Nakamura Wins November 23 Titled Tuesday
GM Hikaru Nakamura took home his second Titled Tuesday of the month on November 23. With a score of 9.5/11 on +8 =3, Nakamura claimed victory on tiebreaks over IM Minh Le. GM Jeffery Xiong took third place for the second straight week, finishing with the best tiebreaks of the players on nine points, followed by GM Rasmus Svane in fourth.
557 players participated in Titled Tuesday this week, the most since August 17. This week's tournament was, as usual, an 11-round Swiss tournament using a 3+1 time control.
The live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili.
Svane was the last player to have a perfect score, reaching an impressive 8/8 before losing the initiative and dropping a round-nine matchup with Nakamura. This win brought the five-time U.S. champion into a share of the lead.
After that, Nakamura won in round 10 against GM Vidit Gujrathi and drew NM Valery Sviridov (in 41 moves) in the last round to claim the tournament.
Svane's most impressive victory during his perfect run was against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who was playing in advance of his November 29 Speed Chess Championship match against Chess.com world championship commentator GM Fabiano Caruana. (Not to be confused with "Fabuanu Cariano.")
Second-place Minh Le won his last six games, including over Svane (whose hot start was still enough to cash) in the final round. In the round before that, he got a measure of revenge against GM Jose Martinez, who defeated him 3.5-2.5 in the Championship Final of season seven of Arena Kings back in August.
Xiong managed his second-straight third-place finish despite losing in round 10 to Svane. The round prior, Xiong took down last week's Titled Tuesday victor, GM Dmitry Andreikin.
November 23 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB | Prize |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3200 | 9.5 | 70.5 | $750 | |
| 2 | 5 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3019 | 9.5 | 60.5 | $400 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3060 | 9 | 63 | $150 | |
| 4 | 18 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2971 | 9 | 62.5 | $100 | |
| 5 | 55 | FM | @Vugar_Manafov | Vugar Manafov | 2855 | 9 | 56.5 | ||
| 5 | 9 | NM | @Sviridov_Valery | Valery Sviridov | 3005 | 9 | 56.5 | ||
| 7 | 72 | GM | @Kobalia | Mikhail Kobalia | 2844 | 9 | 53 | ||
| 8 | 59 | GM | @platy3 | Alan Pichot | 2863 | 9 | 51.75 | ||
| 9 | 2 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3070 | 8.5 | 60.75 | ||
| 10 | 63 | IM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2860 | 8.5 | 51.5 | ||
| 11 | 94 | GM | @moro182 | Luca Moroni Jr | 2782 | 8.5 | 48.75 | ||
| 12 | 10 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 2958 | 8.5 | 48.5 | ||
| 13 | 52 | GM | @Alexsur1981 | Aleksei Pridorozhni | 2866 | 8.5 | 47.75 | ||
| 14 | 7 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2997 | 8 | 54 | ||
| 15 | 29 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2901 | 8 | 53 | ||
| 16 | 28 | GM | @Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 2909 | 8 | 52.5 | ||
| 17 | 30 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2887 | 8 | 52.25 | ||
| 18 | 6 | GM | @viditchess | Vidit Gujrathi | 3004 | 8 | 50.25 | ||
| 19 | 17 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2923 | 8 | 48.75 | ||
| 20 | 85 | GM | @BocharovD | Dmitriy Bocharov | 2802 | 8 | 47.25 | ||
| 20 | 25 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 2904 | 8 | 47.25 | ||
| 46 | 168 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2608 | 7.5 | 37.5 | $100 |
(Full final standings here.)
GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 prize for the highest-scoring female player.
Chess.com hosts Titled Tuesday, a Swiss tournament for titled players, every Tuesday starting at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 Central European.
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.
