Nakamura Back On Top Tuesday, Nearly Sweeps
You can't keep GM Hikaru Namakura down for long. He won the early Titled Tuesday on October 3, his first since a perfect score on August 22 and his 57th overall since October 2020. Nakamura then nearly won the late event as well, but it ended up going to GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, with Nakamura finishing second. It was Bortnyk's seventh win since February 2022, tying GM Magnus Carlsen for the fifth-most in that time period.
Early Tournament
An early draw in round four kept Nakamura from leading the field of 577 from wire-to-wire, but he was always within half a point of the highest score. By the end of round seven, he had returned to a share of the lead, but it wasn't until the very last round that he led outright.
In the eighth round, Nakamura defeated one of the six co-leaders entering the round, GM Hrant Melkumyan, leaving himself and GM Alireza Firouzja as the two remaining co-leaders.
Three more players joined Nakamura and Firouzja in the lead after they drew with each other in the ninth round. But in the 10th round, as in the eighth, they were yet again the only players in the group to win.
The oscillation ended in the final round. First, Nakamura moved to 10/11 by winning with Black over Bortnyk.
However, GM Jose Martinez defeated Firouzja, which left Nakamura alone in first place and also lifted Martinez to third, just ahead of Firouzja, who would now finish fourth.
Filling the gap between first and third was Melkumyan, who scored 3/3 after his loss to Nakamura. Melkumyan defeated GM Aleksandr Shimanov to move into sole second place.
October 3 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3270 | 10 | 73 | |
| 2 | 31 | GM | @Hrant_ChessMood | Hrant Melkumyan | 2960 | 9.5 | 72 | |
| 3 | 7 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 3078 | 9 | 77.5 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3120 | 9 | 77 | |
| 5 | 38 | FM | @ShiroglanTalibov | Talibov Shiroghlan | 2950 | 9 | 73 | |
| 6 | 6 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3070 | 9 | 71.5 | |
| 7 | 28 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2937 | 9 | 64.5 | |
| 8 | 27 | GM | @Elsa167 | Leon Livaic | 2932 | 9 | 61.5 | |
| 9 | 14 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3009 | 9 | 59.5 | |
| 10 | 19 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 2971 | 8.5 | 78 | |
| 11 | 48 | FM | @temus_galaktionov | Artem Galaktionov | 2893 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 12 | 30 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2936 | 8.5 | 75 | |
| 13 | 33 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 2926 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 14 | 13 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3019 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 15 | 70 | FM | @PeshkaCh | Tykhon Cherniaiev | 2820 | 8.5 | 65 | |
| 16 | 75 | IM | @sokidze | Ihor Samunenkov | 2825 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 17 | 4 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3074 | 8.5 | 60.5 | |
| 18 | 23 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2948 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 19 | 44 | GM | @vladislavkovalev | Vladislav Kovalev | 2875 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 20 | 73 | FM | @bascheyaro | Roman Yanchenko | 2832 | 8 | 70 | |
| 80 | 167 | IM | @karinachess1 | Karina Ambartsumova | 2635 | 7 | 56 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won $1,000 and Melkumyan $750. Seven players tied on nine points, with Martinez earning $350, Firouzja $200, and FM Shiroghlan Talibov finishing fifth for $100. IM Karina Ambartsumova won the $100 women's prize.
Late Tournament
For a long time, it looked like Nakamura might waltz to another win in the late field of 429 players. He reached a 7/7 score to become the last perfect player, including another win over Melkumyan, this time in the sixth round. The next three rounds did not go quite as well, however, with draws against GMs Fabiano Caruana and Christopher Yoo sandwiching a loss to Firouzja.
Meanwhile, Bortnyk had lost all the way back in round three, but in the next seven rounds, he scored all seven possible points. It was the last of these wins, playing Alekhine's Defense with Black against Firouzja in round 10, that finally brought Bortnyk into the outright lead with a round still to go.
Two players posed Bortnyk's largest threats before the final round, with Martinez and GM Matthias Bluebaum on 8.5 points each. Bortnyk kept Bluebaum at bay himself with a draw in just 21 moves... while Nakamura defeated Martinez, serving the double function of bringing Nakamura back into second place while securing first place for Bortnyk.
October 3 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 14 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3044 | 9.5 | 65 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3264 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 3 | 21 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3023 | 9 | 71 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3073 | 9 | 70.5 | |
| 5 | 6 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3081 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 6 | 8 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3086 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 7 | 17 | GM | @sergoy | Sergey Drygalov | 3024 | 9 | 65 | |
| 8 | 11 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 3025 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 9 | 10 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3048 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 10 | 27 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2979 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 11 | 15 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3009 | 8.5 | 62.5 | |
| 12 | 52 | IM | @Arystanner | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2848 | 8.5 | 62.5 | |
| 13 | 63 | GM | @KaydenTroffChess | Kayden Troff | 2804 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 14 | 36 | GM | @Denis_Makhnyov | Denis Makhnev | 2951 | 8 | 77.5 | |
| 15 | 2 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3123 | 8 | 73 | |
| 16 | 30 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2956 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 17 | 34 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 2941 | 8 | 68 | |
| 18 | 13 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3007 | 8 | 67 | |
| 19 | 41 | GM | @ContrVersia | Valery Kazakouski | 2895 | 8 | 66 | |
| 20 | 49 | GM | @dretch | Conrad Holt | 2857 | 8 | 65 | |
| 93 | 95 | WGM | @Sanyura | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya | 2650 | 6 | 53 |
(Full final standings here.)
Bortnyk won $1,000 for his efforts. Nakamura took home $750, for a total of $1,750 in both events. Four of the six players on nine points, including Nakamura, made the top five. Yoo won $350, GM Nihal Sarin $200, and Bluebaum $100, while just missing out were Caruana and last week's early tournament victor GM Sergey Drygalov. WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya won the $100 women's prize.
Titled Tuesday is the pair of 11-round Swiss tournaments that Chess.com hosts for titled players every week. The first starts Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the other later on at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).
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.
