Titled '10s Day' As Sarana, Bortnyk Win Outright
GMs Alexey Sarana and Oleksandr Bortnyk scored 10 points each in the early and late Titled Tuesdays of June 4, respectively, earning Sarana his second victory of the year and Bortnyk his first. Neither required tiebreaks, both winning outright.
Early Tournament
For the second straight week, Titled Tuesday lost some of its strongest regulars to the Norway Chess tournament, but it still brought in a healthy player count of 727.
Sarana sprinted to a 7/7 start, finishing that initial run against 15-year-old Turkish phenom GM Ediz Gurel, outplaying him in an endgame to win with Black.
Veteran GM Levon Aronian (who was the world's seventh-ranked player when Gurel was born) finally held Sarana to a draw, but Sarana came right back with two straight wins. Sarana thus entered the final round with a half-point tournament lead over GM Daniel Naroditsky, who reached that position with six straight wins from rounds five through 10, completing that streak against GM Ramil Hasangatin.
And so the final round was the not-so-unusual situation of one player in the lead needing a draw to hold the tournament, while a win for the opponent would swap the standings. The game was somewhat anticlimactic, however, as Sarana played White and easily traded down into a dead bishop ending.
More interesting was the game that earned GM Jakhongir Vakhidov third place, as a series of blows starting on move 37 against GM Jose Martinez produced an overwhelming material advantage.
Rounding out the top five were two familiar names, GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Dmitry Andreikin, with the best tiebreaks for the players on nine points.
June 4 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
1 | 8 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3095 | 10 | 69 | |
2 | 5 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3084 | 9.5 | 75.5 | |
3 | 48 | GM | @Jakhongir-Vakhidov | Jakhongir Vakhidov | 2966 | 9.5 | 73.5 | |
4 | 13 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 3048 | 9 | 70 | |
5 | 4 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3083 | 9 | 69 | |
6 | 31 | IM | @Szparu | Miłosz Szpar | 2987 | 9 | 66 | |
7 | 16 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3031 | 9 | 65 | |
8 | 18 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3012 | 9 | 63 | |
9 | 35 | GM | @Durarbayli | Vasif Durarbayli | 2945 | 9 | 56 | |
10 | 15 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3040 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
11 | 14 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3040 | 8.5 | 70 | |
12 | 76 | IM | @scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 2863 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
13 | 55 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2918 | 8.5 | 68 | |
14 | 32 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2966 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
15 | 28 | GM | @Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 2960 | 8.5 | 63.5 | |
16 | 6 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3055 | 8.5 | 61 | |
17 | 87 | IM | @Legendinunknown | Harshavardhan GB | 2842 | 8.5 | 61 | |
18 | 7 | GM | @viditchess | Vidit Gujrathi | 3055 | 8.5 | 60 | |
19 | 70 | FM | @Aradhya2000 | Aradhya Garg | 2876 | 8 | 75 | |
20 | 175 | GM | @Hasangatin_Ramil | Ramil Hasangatin | 2740 | 8 | 73 | |
56 | 339 | IM | @annasargsyan_m | Anna M. Sargsyan | 2581 | 7.5 | 59 |
(Full final standings here.)
Sarana won $1,000 for his efforts, while Naroditsky took home $750 and Vakhidov $350, with $200 going to Nepomniachtchi and $100 to Andreikin. The $100 women's prize went to IM Anna M. Sargsyan.
Late Tournament
In the field of 525, Bortnyk made his first draw in just the fifth game, while the longest duration of perfection was the first eight games from GM Pavel Eljanov. Who stopped this streak but Bortnyk, of course, who won on time with a position the engine deemed slightly better but was looking drawish... if Bortnyk did not still have 42 seconds when Eljanov's clock hit zeroes.
Unfortunately for Eljanov, he spiraled from there, but to be fair, he had to deal with Nepomniachtchi and Andreikin in those last two games.
