Magnus Magnificent Again In Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Aug 21, 2024, 8:08 AM | 19 | Chess Event Coverage

Two weeks after a perfect 11/11 score and one week after finishing in second place twice, GM Magnus Carlsen was back in the Titled Tuesday win column on August 20, taking the late event with 9.5 points. Winning early was GM Jaime Santos, also on 9.5 points, his first win ever in Titled Tuesday. At the same time, GM Jeffery Xiong duplicated Carlsen's feat from last week, finishing runner-up in both events.

Early Tournament (Santos, 9.5/11)
Late Tournament (Carlsen, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

Santos was almost perfect in the 681-player field through 10 rounds, only making a draw in the sixth round against GM Dmitry Andreikin. He won his other nine games, including in the 10th round against GM Tuan Minh Le, who had been the last perfect player (after seven rounds).

Santos now had a chance to run away with the tournament by a wide margin, but to do that, he had to get through GM Hikaru Nakamura. Santos put up a huge fight but ultimately fell in 92 moves, fortunate that tiebreaks still favored him. Santos successfully traded off several pieces, and even after his isolated pawn fell, there were only three pawns left on the board. But Nakamura made them tell.

For Nakamura, the win brought him into third place. In between him and Santos was Xiong, who was the only player not to lose a game. However, three draws from rounds five through eight ultimately squandered his chances at victory. In the final round against Andreikin, Xiong nonetheless secured a knight on c3 and then secured second place, when the knight was about to guide a passed pawn to queening, and Andreikin instead gave up a piece.

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	21		GM	@h4parah5	Jaime Santos Latasa	2970	9.5	72
2	7		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3142	9.5	70
3	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3227	9.5	68.5
4	6		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3147	9	77
5	8		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3090	9	72.5
6	41		GM	@ViIIagra	Cristobal Henriquez	2917	9	70.5
7	20		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3000	9	69.5
8	53		GM	@Nitzan_Steinberg	Nitzan Steinberg	2914	9	68
9	49		GM	@K_A_S_T_O_R	Rodrigo Vasquez	2893	9	63
10	4		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3097	8.5	68.5
11	114		GM	@Aygehovit1992	Nikita Matinian	2777	8.5	68
12	190		GM	@Ginger_GM	Simon Williams	2687	8.5	62.5
13	25		IM	@Kirill_Klukin	Kirill Klukin	2962	8.5	62.5
14	14		GM	@Anton_Demchenko	Anton Demchenko	3016	8.5	60.5
15	31		IM	@scarabee43	Marco Materia	2933	8.5	58
16	316		FM	@agartha01	Arda Çamlar	2597	8.5	55.5
17	37		FM	@GoltsevDmitry2000	Goltsev Dmitry	2871	8.5	55
18	159		FM	@tuschessCM1	Svyatoslav Bazakutsa	2741	8	75.5
19	101		IM	@BakaPG	Blažo Kalezić	2795	8	70.5
20	47		IM	@AlmasRakhmatullaev	Almas Rakhmatullaev	2920	8	69.5
92	585		WCM	@bitter-cikolata	Dila Baloglu	2525	7	32.5

(Full final standings here.)

Santos won $1,000 for his efforts, while Xiong settled for $750 and Nakamura for $350. Six players tied for fourth place, Andreikin having by far the best tiebreaks and thus earning $200, while GM Javokhir Sindarov finished fifth for $100. WCM Dila Baloglu won the women's prize of $100.

Late Tournament

Roles were reversed from last week, when Xiong won late, with Carlsen finishing second. Neither player lost a game in the field of 511, but Xiong put himself in an early hole with a draw in the very first round. Carlsen, meanwhile, started 6/6 and then alternated draws and victories the rest of the way. It was enough to win straight up without tiebreaks, a rarity for a score of 9.5 points.

The decisive round was ultimately the 10th, which began with a three-way tie atop the standings and ended with just Carlsen up there after he defeated Andreikin in an endgame that looked all but drawn until Andreikin erred—imperceptibly to the amateur eye—and Carlsen worked his magic.

Xiong, meanwhile, defeated Nakamura much more bluntly in an... Advance French? (Some would say there's no such thing as an advanced French Defense.)

After the dust had cleared, three players on eight points had become Carlsen alone on nine. Xiong remained behind the proverbial eight-ball because of his early draw, but now he got a one-on-one showdown with Carlsen for a chance at taking the tournament.

But Magnus needing only a draw with White—no one besides Xiong was even a half-point back of him—is a tough situation for any grandmaster to face. Despite castling on opposite sides, which often leads to fireworks, Xiong was unable to get even the beginnings of an attack going, and a quiet 47-move repetition ended his chances.

August 20 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3266	9.5	76
2	5		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3142	9	77
3	4		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3147	9	74.5
4	3		GM	@SpeedofLight0	Andrew Hong	3165	9	73
5	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3227	9	73
6	9		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3102	9	71.5
7	84		GM	@KNVB	Aman Hambleton	2797	9	66
8	8		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3146	9	64
9	13		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3025	8.5	74
10	72		IM	@DrKerfuffle	Nicolás Abarca	2836	8.5	68
11	38		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2883	8.5	65.5
12	11		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3085	8.5	63
13	32		FM	@ELECTRODYNAMIC_DRACULA	Havard Haug	2917	8.5	62.5
14	39		GM	@GMKrikor	Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian	2875	8.5	56.5
15	16		IM	@MITerryble	Renato Terry	3018	8	77
16	26		GM	@DanielDardha2005	Daniel Dardha	2950	8	76.5
17	40		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2910	8	73.5
18	12		GM	@jcibarra	José Carlos Ibarra Jerez	3034	8	73.5
19	23		GM	@sergiochess83	Sergey Grigoriants	2954	8	67.5
20	21		IM	@Kirill_Klukin	Kirill Klukin	2962	8	67
70	231		WGM	@Atousa	Atousa Pourkashiyan	2552	7	49.5

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won $1,000, recovering from a disappointing earlier showing. Xiong took home another $750 for a total of $1,500 on the day. Andreikin also returned to the top five, this time winning $350 in third for an overall $550 payday, while GM Andrew Hong finished fourth for $200. The $100 prizes were a family affair: Nakamura finished fifth (totaling $450 in both tournaments), and WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan won the women's prize a few weeks after their first wedding anniversary.

Titled Cup Standings

Carlsen became the second player to reach 190 points in the standings, and it seems unlikely that anyone will join him and Nakamura there. Xiong and Andreikin are lurking half a point below fifth place. The women's standings saw no changes in the top five this week.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	198.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@MagnusCarlsen	190.0	GM Magnus Carlsen
3	@Polish_fighter3000	185.5	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
4	@mishanick	185.0	GM Alexey Sarana
5	@Jospem	183.5	GM Jose Martinez

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@ChessQueen	141.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2-t	@Goryachkina	140.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2-t	@Flawless_Fighter	140.5	IM Polina Shuvalova
4	@Meri-Arabidze	137.5	IM Meri Arabidze
5	@karinachess1	135.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (182.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (169.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (115.0 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).

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.