Nice... Nakamura Wins 69th Titled Tuesday During Candidates Rest Day

NathanielGreen

Apr 17, 2024, 9:22 AM | 26 | Chess Event Coverage

If you had doubts about how big an event Titled Tuesday has become, you can look at just how many players from the ongoing Candidates Tournament played the April 16 edition anyway (during a rest day in the Candidates). One of them, GM Hikaru Nakamura, finished third in the early event and then won the late event, his 69th win since Titled Tuesday became an 11-round event. The early victor was GM Hans Niemann.

GM Anish Giri humorously anticipated Nakamura's win all the way back on April 3:

He's going to win the 69th one during the Candidates, it's all scripted!!🤣 pic.twitter.com/iqYdBBvAr2
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) April 3, 2024

Two other candidates, GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Alireza Firouzja, also played in both events. In the late tournament, Caruana finished second and Firouzja 10th. GM Vidit Gujrathi also took time from his Candidates rest day to play the early event.

Early Tournament (Niemann, 9.5 /11)
Late Tournament (Nakamura, 10.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

Of the 660 participants in the early tournament, three ended up on 9.5 points and another eight on nine points, so tiebreaks were key.

After seven rounds, two players were still perfect: Niemann and GM Frederik Svane. And the winner of their eighth-round game was Svane, not the ultimate tournament champion.

Svane now held a full-point lead over 10 players on 7/8, but his lead did not last, with losses to GM Dmitry Andreikin and IM Milosz Szpar in the next two rounds. This allowed not just Niemann back into contention but GM Salem Saleh (draw in round three, loss in round seven) and Nakamura (loss in round seven, draw in round eight) as well.

But it was Szpar who led with a round to go. He then pulled Nakamura as his final hurdle and was unable to clear it. For fans, but probably not Szpar, the final position is somewhat amusing.

For Saleh, who ended up winning his final four games, GM Jose Martinez was in his way at the end. Saleh won on time in an even position but with only one move for White, 38.Bb4, to keep it that way.

Saleh needed the second tiebreak to take second place over Nakamura, but they both fell short compared to Niemann, who took on Giri in the final round. Niemann needed 74 moves but got the job done.

I can't hear any of the hate, the chess is speaking too loud pic.twitter.com/p8EDhhkLf4
— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) April 16, 2024

Despite his consecutive losses near the end of the tournament, Svane recovered in the final round and had terrific tiebreaks, taking fourth place over fifth-place GM Dmitry Andreikin. They both left six other players on nine points, including Szpar, just shy of the cash places.

April 16 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	4		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3164	9.5	76
2	24		GM	@Salem-AR	Salem AR Saleh	3051	9.5	71.5
3	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3271	9.5	71.5
4	19		GM	@frederiksvane	Frederik Svane	3068	9	80
5	9		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3102	9	79.5
6	20		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3056	9	75
7	51		GM	@TenisMaster	Yuniesky Quesada	2950	9	73.5
8	81		IM	@Szparu	Miłosz Szpar	2889	9	73.5
9	27		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3022	9	71.5
10	29		GM	@h4parah5	Jaime Santos Latasa	3026	9	71.5
11	108		FM	@Aradhya2000	Aradhya Garg	2822	9	67
12	66		GM	@superchess02	Iniyan P	2924	8.5	73
13	16		GM	@AnishOnYoutube	Anish Giri	3058	8.5	72
14	6		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3109	8.5	66.5
15	31		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3004	8.5	65
16	92		IM	@the_chess_child	Ilamparthi A R	2854	8.5	64.5
17	17		GM	@LiemLe	Liem Le	3038	8	75.5
18	21		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3028	8	73.5
19	65		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2879	8	70
20	60		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2936	8	69
109	110		IM	@Flawless_Fighter	Polina Shuvalova	2757	6.5	60.5

(Full final standings here.)

Niemann took home the $1,000 grand prize, with Saleh settling for $750 and Nakamura for $350, while Svane won $200 and Andreikin earned $100. The $100 women's prize went to IM Polina Shuvalova, her second in a row.

Late Tournament

Exactly 500 players found their way to the late tournament, which turned into a U.S.-dominated affair, with the top four spots all going to Americans, including the top two spots to candidates Nakamura and Caruana. Even though Nakamura ended up winning the tournament by a full point, the tournament situation was uncertain until the very last round.

