Carlsen Wins Another Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Oct 2, 2024, 10:15 AM | 12 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk and GM Magnus Carlsen won the first Titled Tuesdays of October on the first of the month. Bortnyk scored 10/11 early to win outright, while Carlsen scored 9.5/11 late and won on tiebreaks over GM Grigoriy Oparin, whom he also defeated in round nine to end Oparin's perfect 8/8 start.

For Bortnyk, it was his second Titled Tuesday win in the last four weeks and his fourth in 2024, tying three other players for the third-most this year. For Carlsen, it was his sixth win in the past 10 weeks and his 10th of the year, joining GM Hikaru Nakamura as the only two players with double-digit victories in 2024.

Early Tournament (Bortnyk, 10/11)
Late Tournament (Carlsen, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

At 799 players, the tournament just barely missed reaching 800 participants for the first time since February 6. Bortnyk wasn't the only undefeated player, but his two draws beat out Oparin's three.

There was some excitement early on as IM Levy Rozman faced GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in round three and pulled out the victory.

Played the Sicilian Defense for the first time in my life.

And I beat Ian Nepomniachtchi, one of the best chess players in the world.

My highest win ever.

Sometimes I have what it takes!😭 pic.twitter.com/DE97edqGnN
— GothamChess (@GothamChess) October 1, 2024

Rozman ended up scoring 7/11 and finishing 81st, then had an even better tournament late, finishing 25th with 8/11.

Bortnyk and GM Daniel Naroditsky were the last two perfect players in this early event, starting on 7/7 each, but that didn't survive their eighth-round draw. The next round, Naroditsky got Nakamura as an opponent and made another draw, while Bortnyk faced the eventual second-place finisher, 19-year-old GM Aydin Suleymanli, and won.

That was enough to get Bortnyk the sole lead, which he retained through a win in the 10th round and a draw (against Nakamura) in the 11th. Suleymanli won his last two games, one of them against Nepomniachtchi in just 28 moves.

Suleymanli ended up in second place on tiebreaks—the difference between second and third place for him and Oparin was actually the second tiebreak.

October 1 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	4		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3149	10	67.5
2	31		GM	@LastGladiator1	Aydin Suleymanli	3034	9.5	77.5
3	26		GM	@OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	3050	9.5	77.5
4	12		GM	@amintabatabaei	Amin Tabatabaei	3079	9.5	72
5	11		GM	@Andreikka	Andrey Esipenko	3077	9	79.5
6	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3276	9	78.5
7	62		IM	@MatthewG-p4p	Matvey Galchenko	2948	9	71
8	5		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3117	9	69.5
9	92		GM	@baki83	Etienne Bacrot	2904	9	69
10	21		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3033	9	68.5
11	79		GM	@Vladimir_Zakhartsov	Vladimir Zakhartsov	2915	9	61
12	25		FM	@rezamahdavi2008	Reza Mahdavi	3005	9	59.5
13	23		GM	@LevonAronian	Levon Aronian	3039	8.5	80
14	42		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3023	8.5	77
15	13		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3061	8.5	75.5
16	2		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3164	8.5	73.5
17	39		GM	@Angry_Twin	Andrey Drygalov	2979	8.5	73.5
18	6		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3084	8.5	70.5
19	22		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3033	8.5	69
20	3		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3129	8.5	69
71	2		WGM	@marszach123	Maria Malicka	2167	7.5	49

(Full final standings here.)

Bortnyk won the $1,000 first-place prize. Suleymanli took $750 in second, Oparin $350 in third, and GM Amin Tabatabaei $200 in fourth. GM Andrey Esipenko won $100 in fifth with the best tiebreaks of the group who finished on nine points, while WGM Maria Malicka scored 7.5 points in 10 rounds and claimed the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Another 504 players joined the late tournament, but for the second straight late event they all fell to Carlsen—who earlier in the day had just won the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Oparin returned from the early event to give Carlsen his toughest challenge, but it wasn't quite enough.

Oparin was actually perfect for longer, starting 8/8 while Carlsen lost in round seven to GM Andrew Hong. But, when they met in round nine, Carlsen soundly defeated Oparin.

Carlsen then defeated GM Matthias Bluebaum in round 10, at which point he became the sole leader of the tournament. A draw with Naroditsky allowed Oparin to catch up, but Carlsen's tiebreaks were comfortably better.

Oparin also had worse tiebreaks than a couple of the players who ended up on nine points, so it was imperative for him to win his last game to reach 9.5 points, which he successfully achieved with a victory over GM Jeffery Xiong.

October 1 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3313	9.5	78
2	15		GM	@OparinGrigoriy	Grigoriy Oparin	3086	9.5	71.5
3	24		GM	@frederiksvane	Frederik Svane	3033	9	73
4	9		GM	@SpeedofLight0	Andrew Hong	3111	9	72.5
5	35		GM	@Micki-taryan	Haik Martirosyan	2993	9	70.5
6	25		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3018	9	68.5
7	22		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3021	9	68
8	33		IM	@MyDream003	Zou Chen	2984	9	67.5
9	19		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3038	9	54
10	16		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3067	8.5	74
11	2		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3146	8.5	73.5
12	18		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3038	8.5	70.5
13	26		FM	@rezamahdavi2008	Reza Mahdavi	3010	8.5	68.5
14	52		GM	@Shankland	Sam Shankland	2897	8.5	64.5
15	128		FM	@hakanazeri2	Khagan Ahmad	2764	8.5	61
16	7		GM	@LOVEVAE	Wei Yi	3097	8	80.5
17	17		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3007	8	72
18	63		GM	@onyshchuk_v	Volodymyr Onyshchuk	2881	8	71
19	48		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2912	8	71
20	5		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3112	8	66
41	178		IM	@karinachess1	Karina Ambartsumova	2645	7.5	52.5

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won the $1,000 first place prize while Oparin settled for $750 in second—which still gave him the highest overall total on the day with $1,100 after also including his earlier performance. GM Frederik Svane finished third for $350, Hong fourth for $200, and GM Haik Martirosyan fifth for $100. IM Karina Ambartsumova won the $100 women's prize, scoring 7.5 points.

Titled Cup Standings

Ambartsumova's late performance broke a tie for fifth in the women's standings, but otherwise nothing much happened in the leaderboards.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	198.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@MagnusCarlsen	192.5	GM Magnus Carlsen
3	@Jospem	187.0	GM Jose Martinez
4-t	@mishanick	186.0	GM Alexey Sarana
4-t	@jefferyx	186.0	GM Jeffery Xiong

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	143.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2	@Flawless_Fighter	142.0	IM Polina Shuvalova
3	@ChessQueen	141.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
4	@Meri-Arabidze	138.5	IM Meri Arabidze
5	@karinachess1	137.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (183.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (169.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (119.5 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.