Nakamura Wins July 27 Titled Tuesday
For the third time in four weeks, GM Hikaru Nakamura has taken first place in Titled Tuesday. His 9.5 points out of 11 were enough to finish ahead of GM Giga Quparadze on tiebreaks. GM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Aleksey Sarana rounded out the top four, with the best tiebreaks among the five players on 9/11.
480 titled players participated in Titled Tuesday on July 27, which like the week before began during a tiebreaker round of the FIDE World Cup. The tournament was the usual 11-round, 3+1 time control Swiss.
Live broadcast of the tournament with this week's host WGM Nemo Zhou. This broadcast picks up in round four following Chess.com's coverage of the World Cup. The full tournament aired at Twitch.tv/ChesscomEvents.
Nakamura drew two of his first four games to start somewhat behind the leaders but settled into a groove and only drew one further game the rest of the tournament, against Quparadze in round 10.
Quparadze, who is no stranger to the top four of Titled Tuesday, was the last perfect player, with 8/8. He reached that score by defeating GM Dmitry Andreikin.
After nine rounds, however, Sadhwani was in the lead, defeating Quparadze to reach 8.5/9. Sadhwani reached a favorable position and despite worse time pressure won a smooth victory.
After the Nakamura-Quparadze draw, while Sadhwani also scored half a point in round 10, the tournament came down to the final round matchup between Nakamura and Sadhwani. A win for Sadhwani would have given him the tournament and a draw would mean at least a tie for first. He offered a draw from a better position but later made a couple of mistakes that cost him. Meanwhile, Quparadze defeated GM Alexander Zubov to finish second.
The winning Lucena position from rook-and-pawn endings made an appearance this week, in a game between Chess.com's GM Krikor Mekhitarian and ChessBrah GM Eric Hansen.
July 27 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3269 | 9.5 | 64.75 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | @GigaQuparadze | Giga Quparadze | 3023 | 9.5 | 57.25 | |
| 3 | 13 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2962 | 9 | 65 | |
| 4 | 8 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksey Sarana | 2996 | 9 | 63.5 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3016 | 9 | 60.5 | |
| 6 | 23 | IM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 2907 | 9 | 60 | |
| 7 | 43 | IM | @swimmerchess | Siva Mahadevan | 2835 | 9 | 56.5 | |
| 8 | 47 | IM | @Manticore17 | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2827 | 8.5 | 57.25 | |
| 9 | 2 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 3026 | 8.5 | 57 | |
| 10 | 4 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 2996 | 8.5 | 54.75 | |
| 11 | 16 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2926 | 8.5 | 53.75 | |
| 12 | 30 | GM | @Onischuk_V | Vladimir Onischuk | 2878 | 8.5 | 53.25 | |
| 13 | 39 | GM | @moro182 | Luca Moroni Jr | 2834 | 8.5 | 52.5 | |
| 14 | 24 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 2876 | 8.5 | 49.75 | |
| 15 | 56 | FM | @tsaruk_maks | Maksim Tsaruk | 2792 | 8.5 | 45.75 | |
| 16 | 25 | GM | @Alexsur1981 | Aleksei Pridorozhni | 2873 | 8 | 52.25 | |
| 17 | 14 | IM | @renatoterrylujan | Renato Terry | 2927 | 8 | 49 | |
| 18 | 59 | GM | @attack2mateU | Razvan Preotu | 2756 | 8 | 48.5 | |
| 19 | 114 | GM | @olksuna | Leandro Krysa | 2656 | 8 | 47 | |
| 20 | 51 | IM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 2757 | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 21 | 60 | GM | @GMKrikor | Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian | 2777 | 8 | 44.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won another $750 for first while Quparadze took $400 for second place. Sadhwani settled for $150 in third and Sarana received $100 for fourth. The $100 prize for the highest-placing woman went to WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan with 7/11.
Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament for titled players held weekly on Chess.com. It begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European on Tuesdays.
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.
