Carlsen Nearly Perfect, Nearly Sweeps
GM Magnus Carlsen won the early Titled Tuesday tournament on November 21 with a 10.5/11 score and then led the late event with one round to go, but GM Liem Le would end up catching him and winning on tiebreaks. It was Le's third Titled Tuesday win in the last five weeks despite previously only rarely playing Titled Tuesday.
Early Tournament
Both Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura were in the field of 562, and both started on 6/6. Carlsen won his next two games, against GMs Dmitry Andreikin and Daniil Dubov, and was especially effective against Dubov.
Meanwhile, Nakamura made draws in both rounds, but it was still enough to set them up for a clash with Carlsen in round nine. Unfortunately, their always-anticipated matchup was a bit less dramatic than normal after Nakamura's mouse slip on move nine prematurely ended the competitive part of the game.
Nakamura gamely played on for about 20 more moves before conceding the game.
The drama that now remained was whether Carlsen would complete a perfect 11/11 score, and he continued on that path with a win over GM Arjun Erigaisi in the 10th round.
Carlsen cut any perfection questions short when he was happy enough to lock up first place by agreeing to a draw on the second move of his last game which, in a bit of foreshadowing, came against Le.
From Le's perspective, the draw ended up securing third place, but it did allow GM Parham Maghsoodloo to catch him and finish second on tiebreaks. Maghsoodloo did so with a win against Arjun, who, although he was also Carlsen's fodder in round 10 this Tuesday, still has his win in last week's late event.
November 21 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3317 | 10.5 | 69 | |
| 2 | 11 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3079 | 9.5 | 72 | |
| 3 | 10 | GM | @LiemLe | Liem Le | 3090 | 9.5 | 71 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3119 | 9.5 | 64 | |
| 5 | 12 | GM | @RaunakSadhwani2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 3065 | 9 | 72 | |
| 6 | 33 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2951 | 9 | 70 | |
| 7 | 35 | GM | @ViIIagra | Cristobal Henriquez | 2957 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 8 | 25 | GM | @joppie2 | Jorden van Foreest | 2997 | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 9 | 6 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3115 | 8.5 | 82 | |
| 10 | 21 | GM | @rednova1729 | Awonder Liang | 2998 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 11 | 128 | GM | @Rodalquilar | Leonardo Tristan | 2750 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 12 | 42 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2897 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 13 | 39 | CM | @stollenmonster | Egor Baskakov | 2917 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 14 | 34 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2916 | 8.5 | 63 | |
| 15 | 47 | GM | @Sychev_on_YouTube | Klementy Sychev | 2877 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 16 | 14 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3018 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 17 | 22 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 2989 | 8 | 72 | |
| 18 | 19 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3011 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 19 | 37 | GM | @abhidabhi | Abhimanyu Puranik | 2913 | 8 | 69 | |
| 20 | 58 | IM | @Zurability | Zura Javakhadze | 2874 | 8 | 69 | |
| 38 | 121 | IM | @Flawless_Fighter | Polina Shuvalova | 2723 | 7.5 | 67 |
(Full final standings here.)
The full-point victory earned Carlsen $1,000. Maghsoodloo won $750 and and Le won $350. GM Nihal Sarin and GM Raunak Sadhwani rounded out the top five, winning $200 and $100, respectively. IM Polina Shuvalova claimed the $100 women's prize with a 7.5/11 score.
Late Tournament
In the late tournament, Carlsen went undefeated and won his individual matchup with Le, but they weren't enough to win after he made three draws and ended up slightly worse on the main tiebreak.
Carlsen's win over Le in the ninth round bumped Le out of sole first place and put Carlsen into a three-way tie for first.
Of those three, Carlsen was the only one to win in round 10. But Le also won, making him one of three players within half a point of Carlsen entering the final round, the others being Arjun and GM Oleksandr Bortnyk.
Le faced off with Bortnyk, while Carlsen took on Arjun for the second time of the day. A complicated middlegame in Le-Bortnyk gave way to a winning endgame for Le. The computer found some chances for Bortnyk to regain equality, but it ultimately did not happen.
Meanwhile, in Carlsen-Arjun, White also ended up with a winning endgame. In this case, however, Carlsen could not convert. He still had a minute on his clock when the last winning chance arose, but he did not find it.
The draw was a fine result for Arjun: He was caught for a tie for third by three players winning their final round game, but his tiebreaks were able to sustain that development as he finished ahead of them all.
November 21 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 7 | GM | @LiemLe | Liem Le | 3126 | 9.5 | 72.5 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3310 | 9.5 | 70 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3092 | 9 | 72.5 | |
| 4 | 41 | GM | @vladislavkovalev | Vladislav Kovalev | 2908 | 9 | 70 | |
| 5 | 30 | GM | @jcibarra | José Ibarra | 2949 | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 6 | 36 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2940 | 9 | 53 | |
| 7 | 13 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3027 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 8 | 2 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3263 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 9 | 10 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3029 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 10 | 19 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2993 | 8 | 73 | |
| 11 | 21 | IM | @Mykola-Bortnyk | Mykola Bortnyk | 3006 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 12 | 23 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2982 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 13 | 8 | GM | @NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 3079 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 14 | 45 | FM | @snowlord | Ivan Yeletsky | 2842 | 8 | 67 | |
| 15 | 35 | IM | @Tactrics | Aaron Grabinsky | 2915 | 8 | 67 | |
| 16 | 40 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2881 | 8 | 67 | |
| 17 | 54 | GM | @K_A_S_T_O_R | Rodrigo Vasquez | 2847 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 18 | 37 | GM | @Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 2901 | 8 | 65 | |
| 19 | 53 | IM | @Szparu | Miłosz Szpar | 2865 | 8 | 65 | |
| 20 | 55 | GM | @ActorXu | Xu Yi | 2842 | 8 | 65 | |
| 35 | 91 | IM | @Meri-Arabidze | Meri Arabidze | 2693 | 7.5 | 54.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Le won the $1,000 first-place prize, scoring a total of $1,350 on the day. Carlsen took the $750 second-place money, enough to be the day's top winner with a total of $1,750. In third through fifth place, Arjun won $350, GM Vladislav Kovalev $200, and GM Jose Ibarra $100. IM Meri Arabidze was the winner of the $100 women's prize, scoring 7.5/11.
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 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.
