Khusnutdinov Wins September 14 Titled Tuesday
GM Rustam Khusnutdinov won Titled Tuesday on September 14 by a full point with a score of 10.5/11. GM Rasmus Svane scored a sole second-place finish with 9.5/11 ahead of six players tied with 9/11. In third on tiebreaks was GM Arseniy Nesterov and GM Hikaru Nakamura finished fourth.
480 players were in this week's Titled Tuesday, which was the usual 11-round Swiss tournament at a 3+1 time control.
Live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by NM James Canty III.
Khusnutdinov (not to be confused with GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan) drew his game in the very first round before winning 10 straight contests. Since Titled Tuesday expanded to 11 rounds in October 2020, only two other players have scored at least 10.5/11: GM Anton Korobov on June 22 and Nakamura, with a perfect 11/11, on August 17.
The most important game this week for the standings was easily Khusnutdinov's round nine matchup against Nakamura, who was going for another perfect run with a tournament lead on 8/8, a half-point ahead of Khusnutdinov, the only other player better than 7/8.
Khusnutdinov's win in the next round against GM Matthias Bluebaum was also a strong attacking performance.
Svane jumped into second place in the final round after also beating Nakamura, who still had a chance to catch Khusnutdinov until the Kazakh player got consecutive win #10, against GM Sergey Zhigalko.
Obviously, it wasn't all bad for Hikaru; he won nine games, after all. The game that got him to 8/8 came against another face familiar to Titled Tuesday fans, GM Baadur Jobava.
September 14 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 26 | GM | RD4ever | Rustam Khusnutdinov | 2936 | 10.5 | 73 | |
| 2 | 16 | GM | rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2942 | 9.5 | 55.25 | |
| 3 | 19 | GM | Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 2929 | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3171 | 9 | 62 | |
| 5 | 20 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2941 | 9 | 61.5 | |
| 6 | 27 | GM | VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 2897 | 9 | 58 | |
| 7 | 21 | GM | TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2926 | 9 | 57.75 | |
| 8 | 11 | GM | erichansen | Eric Hansen | 2954 | 9 | 56 | |
| 9 | 28 | IM | Murad_Ibrahimli | Murad Ä°brahimli | 2816 | 8.5 | 53.75 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | Genghis_K | Federico Perez Ponsa | 2856 | 8.5 | 53.25 | |
| 11 | 49 | GM | K_A_S_T_O_R | Rodrigo Vasquez | 2813 | 8.5 | 49.5 | |
| 12 | 6 | GM | champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2985 | 8.5 | 47 | |
| 13 | 10 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2962 | 8.5 | 44.5 | |
| 14 | 35 | GM | nrvisakh | Visakh NR | 2846 | 8.5 | 40.25 | |
| 15 | 51 | IM | Kezin_Roman | Kezin Roman | 2792 | 8 | 54 | |
| 16 | 4 | GM | FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3003 | 8 | 51.5 | |
| 17 | 14 | GM | mishanick | Aleksey Sarana | 2940 | 8 | 51 | |
| 18 | 23 | GM | VerdeNotte | Gawain Jones | 2886 | 8 | 49 | |
| 19 | 45 | FM | GoltsevDmitry2000 | Goltsev Dmitry | 2845 | 8 | 48.75 | |
| 20 | 52 | IM | Semen_Khanin | Semen Khanin | 2782 | 8 | 48.5 | |
| 20 | 8 | GM | exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2954 | 8 | 48.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Khusnutdinov earned $750 for finishing in first place. Svane took home $400 for second, while Nesterov won $150 for third place and Nakamura $100 for fourth. The $100 prize for the top-scoring female player went to WIM Dinara Dordzhieva with 7.5/11.
Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for titled players which runs weekly on Chess.com. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European every Tuesday.
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.
