Titled Cup Continues To Grow Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Updated: Jan 10, 2024, 10:25 AM | 14 | Chess.com News

The second set of Titled Tuesday tournaments of 2024 was won by GMs Eduardo Iturrizaga and Daniil Dubov on January 9. A total of 733 participants in the first tournament was easily the most since Titled Tuesday was split into two tournaments, smashing the previous record of 660 players, which was just set last week. The 555 players in the late event was also a record for the Late edition.

GM Hikaru Nakamura continues to lead the early Titled Cup standings, now with 27 points.

Early Tournament (Iturrizaga, 9.5/11)
Late Tournament (Dubov, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

There was a four-way tie for first place on 9.5 points in the early tournament. Iturrizaga was the only person who made that score with three draws, which helped him with a higher tiebreak even though he played none of the other top-four finishers.

As might be guessed from the four-way tie, there was a lot of chaos in the final round. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda led the field with nine points, with six people behind him on 8.5 points. Unfortunately for Duda, he could not secure even a draw with White against GM Vincent Keymer.

Unfortunately for Keymer, even beating the tournament leader at the end was not enough for first place. Iturrizaga defeated GM Teimour Radjabov to reach 9.5 points and accepted Keymer's help in that score being sufficient to win the event.

Also winning in the last round was GM Minh Le, who took second place, ahead of Keymer and IM Renato Terry, with a wild win over IM Matvey Galchenko.

January 9 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	36		GM	@iturrizaga	Eduardo Iturrizaga	3039	9.5	74
2	31		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3041	9.5	72
3	19		GM	@VincentKeymer	Vincent Keymer	3057	9.5	64.5
4	34		IM	@MITerryble	Renato Terry	3020	9.5	61.5
5	16		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3068	9	79.5
6	21		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3034	9	71.5
7	7		GM	@LevonAronian	Levon Aronian	3102	9	70.5
8	15		GM	@GMWSO	Wesley So	3068	9	68.5
9	25		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3021	9	68
10	122		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2859	9	67.5
11	26		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3013	9	63.5
12	77		IM	@MatthewG-p4p	Matvey Galchenko	2931	8.5	76
13	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3251	8.5	73
14	18		GM	@TRadjabov	Teimour Radjabov	3035	8.5	71
15	43		GM	@FGHSMN	Bharath Subramaniyam.H	2969	8.5	69
16	23		GM	@joppie2	Jorden van Foreest	3020	8.5	66
17	61		FM	@artin10862	Artin Ashraf	2931	8.5	63.5
18	54		GM	@Vaathi_Coming	Aravindh Chithambaram	2945	8.5	54.5
19	35		GM	@FormerProdigy	David Navara	3009	8	74.5
20	46		GM	@lilleper1	Jonas Bjerre	2975	8	73.5
127	141		GM	@ChessQueen	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2749	6.5	59

(Full final standings here.)

Prizes were doubled because of some issues last week, so Iturrizaga won a solid $2,000 for first place. Le took $1,500, Keymer $700, and Terry $400 for second through fourth place. Duda unsurprisingly finished fifth for $200, with the best tiebreaks for players on nine points, while Kosteniuk won the $200 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Dubov edged out GM Sam Sevian on tiebreaks to win the late event, but that wasn't the only story. After Dubov and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi made waves with a farcical game at the 2023 World Blitz Championship, they met in round eight and did pretty much the exact same thing.

Two rounds later, Nepomniachtchi did it again, this time in cahoots with Nakamura. Nepomniachtchi made four total draws, the other two rather normal, but never lost and managed third place.

Dubov, however, was able to win his final game against Nakamura.

For Sevian, the path to 9.5 points was a bit different. He was upset in round two, but the only other game he didn't win was a 10th-round draw against Dubov. In the final round, Sevian routed GM Levon Aronian in just 20 moves with a brilliant double bishop sacrifice.

January 9 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	6		GM	@Duhless	Daniil Dubov	3149	9.5	72.5
2	5		GM	@Konavets	Sam Sevian	3166	9.5	68.5
3	7		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3144	9	71.5
4	30		GM	@Njal28	Aram Hakobyan	3037	9	68
5	17		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3060	9	67.5
6	19		GM	@iturrizaga	Eduardo Iturrizaga	3054	9	65.5
7	29		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3016	9	64.5
8	22		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3035	9	62
9	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3202	8.5	78
10	25		GM	@joppie2	Jorden van Foreest	3045	8.5	74
11	9		GM	@LevonAronian	Levon Aronian	3118	8.5	71
12	8		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3121	8.5	68.5
13	20		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3050	8.5	68
14	11		GM	@amintabatabaei	Amin Tabatabaei	3100	8.5	65
15	34		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	2997	8.5	63.5
16	56		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2948	8	73.5
17	33		GM	@Sebastian	Leinier Dominguez Perez	3002	8	73.5
18	10		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3093	8	72.5
19	35		GM	@Fandorine	Maksim Chigaev	2991	8	72
20	28		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3023	8	70
63	112		GM	@ChessQueen	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2724	7	57

(Full final standings here.)

Dubov earned $1,000, while Sevian took home $750. Nepomniachtchi claimed $350 in third, GM Aram Hakobyan $200 in fourth, and GM Alexey Sarana $100 in fifth. Kosteniuk won another $100 women's prize for $300 total earnings on the day.

Titled Cup Standings

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	27.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@mishanick	26.5	GM Alexey Sarana
3	@dropstoneDP	25.5	GM David Paravyan
4	@iturrizaga	24.5	GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli
5	@SantoBlue	24.5	GM Vahap Sanal
6	@rasmussvane	24.5	GM Rasmus Svane
7	@vi_pranav	24.5	GM V Pranav

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	19.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2	@karinachess1	17.0	IM Karina Ambartsumova
3	@jinbojinbo	16.0	GM Jiner Zhu
4	@anasta10	14.5	FM Anastasia Avramidou
5	@ChessQueen	13.5	GM Alexander Kosteniuk

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Pranav V

Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov

Girls: WFM Megan Althea Paragua

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.