Connect Four! Hikaru Wins 4th Straight Tuesday

NathanielGreen

Nov 20, 2024, 9:20 AM | 8 | Chess Event Coverage

On November 19, GM Hikaru Nakamura became the first player ever to win four straight Titled Tuesdays, and nearly became the first to win five in a row and sweep two consecutive weeks. Nakamura was able to just squeak out a win on tiebreaks over GM Magnus Carlsen in the early tournament before he was finally stopped by GM Alireza Firouzja in the late tournament.

Congratulations to @GMHikaru not only for his tournament win, but for being the first player ever to score four #TitledTuesday victories in a row!

Magnus Carlsen scored 10/11 as well but had lesser tiebreaks. pic.twitter.com/MyDdRiWLEk
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 19, 2024

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

Early Tournament

Although 693 players joined the early tournament, they were once again helpless to stop Nakamura from rising to the top. Sitting on 7.5/8, his ninth round matchup with GM Jeffery Xiong nearly ended before it began, but at the last second Nakamura averted a draw by repetition on move 10. In the endgame they eventually reached, a natural recapture from Xiong stepped into a fork that suddenly ended the competitive part of the game.

It was now time for the Nakamura–Carlsen matchup that is always anticipated when they play in the same tournament. Unfortunately for the audience, they were both more than happy to take a quiet draw in 26 moves. Fortunately for the players, their chances at first place were still alive for both of them.

In the last round, the final results would come down to Nakamura versus GM Alexey Sarana and Carlsen versus GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Nakamura and Carlsen both won. It took 53 moves each, with Nakamura–Sarana ending slightly sooner thanks to Nakamura's efficiency on the clock—he still had 35 seconds left when he delivered checkmate.

Carlsen, meanwhile, won a bit more subtly, establishing pawns on d5 and e5 that soon forced Nepomniachtchi to give up the exchange and, eventually, the game.

Settling in behind them in a clean third was Xiong, who recovered from the loss to Nakamura with two straight wins, the second against GM Matthias Bluebaum. That gave him 9.5 points, the half-point coming with a draw against Carlsen in round six—Xiong holding that draw against Carlsen and dropping the game against Nakamura was one of the key differences between first and second in the tournament.

November 19 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3334	10	77.5
2	2		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3314	10	75.5
3	20		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3093	9.5	75.5
4	7		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3149	9	77.5
5	23		GM	@bardiya_Daneshvar	Bardiya Daneshvar	3035	9	72.5
6	33		GM	@Volodar_Murzin	Volodar Murzin	3005	9	71
7	34		GM	@VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	3002	9	68
8	92		GM	@iwanyu	Alvar Alonso Rosell	2880	9	64.5
9	4		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3170	8.5	74.5
10	12		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3097	8.5	73.5
11	11		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3110	8.5	72
12	36		GM	@lilleper1	Jonas Bjerre	2995	8.5	71.5
13	6		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3166	8.5	69
14	15		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3066	8.5	68.5
15	25		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3042	8.5	68
16	30		IM	@Murad_Ibrahimli	Murad İbrahimli	2976	8.5	66.5
17	9		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3064	8.5	65
18	66		IM	@kids2010	Pawel Sowinski	2916	8.5	65
19	13		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3057	8.5	55
20	98		IM	@chenxiaoyuer	Ryo Chen	2845	8.5	53.5
86	281		WFM	@Lady_Nika	Veronika Shubenkova	2603	7	49

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won the $1,000 for first place with Carlsen taking the $750 second-place prize. Xiong won $350 in third. Sarana earned $200 in fourth place, GM Bardiya Daneshvar $100 in fifth, and WFM Veronika Shubenkova $100 for the top women's score.

Late Tournament

After his success early, it then looked like Nakamura would steamroll the field of 496 late as well. This despite Firouzja having the game of the week in the sixth round against GM Liem Le. How often do you see a triple piece sacrifice (followed by the quietest of pawn moves when it was possible to capture the queen instead) leading to checkmate?

Still, Firouzja was not in the lead because of a draw back in round three. Meanwhile, Nakamura's win with Black against GM Oleksandr Bortnyk brought him to a perfect 8/8 score.

At that point, Firouzja had apparently had enough. Five straight wins entering the ninth round had put him in position to overtake Nakamura, which he did with a steady endgame performance.

Now in the driver's seat, Firouzja won again in the 10th round, while Nakamura could only make a draw. With one round remaining, Firouzja could do no worse than tie for first. That ended up transpiring, as GM Daniel Naroditsky toppled Firouzja while Nakamura and IM Milosz Szpar defeated GMs Pranav V and Dmitry Andreikin, respectively.

While Naroditsky's win wasn't enough to knock Firouzja—whose tiebreaks survived the setback—out of first place, it was enough to earn Naroditsky the paid position of fifth place and offered the extremely rare sight of Firouzja getting checkmated on the board.

November 19 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak
1	2		GM	Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3248	9.5	78.5
2	1		GM	Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3332	9.5	74.5
3	51		IM	Szparu	Milosz Szpar	2959	9.5	73
4	14		IM	Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3071	9	72
5	3		GM	DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3125	9	68
6	13		GM	Shankland	Sam Shankland	3038	9	66
7	8		GM	Andreikka	Andrey Esipenko	3135	9	64.5
8	10		GM	jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3091	9	64.5
9	29		GM	Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	2995	8.5	70.5
10	20		GM	gena217	Guillermo Vazquez	3034	8.5	63.5
11	28		GM	rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2969	8.5	54
12	26		GM	jcibarra	Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez	3013	8	72
13	18		GM	ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3036	8	72
14	9		GM	FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3094	8	71
15	23		IM	Kacparov	Kacper Drozdowski	3011	8	68.5
16	25		GM	VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	3016	8	67.5
17	31		GM	Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3000	8	67.5
18	41		GM	Zkid	Steven Zierk	2914	8	67.5
19	7		GM	vi_pranav	Pranav V	3108	8	67
20	32		GM	Genghis_K	Federico Perez Ponsa	2996	8	64.5
58	131		IM	karinachess1	Karina Ambartsumova	2668	7	49.5

(Full final standings here.)

Firouzja won the $1,000 first-place prize while Nakamura had to "settle" for $750 in second place, $1,750 on the day, and $3,750 in the past two weeks. Szpar earned the $350 prize for third place, IM Rudik Makarian $200 for fourth, and Naroditsky the $100 for fifth. IM Karina Ambartsumova barely won the $100 women's prize, one spot ahead of IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham.

Titled Cup Standings

Carlsen was able to gain half a point on Nakamura in the overall standings, but still has five points to make up with just 12 tournaments remaining.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	200.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@MagnusCarlsen	195.5	GM Magnus Carlsen
3-t	@Polish_fighter3000	188.0	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3-t	@jefferyx	188.0	GM Jeffery Xiong
5	@mishanick	187.5	GM Alexey Sarana

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Goryachkina	143.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
2-t	@ChessQueen	143.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2-t	@Flawless_Fighter	143.0	IM Polina Shuvalova
4-t	@karinachess1	139.0	IM Karina Ambartsumova
4-t	@annasargsyan_m	139.0	IM Anna M. Sargsyan

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (185.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (171.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (124.0 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.