Dreev Wins December 21 Titled Tuesday
GM Aleksey Dreev won Titled Tuesday on December 21 with a score of 9.5/11, after a big victory in the final round. He edged out second-place GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the tiebreak system. With nine points out of 11, GM Raunak Sadhwani won third place and GM Aram Hakobyan finished fourth.
Titled Tuesday saw a field of 486 players this week. The event was the standard 11-round Swiss tournament with a 3+1 time control.
The live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by WGM Dina Belenkaya.
Dreev, 52, has been on the chess scene for decades, with an outstanding resume. A super-grandmaster with a 2711 peak FIDE rating in 2011, he was a world championship candidate in 1991 and won the Wijk aan Zee international tournament in 1995.
The heads-up battle between the eventual top two finishers came early, back in round four. Mamedyarov delivered what turned out to be Dreev's only defeat of the tournament.
Mamedyarov ended up starting with 7/7, the last perfect score in the tournament, before drawing in rounds eight and ten. That still put him in first by a half-point entering the final round, where he and Sadhwani decided to make a draw before any moves were played.
That gave Dreev a window that he took full advantage of, defeating GM Brandon Jacobson in a clutch performance that showed a good knight vs. a bad bishop.
Titled Tuesday breaks ties with a system called Sonneborn-Berger instead of head-to-head. Dreev's slightly better opposition throughout the tournament gave him a win that only became secure once the entire tournament ended (when the tiebreak scores could be finalized).
Third-place Sadhwani was also celebrating his 16th birthday. (Titled Tuesday runs into Wednesday in Indian time zones.) His round-10 win over GM Vugar Rasulov was very smooth.
For the second straight week, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the prize for the highest-scoring female player. She was in the running for the overall top four entering the final round, after defeating GM Vladimir Onischuk in round 10.
December 21 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 64 | GM | @Igrok3069 | Alexey Dreev | 2946 | 9.5 | 62.75 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | @Azerichess | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 3044 | 9.5 | 61.75 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2956 | 9 | 57.5 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 2990 | 9 | 57 | |
| 5 | 35 | IM | @Arash_Tahbaz | Arash Tahbaz | 2849 | 9 | 53.5 | |
| 6 | 66 | GM | @Evgeny81 | Evgeny Postny | 2782 | 9 | 45 | |
| 7 | 11 | GM | @BrandonJacobson | Brandon Jacobson | 2930 | 8.5 | 58.75 | |
| 8 | 19 | IM | @AlexTriapishko | Alexandr Triapishko | 2877 | 8.5 | 53.75 | |
| 9 | 5 | GM | @Alexander_Zubov | Alexander Zubov | 3000 | 8.5 | 51.5 | |
| 10 | 32 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 2841 | 8.5 | 51.25 | |
| 11 | 16 | GM | @TenisMaster | Yuniesky Quesada | 2908 | 8.5 | 48.25 | |
| 12 | 55 | IM | @carlesdc96 | Carles Diaz Camallonga | 2798 | 8.5 | 47.25 | |
| 13 | 72 | IM | @PavelShkapenko | Pavel Shkapenko | 2735 | 8 | 52.25 | |
| 14 | 33 | GM | @tigra | Boris Savchenko | 2863 | 8 | 52 | |
| 15 | 24 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2859 | 8 | 47.75 | |
| 16 | 62 | GM | @Gabrielian_Artur | Artur Gabrielian | 2747 | 8 | 46 | |
| 17 | 108 | FM | @suyu28 | Suyog Wagh | 2685 | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 18 | 1 | IM | @Supernotar | Maly Alexey | 2824 | 8 | 44.25 | |
| 19 | 95 | IM | @Undisputed92 | Shyaamnikhil P | 2704 | 8 | 40 | |
| 20 | 31 | GM | @VladDobrov | Vladimir Dobrov | 2837 | 8 | 38 | |
| 23 | 102 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2689 | 8 | 33.25 |
(Full final standings here.)
Dreev took home $750 with his victory while Mamedyarov won $400 for second place. Sadhwani earned $150 for third and Hakobyan $100 for fourth. Goryachkina with 8/11 won $100 as the top female player.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's tournament for titled players, a Swiss-system event played every week 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.
