win. His sole second was finalized in the last round against GM Conrad Holt.
The tactic of the tournament came in round nine after Holt played 83. Qf5+ to get a resignation from GM Vladislav Artemiev, who only had three seconds left. As pointed out during the broadcast, 83...Kh6 would extend the game, when the queens stay on because 84.Qxd7?? is stalemate.
December 14 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 5 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 3086 | 10 | 71.25 | |
| 2 | 4 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3081 | 9.5 | 60.25 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3031 | 9 | 60.5 | |
| 4 | 12 | NM | @Sviridov_Valery | Valery Sviridov | 2990 | 9 | 55.5 | |
| 5 | 26 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2954 | 9 | 54.75 | |
| 6 | 13 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2988 | 9 | 53.75 | |
| 7 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3193 | 8.5 | 63.5 | |
| 8 | 7 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 3019 | 8.5 | 58.75 | |
| 9 | 8 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3013 | 8.5 | 55.5 | |
| 10 | 22 | IM | @Manticore17 | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2919 | 8.5 | 54.5 | |
| 11 | 2 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 3078 | 8.5 | 52.25 | |
| 12 | 34 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2899 | 8.5 | 51.25 | |
| 13 | 11 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2985 | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 14 | 44 | GM | @dretch | Conrad Holt | 2899 | 8.5 | 50.25 | |
| 15 | 21 | GM | @Zhuu96 | Zhamsaran Tsydypov | 2936 | 8.5 | 49 | |
| 16 | 59 | IM | @Supernotar | Maly Alexey | 2843 | 8.5 | 48.5 | |
| 17 | 86 | GM | @Saxar85 | Zahar Efimenko | 2768 | 8.5 | 47.25 | |
| 18 | 88 | GM | @Rakhmanov_Aleksandr | Aleksandr Rakhmanov | 2775 | 8.5 | 43.75 | |
| 19 | 109 | IM | @AtabayevSaparmyrat | Saparmyrat Atabayev | 2753 | 8.5 | 43.25 | |
| 20 | 9 | GM | @viditchess | Vidit Gujrathi | 2999 | 8 | 55.25 | |
| 51 | 154 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2655 | 7.5 | 33.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Martinez won $750 for his win. Xiong took home $400 for second place. Sarana won $150 for third and Sviridov $100 for fourth place. The $100 prize for the top female player went to GM Aleksandra Goryachkina on 7.5/11.
Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for titled players, played weekly on Chess.com at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 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.
