Nakamura, Firouzja Battle It Out In Titled Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Dec 4, 2024, 8:20 AM | 3 | Chess Event Coverage

Both Titled Tuesday events of December 3 went down to the wire, with GM Denis Lazavik emerging ahead of GMs Javokhir Sindarov and Matthias Bluebaum in the early tournament on tiebreaks, and GM Hikaru Nakamura getting the tiebreak over GM Alireza Firouzja late. The early leaders scored 9.5 points while Nakamura and Firouzja finished with 10, a full point ahead of the field.

Early Tournament (Lazavik, 9.5/11)
Late Tournament (Nakamura, 10/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

Lazavik and Sindarov would both lead the early field of 677 players with a 7/7 start and then end each other's perfection with an eighth-round draw. In the ninth round, Lazavik briefly took the sole lead when he beat none other than Nakamura, while Sindarov made another draw.

Lazavik would only make draws in the last two rounds, however, allowing Sindarov and Bluebaum to catch up. Sindarov did so in the 10th round, defeating GM Daniel Naroditsky. Sindarov would then make another draw in the final round.

Bluebaum, meanwhile, needed wins in both of the last two rounds to also reach 9.5 points, as he had lost to GM Steven Zierk back in the fourth round. In the final round, against GM David Anton, Bluebaum would finally rejoin the leaders.

Nonetheless, the tiebreaks would shake out in the same order that each player reached the leading score: Lazavik first, Sindarov second, and Bluebaum third. Meanwhile, Nakamura would take fifth place, but he was just getting started.

December 3 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	3		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3205	9.5	81.5
2	7		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3125	9.5	77.5
3	15		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3062	9.5	70.5
4	6		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3121	9	80
5	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3249	9	76.5
6	14		GM	@AnishOnYoutube	Anish Giri	3072	9	71.5
7	48		GM	@Zkid	Steven Zierk	2944	9	67.5
8	18		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3039	9	66.5
9	25		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3018	9	65
10	30		IM	@DonkyDonkyDonkey	Eray Kilic	2980	9	64
11	21		GM	@tptagain	David Anton Guijarro	3037	8.5	74
12	12		GM	@xiaotong2008	Xiao Tong	3070	8.5	72.5
13	13		IM	@Murad_Ibrahimli	Murad İbrahimli	3051	8.5	71.5
14	17		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	3036	8.5	66
15	38		IM	@aa175	Anthony Atanasov	2956	8.5	65.5
16	37		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2942	8.5	65
17	121		CM	@puz2010	Semen Puzyrevsky	2785	8.5	55
18	5		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3098	8	76.5
19	4		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3134	8	73.5
20	20		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3020	8	73.5
33	116		WGM	@Sanyura	Aleksandra Maltsevskaya	2759	8	55

(Full final standings here.)

Lazavik earned $1,000, Sindarov $750, and Bluebaum $350, while GM Alexey Sarana won $200 in fourth and Nakamura $100 in fifth. WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya won the $100 women's prize with a score of 8/11.

Late Tournament

In a late field of 492, the last perfect score was again 7/7, this time set by GM Jose Martinez. Nakamura would take care of that in the eighth round.

In the process, Nakamura now had a share of the lead with—who else?—Firouzja. They were matched in the following round and played on for 76 moves before ending up with bare kings.

There would continue to be no separation between them as each won in the final two rounds. The 10th round was key, as the number of players tied along with them declined from four to one: Nakamura defeated IM Mahel Boyer, Firouzja beat GM Aravindh Chithambaram, and GM Daniel Dardha toppled GM Sanan Sjugirov.

Then, in the final round, Nakamura took care of the last challenger, Dardha, while Firouzja won against Martinez. The final result was that Nakamura and Firouzja were on top with 10 points, and six players tied beneath them on nine. All three players who lost to the other co-leaders in the 10th round—Aravindh, Boyer, and Sjugirov—recovered in the 11th round to score a top-five finish.

Perhaps the most interesting game of those last two rounds was Nakamura's win over Boyer, which featured an even but tense middlegame before Boyer correctly left his knight hanging but ultimately got outmaneuvered by Nakamura.

Nakamura took the tiebreak rather easily, given that as early as round three, he was facing players who ultimately finished in the top 15, leading to the more difficult slate of opponents.

December 3 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3264	10	78.5
2	2		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3227	10	71.5
3	29		GM	@Vaathi_Coming	Aravindh Chithambaram	2987	9	74
4	22		IM	@kingofthenil	Mahel Boyer	3018	9	71.5
5	15		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	3050	9	68.5
6	6		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3121	9	68
7	38		GM	@DanielDardha2005	Daniel Dardha	2963	9	68
8	7		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3090	9	64
9	20		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3042	8.5	79
10	13		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3045	8.5	72.5
11	24		GM	@DrVelja	Velimir Ivic	2997	8.5	68.5
12	4		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3116	8.5	68.5
13	28		GM	@bancsoo	Tamas Banusz	2972	8.5	64
14	3		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3138	8	74.5
15	35		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2965	8	70
16	43		GM	@alexrustemov	Alexander Rustemov	2910	8	66
17	93		FM	@MKlose11	Alberto Martin Fuentes	2738	8	64.5
18	64		FM	@Bryanl106	Bryan Enming Lin	2824	8	63
19	17		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3075	8	62.5
20	73		IM	@NailBashirli	Nail Bashirli	2786	8	62
37	69		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2777	7.5	59

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura's $1,000 first-place prize gave him $1,100 for the day. Firouzja settled for a $750 payday. The remaining prizes were $350 for Aravindh, $200 for Boyer, $100 for Sjugirov, and $100 for women's leader GM Aleksandra Goryachkina.

Titled Cup Standings

Nakamura put an extra half-point between himself and GM Magnus Carlsen and is a clear favorite to finish in first place at this point—even if Carlsen gained a full point each week from here on out, he wouldn't quite close the gap. Third place has gotten interesting, however, with a new three-way tie resulting from Firouzja finally joining the top five.

Like Nakamura, Goryachkina also gained an extra half-point in second place in the women's standings. Also, Maltsevskaya joined a tie for fifth.

Open

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

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	141.0	IM Meri Arabidze
5-t	@karinachess1	140.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova
5-t	@Sanyura	141.0	WGM 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.