Nakamura, Fresh Off Blitz Rating Record, Wins Titled Tuesday
GM Hikaru Nakamura won his first Titled Tuesday in over a month in the first tournament of November 14, while GM Arjun Erigaisi won his first ever in the late event. Both scored 9.5 points out of 11. Nakamura, coming off a peak record-breaking 3336 Chess.com blitz rating set the day before, also finished fourth in the late event.
Early Tournament
In the field of 544, Nakamura held at least a share of the lead after every single round of the tournament, which helped him out in tiebreaks. GM Kirill Alekseenko, like Nakamura, scored eight wins and three draws for 9.5 total points but came in second. Also scoring 9.5 points, despite missing the first round, was the recently reinstated GM Hans Niemann, but only having 10 opponents meant his tiebreaks suffered.
The tournament never got a Nakamura–Niemann matchup, as much as that could have lit up social media. Instead, Nakamura built up a score of 8.5/9 in games like round nine against GM Klementy Sychev. It's almost more newsworthy these days when the Nakamuras and GM Magnus Carlsens of the world play a normal-looking opening against lower-rated opponents.
At that point, Nakamura's Chess.com Blitz rating was a stratospheric 3335, one off the record he had set the previous day.
After the ninth round, however, Nakamura coasted with two draws—not that it ended up mattering in the final standings of the event—first unable to break down GM Denis Lazavik's defenses in the 10th game. Alekseenko caught up in that same round by checkmating GM Dmitry Andreikin. Just because two players go for a normal opening like the Queen's Gambit Accepted doesn't mean the game can't quickly turn crazy.
Nakamura and Alekseenko quickly made a draw in the final round before Nakamura turned his stream's attention to the player whose name he pronounced more like "hands" without the D than "Hans." In a topsy-turvy game where Nakamura's chat surmised that GM Raunak Sadhwani was struggling with lag, Niemann won to take third place.
One more game that wasn't notable to the final standings was still pretty notable: Sychev was one move from checkmating IM Ediz Gurel in a rook-and-bishop vs. rook ending when the 50-move rule hit and ended the game in a draw.
November 14 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3324 | 9.5 | 76.5 | |
| 2 | 49 | GM | @BilodeauA | Kirill Alekseenko | 2974 | 9.5 | 71 | |
| 3 | 15 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3059 | 9.5 | 55 | |
| 4 | 12 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3078 | 9 | 79.5 | |
| 5 | 4 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3130 | 9 | 78.5 | |
| 6 | 27 | GM | @bardiya_Daneshvar | Bardiya Daneshvar | 2992 | 9 | 76 | |
| 7 | 88 | GM | @Rakhmanov_Aleksandr | Aleksandr Rakhmanov | 2878 | 9 | 72.5 | |
| 8 | 29 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2967 | 9 | 67 | |
| 9 | 51 | GM | @Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 2909 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 10 | 92 | FM | @Karateloru | Oleg Rychkov | 2875 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 11 | 19 | GM | @OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 3000 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 12 | 17 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3018 | 8.5 | 64 | |
| 13 | 31 | IM | @MatthewG-p4p | Matvey Galchenko | 2958 | 8.5 | 61 | |
| 14 | 80 | FM | @Iball95 | Igor Vakhlamov | 2834 | 8.5 | 61 | |
| 15 | 47 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2926 | 8.5 | 61 | |
| 16 | 118 | CM | @vasblesk | Vaclav Finek | 2785 | 8.5 | 49 | |
| 17 | 13 | IM | @legendisback1 | Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus | 3031 | 8 | 74.5 | |
| 18 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3101 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 19 | 83 | GM | @Drags95 | Kamil Dragun | 2844 | 8 | 73 | |
| 20 | 63 | GM | @kleinebeer98 | Thomas Beerdsen | 2868 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 41 | 216 | IM | @karinachess1 | Karina Ambartsumova | 2621 | 7.5 | 58.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nakamura won $1,000 and Alekseenko $750 for their efforts. Niemann claimed $350 in third place. Lazavik earned $200 in fourth, Andreikin $100 in fifth, and IM Karina Ambartsumova scored 7.5/11 to win $100 as the highest-scoring woman in the field.
Late Tournament
With 411 players joining late, Arjun kept a perfect score for a round longer than Nakamura had earlier in the day, defeating GM Jose Martinez to reach 7/7. The round before, Arjun had toppled GM Parham Maghsoodloo, who, two rounds prior, had defeated Nakamura but was now on a two-game losing streak.
Two rounds later, Arjun defeated Nakamura himself, moving to 8.5 points out of nine. Arjun now led by a full point over seven players tied for second on 7.5 points.
Unfortunately for Arjun, one of those seven players defeated him in round 10. That was GM Amin Tabatabaei, whose nearly flawless game (about 96% by CAPS) had created some chaos in the standings: a five-way tie for first place with a round to go.
Both won in the 11th round, Arjun against GM Sergei Zhigalko and Tabatabaei against Martinez. The fifth player on 8.5 points, IM Arad Nazari, lost to Nakamura.
Arjun's tiebreaks remained better, giving him the tournament victory. Maghsoodloo, who ended on a four-game win streak, took third with the best tiebreaks of four players on nine points, marginally better than Nakamura's and far better than GM Nihal Sarin's and GM Christopher Yoo's. Nihal finished fifth, while Yoo took a tough-luck sixth.
November 14 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 8 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3069 | 9.5 | 81 | |
| 2 | 5 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3102 | 9.5 | 75 | |
| 3 | 17 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3034 | 9 | 76.5 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3266 | 9 | 74 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3101 | 9 | 62.5 | |
| 6 | 6 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3069 | 9 | 60.5 | |
| 7 | 12 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3044 | 8.5 | 75.5 | |
| 8 | 29 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2919 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 9 | 24 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2942 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 10 | 61 | IM | @AradNazari | Arad Nazari | 2814 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 11 | 116 | FM | @Alphafischer2019 | Francisco Fiorito | 2642 | 8.5 | 59 | |
| 12 | 15 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 2958 | 8.5 | 57.5 | |
| 13 | 53 | GM | @KaydenTroffChess | Kayden Troff | 2803 | 8 | 69 | |
| 14 | 2 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3109 | 8 | 69 | |
| 15 | 45 | GM | @MikaelyanArman | Arman Mikaelyan | 2816 | 8 | 68 | |
| 16 | 10 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 3017 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 17 | 88 | FM | @SRob2003 | Vladyslav Sydoryka | 2730 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 18 | 4 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3131 | 8 | 66 | |
| 19 | 97 | FM | @hakanazeri2 | Khagan Ahmad | 2638 | 8 | 63 | |
| 20 | 16 | GM | @jcibarra | Jose Ibarra | 2950 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 49 | 232 | WIM | @Savagelittlemole | Anna Kubicka | 2503 | 7 | 55.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Arjun won $1,000, with the Iranians Tabatabaei and Maghsoodloo taking $750 and $350 for second and third place, respectively. Nakamura tacked on $200 to his earlier performance for a daily sum of $1,200. Nihal won $100 for fifth, while WIM Anna Kubicka won the $100 women's prize, scoring seven points.
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 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.
