Fedoseev, Saleh Win As Nakamura Joins Titled Tuesday During Candidates
GM Vladimir Fedoseev and GM Salem Saleh were the victors in Titled Tuesday on June 28, both winning outright with 9.5 points. Saleh even missed the first round and won anyway.
GM Hikaru Nakamura finished third in the early event despite being in the middle of the biggest chess tournament of the year, the 2022 FIDE Candidates, on a rest day. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk finished in the top five in both tournaments while GM Wesley So came in second place in the early tournament.
Early Tournament
Fedoseev's path to the early victory in the 369-player field met some resistance from GM Dmitry Andreikin as they faced off in the seventh round on 6/6 each, but it was Andreikin who became the last perfect player in the field.
That would end up being Fedoseev's only loss in the tournament, however, and Andreikin was stopped in the next two rounds by GMs Jeffery Xiong and Daniil Dubov. In the meantime, Fedoseev won in the next two rounds, toppling GM Dmitrij Kollars in the eighth round and Bortnyk in the ninth.
In his ninth-round game, Nakamura defeated Xiong. After Nakamura and GM Fabiano Caruana defeated each other in the first and eighth rounds of the Candidates, it's clear that American chess players do not go soft on each other in nearly any event!
Nakamura drew his last two games, against Fedoseev and Andreikin, and several players caught up to him, including So, who won his last three games and had the best tiebreak for second place.
June 28 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 5 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3079 | 9.5 | 65.5 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3069 | 9 | 66 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3162 | 9 | 63.25 | |
| 4 | 11 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3019 | 9 | 59 | |
| 5 | 9 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2990 | 9 | 58.5 | |
| 6 | 66 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3075 | 9 | 54 | |
| 7 | 2 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3096 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3042 | 8.5 | 55.75 | |
| 9 | 39 | GM | @VerdeNotte | Gawain Jones | 2865 | 8.5 | 54.25 | |
| 10 | 24 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2926 | 8.5 | 50.25 | |
| 11 | 27 | GM | @Hrant_ChessMood | Hrant Melkumyan | 2910 | 8.5 | 47 | |
| 12 | 15 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 2968 | 8 | 53.75 | |
| 13 | 17 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2959 | 8 | 52 | |
| 14 | 28 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2915 | 8 | 50.25 | |
| 15 | 38 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2856 | 8 | 46 | |
| 16 | 20 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2944 | 8 | 45.75 | |
| 17 | 8 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 3004 | 8 | 44.75 | |
| 18 | 16 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2972 | 8 | 43 | |
| 18 | 91 | IM | @Marcus_Harvey | Marcus Harvey | 2699 | 8 | 43 | |
| 20 | 43 | GM | @Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 2851 | 8 | 40.25 | |
| 56 | 113 | WGM | @AnnamariM2001 | Annamária Marjanovic | 2638 | 6.5 | 33.75 |
(Full final standings here.)
Fedoseev earned $1,000 for his victory. So took home $750 for second place and Nakamura won $300 for third, while Bortnyk won $150 in fourth place and GM Christopher Yoo earned $100 in fifth. WGM Annamaria Marjanovic won $100 with the highest score among the women players.
Late Tournament
Because he missed the first round in the day's late event, Saleh had an uphill climb all tournament in a field of 295 players and did not take the lead until the final round.
Instead, it was GM Raunak Sadhwani who started fast, with 7.5/8, until running into an in-form Bortnyk in round nine.
After his fourth-place finish in the early, tournament Bortnyk had the lead with one round to go after also defeating So in round 10.
In the 11th round, however, Saleh won in convincing fashion against Bortnyk.
Bortnyk still held onto a fourth-place finish behind Saleh, Andreikin and GM Rasmus Svane. GM Vincent Keymer had the best tiebreaks out of a large group on 8.5 to finish fifth.
June 28 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 2978 | 9.5 | 61.5 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3099 | 9 | 64.75 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2976 | 9 | 53 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3035 | 9 | 47.5 | |
| 5 | 27 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 2914 | 8.5 | 54.5 | |
| 6 | 17 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2924 | 8.5 | 51.5 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2993 | 8.5 | 51.25 | |
| 8 | 24 | GM | @gmcorrales | Fidel Corrales Jimenez | 2911 | 8.5 | 46.5 | |
| 9 | 19 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2927 | 8.5 | 42.75 | |
| 10 | 12 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2941 | 8 | 50 | |
| 11 | 38 | GM | @ActorXu | Xu Yi | 2819 | 8 | 47 | |
| 12 | 23 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2917 | 8 | 46.25 | |
| 13 | 34 | FM | @MarcoRiehle | Marco Riehle | 2848 | 8 | 45.25 | |
| 14 | 13 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 2949 | 8 | 42.75 | |
| 14 | 234 | IM | @Eternauta2400 | Pablo Glavina | 2275 | 8 | 42.75 | |
| 16 | 2 | IM | @IgorBjelobrk | Igor Bjelobrk | 2658 | 8 | 36.5 | |
| 17 | 36 | GM | @Byniolus | Zbigniew Pakleza | 2842 | 7.5 | 44.5 | |
| 18 | 32 | GM | @IMTominho | Tomas Laurusas | 2861 | 7.5 | 44.25 | |
| 19 | 45 | GM | @AvitalBor | Avital Boruchovsky | 2795 | 7.5 | 39.5 | |
| 20 | 30 | GM | @Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 2861 | 7.5 | 37.25 | |
| 60 | 70 | WGM | @jinbojinbo | Jiner Zhu | 2652 | 6 | 24.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Saleh won $1,000 for his efforts while Andreikin earned $750. Svane won the $300 third-place prize, while Bortnyk also won a total of $300 on the day after taking another $150 here. The $100 prizes went to Keymer for fifth place and WGM Jiner Zhu as the highest-scoring woman.
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.
