Nakamura Continues Cup Lead With Another Tuesday Win

NathanielGreen

Updated: Jan 25, 2024, 11:09 AM | 8 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda took home Titled Tuesday on January 23 with 9.5 points. After Nakamura held tiebreaks over GM Wesley So and GM Vladimir Fedoseev, Duda became the first outright winner of 2024 (with seven people tied behind him for second place).

No one has yet to catch Nakamura in the early Titled Cup standings, thanks to his regular and consistent performance. Only a player's top 20 Titled Tuesday scores of the year count for the Titled Cup, but that means every tournament will continue to count until mid-March.

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

Early Tournament

What became a three-way tie at the top of a 720-player field in the early tournament was a five-way tie with two rounds to go. Four of those five stayed in the top five spots at the end of the tournament, including GM Denis Lazavik, despite his loss to Nakamura in round 10.

Fedoseev was the other player who began the 10th round on eight points and ended it on nine, defeating GM Arjun Erigaisi.

Now the only two co-leaders, Nakamura and Fedoseev played a 29-move draw in the final round. The result worked in Nakamura's favor, as he would finish first while Fedoseev took third. It was So who came between them by defeating young IM-elect Sina Movahed.

January 23 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3306	9.5	77.5
2	10		GM	@GMWSO	Wesley So	3119	9.5	73
3	5		GM	@Bigfish1995	Vladimir Fedoseev	3142	9.5	64.5
4	22		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3051	9	77
5	13		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3100	9	75.5
6	3		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3167	9	73.5
7	23		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3054	9	69.5
8	29		IM	@MITerryble	Renato Terry	3019	9	68
9	54		GM	@Elsa167	Leon Livaic	2946	9	64.5
10	8		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3094	8.5	73
11	18		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3050	8.5	71
12	63		GM	@SpeedofLight0	Andrew Hong	2939	8.5	70.5
13	32		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	3013	8.5	68.5
14	12		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3075	8.5	66
15	51		GM	@VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	2954	8.5	66
16	58		GM	@Sargsyan_Shant	Shant Sargsyan	2920	8.5	64.5
17	16		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3060	8.5	64
18	90		GM	@Janosik	Falko Bindrich	2867	8.5	63.5
19	37		FM	@Sina_Movahed	Sina Movahed	2988	8.5	62
20	15		GM	@Sibelephant	Vladislav Artemiev	3071	8	76
49	156		IM	@Meri-Arabidze	Meri Arabidze	2745	7.5	66.5

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $1,000, So $750, and Fedoseev $350. GM Minh Le earned $200 in fourth place and Lazavik $100 in fifth. IM Meri Arabidze won the $100 women's prize, finishing 49th on a score of 7.5 points.

Late Tournament

Although Duda became the first player this year to find a path to Titled Tuesday victory without tiebreaks, he did not have a smooth ride through the field of 496. His back-and-forth loss to Arjun in round seven dropped him to 5.5/7 points and 18th place, a full point behind the leaders.

But Duda went a perfect 4/4 thereafter and, amazingly, none of the 17 people ahead of him scored enough to even hold a tie. None of the four players who had been on 6.5/7 managed more than 2.5/4 the rest of the way, and none of the 13 on six points tacked on more than three additional points.

After the ninth round, it was GM Aram Hakobyan leading outright thanks to a shocking 18-move win with Black over Arjun, who certainly had an eventful day—this is already the third time we've mentioned him.

But the tide began to turn in the 10th round. While Hakobyan made a draw with GM Alexander Grischuk, Duda recorded a third straight win, defeating GM Fabiano Caruana.

The pair of results set up a final-round clash between Duda and Hakobyan. Because Grischuk and GM Alireza Firouzja drew each other in 51 moves to reach nine points, a draw was enough for Hakobyan to lock up the tournament, while Duda needed a win.

Hakobyan took White and Duda Black, and they played a theoretical line of the Queen's Gambit Declined where White gives up two queenside pawns but retains a small edge according to the engines. Hakobyan's 18.fxe4 was the first new move and the game quickly turned thereafter. From moves 19-21, Chess.com Game Review at maximum depth assigns Hakobyan two question marks and awards Duda three exclamation marks. Hakobyan never recovered and, after 54 moves, Duda had won the game and the tournament.

January 23 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	9		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3116	9.5	72.5
2	17		GM	@Njal28	Aram Hakobyan	3073	9	76.5
3	16		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3062	9	72.5
4	4		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3155	9	72.5
5	13		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan Daniel Deac	3089	9	71
6	14		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3078	9	70.5
7	110		FM	@Alex_Sahakyan2006	Alex Sahakyan	2787	9	65.5
8	11		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3092	9	59
9	15		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3074	8.5	76.5
10	19		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3053	8.5	71.5
11	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3280	8.5	68
12	24		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3009	8.5	61.5
13	6		GM	@LevonAronian	Levon Aronian	3107	8	74.5
14	47		GM	@tptagain	David Anton Guijarro	2948	8	74
15	10		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3090	8	73
16	43		GM	@vugarrasulov	Vugar Rasulov	2948	8	72
17	40		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2954	8	71.5
18	2		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3158	8	71
19	30		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	2987	8	70
20	45		CM	@ChessFighter_2011	Dau Khuong Duy	2946	8	69
93	118		GM	@Goryachkina	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2683	6	62.5

(Full final standings here.)

Duda won the $1,000 first-place prize while Hakobyan settled for $750 in second. The top five was rounded out by GM David Paravyan earning $350, Firouzja $200, and GM Bogdan Daniel Deac $100. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina claimed the $100 women's prize.

Titled Cup Standings

There were some minor changes at the bottom of the top five open and women scores, as playing regularly remains the best way to build points. Later in the year, this effect will lessen as skipped tournaments start to filter out.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	63.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@mishanick	61.5	GM Alexey Sarana
3	@dropstoneDP	59.0	GM David Paravyan
4	@Zhigalko_Sergei	55.5	GM Sergei Zhigalko
5	@Msb2	54.5	GM Matthias Bluebaum

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	45.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2	@karinachess1	42.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova
3	@anasta10	29.5	GM Anastasia Avramidou
4	@jinbojinbo	27.5	FM Jiner Zhu
5	@Sanyura	27.0	WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: CM Artem Bardyk (46.0 points)

Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov (50.0 points)

Girls: WFM Megan Althea Paragua (26.0 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

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.