Nakamura reached a perfect 9/9 to start, spending rounds six through eight taking out some particularly notable competition against players with multiple previous Titled Tuesday wins: GMs Alexei Sarana, Liem Le, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Nakamura defeated Vachier-Lagrave with an exchange sacrifice, which was the only way to retain equality per the computer, and Vachier-Lagrave eventually went wrong.

After dispatching GM Thomas Beerdsen in round nine, Nakamura was finally held to a draw in round 10 by Firouzja.

While Nakamura was building his lead, GM Sam Shankland remained close behind despite a fifth-round loss. Shankland responded to that setback with five straight victories, including back-to-back wins over Martinez and GM Daniel Naroditsky in the eighth and ninth rounds, then a 26-move attacking gem (not a game type that usually emerges from the Classical Nimzo-Indian) versus GM Ido Gorshtein in round 10.

That all set the stage for the final-round showdown between Nakamura and Shankland, where Nakamura only needed a draw to clinch an outright tournament victory, but a win for Shankland would give him the tournament outright. Shankland built a solid edge at first against Nakamura's Slav Defense, but eventually dropped an exchange and then the game.

Of the three players who were on 8.5 points entering the final round—Caruana, Firouzja, and GM Vasif Durarbayli—only Caruana won, doing so against Durarbayli and also against a Slav Defense.

Firouzja, meanwhile, was knocked out by Naroditsky.

April 16 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3289	10.5	72
2	9		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3095	9.5	64.5
3	48		GM	@Shankland	Sam Shankland	2926	9	80
4	6		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3130	9	74
5	7		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3116	9	73
6	15		GM	@LiemLe	Liem Le	3062	9	70.5
7	18		GM	@h4parah5	Jaime Santos Latasa	3045	9	69.5
8	50		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2912	8.5	74.5
9	13		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3055	8.5	73
10	16		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3046	8.5	70.5
11	53		GM	@kleinebeer98	Thomas Beerdsen	2914	8.5	69
12	23		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3022	8.5	68.5
13	11		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3057	8.5	65
14	32		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2942	8.5	63.5
15	39		GM	@jcibarra	José Carlos Ibarra Jerez	2935	8	72
16	47		IM	@Szparu	Miłosz Szpar	2898	8	70.5
17	34		FM	@artin10862	Artin Ashraf	2939	8	68.5
18	22		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	2994	8	68
19	58		FM	@temus_galaktionov	Artem Galaktionov	2887	8	67
20	29		GM	@sergiochess83	Sergey Grigoriants	2958	8	67
68	165		WGM	@Sanyura	Aleksandra Maltsevskaya	2625	7	54

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won the $1,000 prize for first place, locking in $1,350 total—not bad for a day off. Caruana won $750 in second place. Shankland's massive tiebreak score gave him third place and $350. Rounding out the top five, Naroditsky won $200, and GM Denis Lazavik claimed $100. WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya won the $100 women's prize with seven points.

Titled Cup Standings

Not only does Nakamura still lead the standings, but his position is nearly untouchable already.

GM Aleksandra Goryachkina still leads the women, with IM Karina Ambartsumova within 4.5 points and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk 18.5 points behind, but also having only played 17 tournaments so far out of the 20 that count for the standings. Also, IM Meri Arabdize jumped into fifth place this week.

Lazavik is way ahead on the junior leaderboard by 27 points, and GM Gata Kamsky leads the seniors by 13. WCM Veronika Shubenkova leads the girls by 21.5 points, but should others, like WFM Megan Althea Paragua, start to play more Titled Tuesdays, they could catch up with her.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	189.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@Polish_fighter3000	180.5	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3	@mishanick	176.0	GM Alexey Sarana
4	@Jospem	174.5	GM Jose Martinez
5	@FairChess_on_YouTube	171.5	GM Dmitry Andreikin

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	133.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
1	@karinachess1	128.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova
3	@ChessQueen	114.5	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
4	@Sanyura	104.0	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
5	@Meri-Arabidze	101.5	IM Meri Arabidze

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (152.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (160.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (82.0 points)

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

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.