Wesley So Becomes 2nd Player To Sweep Titled Tuesday
On a day when he played a match in the Champions Chess Tour, GM Wesley So also found the time to win both Titled Tuesday events on February 7. He is now the only player besides GM Hikaru Nakamura to achieve this feat in the roughly one year since Titled Tuesday began running twice a week.
Second place went to GM Frederico Perez Ponsa in the first tournament of the day and GM Aram Hakobyan in the second tournament.
Early Tournament
It had actually been nearly a month since someone scored 10 points in a Titled Tuesday, but So broke that streak with his performance in the early tournament field of 538 players. A full point ahead of anyone else entering the final round with 9.5/10, he drew his game to avoid tiebreaks.
After making his first draw in round six, So took on GM Lazaro Bruzon and slowly wore him down in a major piece endgame.
The wins kept coming, and by the time he beat IM Bardiya Daneshvar in just 29 moves in round 10, So effectively could not be caught in the tournament standings, and he wasn't.
February 7 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3173 | 10 | |
| 2 | 53 | GM | @Genghis_K | Federico Perez Ponsa | 2876 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 49 | GM | @GGuseinov | Gadir Guseinov | 2920 | 9.5 | |
| 4 | 65 | GM | @Rakhmanov_Aleksandr | Aleksandr Rakhmanov | 2856 | 9 | |
| 5 | 10 | GM | @GOGIEFF | Anton Korobov | 2965 | 9 | |
| 6 | 21 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2931 | 9 | |
| 7 | 24 | IM | @Manticore17 | Arystanbek Urazayev | 2923 | 9 | |
| 8 | 147 | FM | @Alex_Sahakyan2006 | Alex Sahakyan | 2725 | 9 | |
| 9 | 306 | FM | @AndreGVH | Andre Gjestemoen-VonHirsch | 2559 | 9 | |
| 10 | 4 | IM | @bardiya_Daneshvar | Bardiya Daneshvar | 3020 | 8.5 | |
| 11 | 79 | IM | @avinashramesh4 | Avinash Ramesh | 2812 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 77 | FM | @DonkyDonkyDonkey | Eray Kilic | 2812 | 8.5 | |
| 13 | 96 | IM | @Legendinunknown | Harshavardhan GB | 2763 | 8.5 | |
| 14 | 84 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2799 | 8.5 | |
| 15 | 57 | FM | @Iball95 | Vakhlamov Igor | 2828 | 8.5 | |
| 16 | 9 | GM | @Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 2957 | 8 | |
| 17 | 82 | GM | @A-Fier | Alex Fier | 2785 | 8 | |
| 18 | 41 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2854 | 8 | |
| 19 | 8 | GM | @Zkid | Steven Zierk | 2964 | 8 | |
| 20 | 23 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2919 | 8 | |
| 36 | 165 | IM | @Flawless_Fighter | Polina Shuvalova | 2674 | 7.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Prizes were doubled for the first event due to server issues in last week's early tournaments. That meant So won $2,000 for his victory while Perez took home $1,500. GM Gadir Guseinov finished in third place and won $700. GM Aleksandr Rakmanov earned $400 in fourth place, and GM Anton Korobov $200 in fifth. IM Polina Shuvalova won the $200 women's prize, scoring 7.5 points.
Late Tournament
The fun and games continued for the three-time U.S. champion in the late tournament, but mostly the games. In fact, entering the final round this time, Hakobyan was in the tournament lead with nine points out of 10.
Hakobyan had built that lead with wins like this one over eventual third-place finisher GM Dmitry Andreikin in round eight, complete with an exchange sacrifice and picturesque checkmate.
Hakobyan and So played and drew with each other in round nine, then each won in round 10. Half a point behind Hakobyan on 8.5 points was not just So but also GM Matthias Bluebaum.
Hakobyan and Bluebaum played each other and made a draw, which opened the door for So if he defeated countryman GM Daniel Naroditsky... which he did.
🏆 GM Wesley So finishes first in the late #TitledTuesday, a double victory today! 👏 pic.twitter.com/xvlLY6ByJl
— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) February 8, 2023
Like Hakobyan, Bluebaum also lost a spot in the standings after their draw (a 28-move repetition), although Andreikin needed a whopping 161 moves against GM Oleksandr Bortnyk to finish third over Bluebaum.
February 7 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3187 | 9.5 | |
| 2 | 16 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 3017 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 5 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3102 | 9 | |
| 4 | 14 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3007 | 9 | |
| 5 | 44 | GM | @daro94 | Dariusz Swiercz | 2900 | 9 | |
| 6 | 112 | IM | @mbojan | Bojan Maksimović | 2759 | 9 | |
| 7 | 32 | GM | @jcibarra | José Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2917 | 8.5 | |
| 8 | 26 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 2934 | 8.5 | |
| 9 | 27 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2943 | 8.5 | |
| 10 | 15 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3001 | 8.5 | |
| 11 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3186 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 69 | IM | @Topblitz | Yasel Borges Ferias | 2827 | 8.5 | |
| 13 | 45 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2891 | 8.5 | |
| 14 | 11 | GM | @Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 3031 | 8 | |
| 15 | 3 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3135 | 8 | |
| 16 | 38 | CM | @stollenmonster | Egor Baskakov | 2867 | 8 | |
| 17 | 13 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 2962 | 8 | |
| 18 | 56 | IM | @Marcus_Harvey | Marcus Harvey | 2822 | 8 | |
| 19 | 17 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3002 | 8 | |
| 20 | 66 | GM | @GadimbayliA | Abdulla Gadimbayli | 2802 | 8 | |
| 49 | 86 | IM | @nurgyulsalimova | Nurgyul Salimova | 2716 | 7 |
(Full final standings here.)
So added $1,000 to his prizes for the day, taking home $3,000 in total. Hakobyan settled for $750. Andreikin earned $350, Bluebaum $200, and GM Dariusz Swiercz $100 in fifth place. IM Nurgyul Salimova keeps winning women's prizes, taking home another $100 for the third time in four weeks.
Titled Tuesday is a weekly tournament hosted by Chess.com for titled players every Tuesday, made up of two 11-round Swiss tournaments each week at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.
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.
