Fresh Faces Finish First In Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Updated: Dec 19, 2024, 11:02 AM | 15 | Chess Event Coverage

Two of the world's best blitz players added Titled Tuesday winner to their list of 2024 accomplishments on December 17, with GM Parham Maghsoodloo winning the early tournament outright on 10 points, followed by GM Daniel Naroditsky scoring 9.5 points to win on tiebreaks over GMs Sam Sevian and Matthias Bluebaum. Both had won previously, but not yet in 2024; Maghsoodloo had last won in April 2023 and Naroditsky in February 2022.

Maghsoodloo and Bluebaum both finished in the top five in both tournaments.

Early Tournament (Maghsoodloo, 10/11)
Late Tournament (Naroditsky, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

There were 783 players who tried their hand at the early tournament. Although Maghsoodloo would eventually win outright, he lost to GM Benjamin Bok in round seven. By the ninth round, it was GM Hikaru Nakamura in the lead.

Maghsoodloo would now have the chance to rejoin the lead if he were to win with White. After a very quiet middlegame, the endgame was a tactical explosion. Just when it looked like Nakamura might crash through and promote, Maghsoodloo found a forced checkmate.

Maghsoodloo wasn't out of the woods yet, with Bluebaum and GM Dmitry Andreikin also on nine points and tied with him, and Nakamura one of five players just half a point behind. With one of the quietest winning moves you'll ever see against Andreikin, Nakamura helped both himself and Maghsoodloo.

With Andreikin out of the way, Maghsoodloo took care of Bluebaum himself. Their game was effectively over by move 50, but Bluebaum played all the way to mate.

With that, Maghsoodloo was the only player on 10 points, and had himself a victory. Nakamura took second place on tiebreaks over GM Alexey Sarana, with Bluebaum and Andreikin rounding out the top five.

December 17 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	2		GM	@Parhamov	Parham Maghsoodloo	3203	10	71.5
2	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3254	9.5	78
3	7		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3147	9.5	76.5
4	9		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3138	9	77.5
5	6		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3127	9	73.5
6	38		GM	@Shield12	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	2991	9	68
7	32		GM	@Grandelicious	Nils Grandelius	2999	9	65.5
8	12		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3036	9	65.5
9	5		GM	@Andreikka	Andrey Esipenko	3100	9	63.5
10	58		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2920	9	62.5
11	8		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3057	8.5	79
12	17		GM	@igorkovalenko	Igor Kovalenko	2998	8.5	75.5
13	80		GM	@NevorLegov	Roven Vogel	2902	8.5	72.5
14	4		GM	@AnishGiri	Anish Giri	3131	8.5	71
15	14		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3073	8.5	71
16	44		IM	@Murad_Ibrahimli	Murad İbrahimli	2952	8.5	70
17	28		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3022	8.5	67.5
18	10		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	2998	8.5	66
19	91		GM	@HVillagra	Cristobal Henriquez	2903	8.5	65.5
20	62		FM	@ilqar_74	Rustam Rustamov	2904	8.5	61.5
67	179		IM	@Meri-Arabidze	Meri Arabidze	2711	7.5	58.5

(Full final standings here.)

Maghsoodloo won the $1,000 first-place prize, with Nakamura earning $750 and Sarana $350, while Bluebaum won $200 and Andreikin $100. IM Meri Arabidze, who also won the $100 women's prize late last week, took it again here.

Late Tournament

The late tournament this week was joined by 592 players, the most since June. Four players started 6/6, none of whom were Naroditsky, but those four all made draws in the seventh round, creating a five-way tie on 6.5 points that Naroditsky was a part of.

Maghsoodloo was also a part of it, but he suffered a severe hit to his chances to sweep in round eight. Naroditsky delivered the blow.

Unfortunately for Naroditsky, he was dealt his own setback in the very next round at Sevian's hands.

By the final round, six players were tied for first place on 8.5 points, including Naroditsky after a tenth-round victory. None of the six co-leaders had played each other yet, and all three ensuing matchups were decisive. The most important turned out to be Naroditsky's victory over Andreikin, featuring a very busy knight.

Meanwhile, Sevian beat GM Oleksandr Bortnyk to also reach 9.5 points. Despite Sevian's earlier win over Naroditsky, his tiebreaks were slightly worse. But both had tiebreaks that easily cleared those of Bluebaum, who finished third by defeating GM Vugar Rasulov.

December 17 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	10		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3103	9.5	76.5
2	5		GM	@Konavets	Sam Sevian	3158	9.5	75.5
3	12		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3138	9.5	70.5
4	22		GM	@Sargsyan_Shant	Shant Sargsyan	3051	9	77
5	2		GM	@Parhamov	Parham Maghsoodloo	3203	9	76.5
6	40		GM	@MikaelyanArman	Arman Mikaelyan	2981	9	71.5
7	29		GM	@GM_dmitrij	Dmitrij Kollars	3004	9	71
8	23		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3022	9	64.5
9	36		FM	@rezamahdavi2008	Reza Mahdavi	2978	9	60
10	7		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3127	8.5	76
11	44		GM	@vugarrasulov	Vugar Rasulov	2960	8.5	75
12	20		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3035	8.5	68.5
13	33		GM	@Gareth-Bale11	Mamikon Gharibyan	2955	8.5	62.5
14	59		GM	@SavelijTartakover	Dmitry Kryakvin	2893	8.5	54.5
15	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3254	8	74.5
16	75		IM	@MyDream003	Zou Chen	2874	8	73
17	4		GM	@amintabatabaei	Amin Tabatabaei	3128	8	72
18	48		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2920	8	69
19	24		FM	@TanitoluwaAps116	Tanitoluwa Adewumi	3005	8	68
20	58		GM	@crescentmoon2411	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2896	8	68
24	173		WGM	@Crazy_girl99	Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova	2679	8	66.5

(Full final standings here.)

Naroditsky won the $1,000 prize for first place while Sevian settled for $750 for second and Bluebaum $350 for third. For Bluebaum, it meant a $550 total payday. GM Shant Sargsyan won the $200 fourth-place prize and Maghsoodloo $100 for fifth and $1,100 overall. WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova won the $100 women's prize scoring 7.5 points.

Titled Cup Standings

Any chance at GM Magnus Carlsen coming back in the overall Titled Cup is pretty much over, after Carlsen was unable to play this week due to the start of the much more important Champions Chess Tour Finals. Firouzja was also playing there instead, as Sarana joined him and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a tie for fourth in the Cup standings.

Arabidze and WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya's strong performances today have the women's standings going down to the wire. Arabidze is now half a point out of third and Maltsevskaya in sole fifth.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	201.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@MagnusCarlsen	196.0	GM Magnus Carlsen
3	@jefferyx	189.0	GM Jeffery Xiong
4-t	@Polish_fighter3000	188.0	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
4-t	@Firouzja2003	188.0	GM Alireza Firouzja
4-t	@mishanick	188.0	GM Alexey Sarana

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	145.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2	@ChessQueen	144.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
3	@Flawless_Fighter	143.0	IM Polina Shuvalova
4	@Meri-Arabidze	142.5	IM Meri Arabidze
5	@Sanyura	141.0	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (185.5 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (171.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (124.5 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.