Tie-tled Tuesday Continues To Draw Crowds

NathanielGreen

Jan 17, 2024, 8:42 AM | 12 | Chess Event Coverage

As Titled Tuesday gets more crowded, with 700+ players in the early tournament and 500+ in the late tournament both of the last two weeks, ties atop the standings seem to be getting more commonplace. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave emerged from a five-way tie in the early tournament of January 16 to win on tiebreaks, while GM Alexey Sarana won the late tournament ahead of GM Levon Aronian in a more modest two-way tie.

GM Hikaru Nakamura continues to lead the Titled Cup standings in the early going, although second-place Sarana remains close behind.

Early Tournament (Vachier-Lagrave, 9.5/11)
Late Tournament (Sarana, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

With 714 players in the fight early, it was another free-for-all at the top after four players out of 733 tied for the lead last week. Vachier-Lagrave led the first tiebreak score by 2.5 points to claim the victory, with the next three players all half a point within each other. The third-place tie between GM Vladimir Fedoseev and Nakamura even came down to the second tiebreak.

Both Vachier-Lagrave and GM Jose Martinez had been on 7.5 points out of eight when they faced each other in the ninth round. Vachier-Lagrave won to take the inside track on the tournament.

Martinez still managed to finished in second despite the loss—one of just two suffered by anyone in the top five—by winning his final two games. In the final round, while Vachier-Lagrave and Fedoseev were making the infamous "Berlin draw" in order to guarantee at least a tie for first, Martinez defeated GM Vahap Sanal.

Nakamura also defeated GM David Navara in the last round and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda toppled IM Mukhiddin Madaminov. Nakamura and Duda thus both joined the 9.5-point crew as well.

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

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	6		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3158	9.5	79
2	13		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3086	9.5	76.5
3	20		GM	@Bigfish1995	Vladimir Fedoseev	3080	9.5	76
4	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3222	9.5	76
5	15		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3097	9.5	73.5
6	4		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3142	9	77
7	14		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3109	9	75
8	8		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3071	9	72.5
9	22		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3053	9	63.5
10	82		IM	@PLAYER_2006_M	Mukhiddin Madaminov	2925	8.5	79
11	142		IM	@sokidze	Ihor Samunenkov	2838	8.5	77
12	11		GM	@GMWSO	Wesley So	3082	8.5	69.5
13	51		GM	@SantoBlue	Vahap Sanal	2955	8.5	68.5
14	9		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3080	8.5	68
15	27		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3018	8.5	66.5
16	76		GM	@jcibarra	José Carlos Ibarra Jerez	2885	8.5	66
17	26		GM	@sergoy	Sergey Drygalov	2985	8.5	64.5
18	28		GM	@FormerProdigy	David Navara	3022	8.5	64.5
19	24		GM	@Njal28	Aram Hakobyan	3006	8.5	57.5
20	21		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3003	8.5	55.5
73	269		IM	@karinachess1	Karina Ambartsumova	2612	7	62.5

(Full final standings here.)

Vachier-Lagrave won $1,000, Martinez $750, Fedoseev $350, Nakamura $200, and Duda $100. IM Karina Ambartsumova claimed the $100 women's prize with seven points.

Late Tournament

There were 506 players in the late field, which continues to draw crowds that the early tournament sometimes didn't reach in past months. Sarana jumped out to a perfect 7/7 start by beating Nakamura in the seventh round.

Sarana only scored half a point in his next two games, but then finished things off with two more wins against GM David Paravyan and Fedoseev. Meanwhile, Aronian, who was upset in round three by GM David Gavrilescu and then made a draw in round six, won his last five games to join Sarana on 9.5 total points.

But the two never faced each other, and with one round left, it was GM Arjun Erigaisi who led the tournament. However, he faced Aronian and lost.

Aronian's win not only helped him leapfrog Arjun, but helped Sarana as well, and while the tiebreak scores were close in the early tournament, Sarana easily had better marks than Aronian.

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

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	10		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3110	9.5	76.5
2	5		GM	@LevonAronian	Levon Aronian	3111	9.5	64.5
3	24		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3025	9	78.5
4	7		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3109	9	76
5	20		GM	@iturrizaga	Eduardo Iturrizaga	3027	9	59
6	23		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3012	9	58.5
7	9		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3080	9	56
8	12		GM	@Bigfish1995	Vladimir Fedoseev	3080	8.5	75.5
9	8		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3097	8.5	74.5
10	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3222	8.5	73
11	22		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3024	8.5	71
12	31		GM	@Angry_Twin	Andrey Drygalov	2976	8.5	70
13	25		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Yoo	2994	8.5	67
14	32		GM	@Sebastian	Leinier Dominguez	2998	8.5	66
15	15		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3031	8.5	60
16	114		GM	@GMAkobianSTL	Varuzhan Akobian	2751	8.5	57.5
17	26		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2983	8	73.5
18	39		GM	@AntonSmirnov	Anton Smirnov	2962	8	72.5
19	55		GM	@Sargsyan_Shant	Shant Sargsyan	2895	8	70
20	91		FM	@GoltsevDmitry2000	Goltsev Dmitry	2784	8	66
82	118		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2683	6.5	56.5

(Full final standings here.)

Sarana won $1,000 and Aronian $750. Arjun held onto third place for a $350 prize, while GM Dmitry Andreikin and GM Eduardo Iturrizaga rounded out the top five for $200 and $100, respectively. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 women's prize with 6.5 points.

Titled Cup Standings

The top three leaders in the open standings and top four in the women's remain unchanged.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	45.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@mishanick	44.0	GM Alexey Sarana
3	@dropstoneDP	41.5	GM David Paravyan
4	@Msb2	40.0	GM Matthias Bluebaum
5	@Zhigalko_Sergei	39.5	GM Sergei Zhigalko

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	33.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2	@karinachess1	29.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova
3	@jinbojinbo	27.5	GM Jiner Zhu
4	@anasta10	25.0	FM Anastasia Avramidou
5	@sansanathalia	21.0	WFM Megan Althea Paragua

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: CM Artem Bardyk (32.0 points)

Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov (36.5 points)

Girls: WFM Megan Althea Paragua (21.0 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.