With a round left, Bortnyk held a full-point lead on four players tied for second. Like Sarana, a draw was enough for Bortnyk to clinch, and like Sarana, Bortnyk did. The final position, against GM Daniil Dubov, was a rather amusing stalemate.
I won TT!
— Oleksandr Bortnyk (@BortnykChess) June 4, 2024
The real battle of the ultimate round was the wild slugfest between Andreikin and Martinez, with the winner likely to take second place. Andreikin emerged in an outright second place, as the last player who entered on 8.5 points, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, lost to GM Hans Niemann. Ultimately, neither of those two finished in the top five.
The late tournament also saw one of the strongest women's prize winners in some time, with GM Zhu Jiner finishing in 19th place on eight points after winning rather easily with Black in the final round against GM Vladimir Onischuk.
June 4 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
1 | 13 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3062 | 10 | 77.5 | |
2 | 6 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3094 | 9.5 | 62.5 | |
3 | 27 | FM | @rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 2970 | 9 | 81 | |
4 | 4 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3114 | 9 | 77.5 | |
5 | 14 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3038 | 9 | 71.5 | |
6 | 5 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3091 | 9 | 68 | |
7 | 10 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 3047 | 9 | 66.5 | |
8 | 3 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3144 | 9 | 64 | |
9 | 39 | GM | @Kiborg95 | Denis Kadric | 2928 | 8.5 | 77 | |
10 | 7 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3076 | 8.5 | 73 | |
11 | 11 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3036 | 8.5 | 69 | |
12 | 1 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3218 | 8.5 | 67 | |
13 | 32 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2927 | 8.5 | 60.5 | |
14 | 33 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2928 | 8.5 | 60 | |
15 | 34 | GM | @eljanov | Pavel Eljanov | 2938 | 8 | 79 | |
16 | 45 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2919 | 8 | 74.5 | |
17 | 59 | GM | @JSPrepz | Johan-Sebastian Christiansen | 2850 | 8 | 72 | |
18 | 12 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3030 | 8 | 70.5 | |
19 | 131 | GM | @jinbojinbo | Jiner Zhu | 2719 | 8 | 70 | |
20 | 48 | GM | @frederiksvane | Frederik Svane | 2905 | 8 | 69.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Bortnyk won the $1,000 first-place prize while Andreikin earned the $750 for second. Half of the six players on nine points had the tiebreaks to enter the top five, with FM Reza Mahdavi claiming $350 in third, Dubov $200 in fourth, and IM Renato Terry $100 in fifth. Zhu also won $100 for her top-20 performance.
Titled Cup Standings
Sarana inched closer to Duda for second place in the Titled Cup standings as GM Hikaru Nakamura's lead remains totally safe. In the women's standings, 7.5 points are now the difference between first (still GM Alexandra Kosteniuk) and fourth (IM Karina Ambartsumova) place. And we'll let you know if GM Denis Lazavik, GM Gata Kamsky, and WCM Veronika Shubenkova ever lose their grip on first place for juniors, seniors, and girls.
Open
# | Username | Score | Player |
1 | @Hikaru | 194.5 | GM Hikaru Nakamura |
2 | @Polish_fighter3000 | 184.5 | GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda |
3 | @mishanick | 182.0 | GM Alexey Sarana |
4 | @Jospem | 180.5 | GM Jose Martinez |
5-t | @jefferyx | 177.0 | GM Jeffery Xiong |
5-t | @wonderfultime | 177.0 | GM Minh Le |
Women
# | Username | Score | Player |
1 | @ChessQueen | 139.5 | GM Alexandra Kosteniuk |
2 | @Goryachkina | 136.0 | GM Aleksandra Goryachkina |
3 | @Meri-Arabidze | 134.0 | IM Meri Arabidze |
4 | @karinachess1 | 132.0 | IM Karina Ambartsumova |
5 | @Fh2411 | 123.5 | IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham |
Other Category Leaders
Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (174.5 points)
Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (164.5 points)
Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (108.5 points)
The 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).