Carlsen's Perfect 11/11 Tournament Matches Historic Record
GM Magnus Carlsen became only the second player, and first in nearly two years, to score a perfect 11/11 in Titled Tuesday, achieving the feat in the late tournament on July 4, 2023. He won the event by two full points—a half-point better than GM Hikaru Nakamura in the previous 11/11 performance—and did so while playing 1...a6 in all his games with Black.
The early tournament was won by GM Anton Korobov.
Late Tournament
Normally we discuss the early tournament first, but the story of the day was clearly Carlsen's perfect performance in the late event.
Matching him step-for-step through seven rounds was GM Fabiano Caruana. But not eight rounds—Carlsen delivered one of his signature grind-down-the-opponent performances.
Carlsen's lead on the field grew to 1.5 points in round nine, then in round 10 he got Black against Nakamura. Carlsen ruined another American rival's 4th of July with another victory, this one ending somewhat more suddenly.
Up by 1.5 points with a round left, Carlsen could have left the tournament now and still won outright, but there was history to chase. Trying to stop him was GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, last week's late winner who himself once had a perfect Titled Tuesday, with a 9/9 score back on October 4, 2016. As with Caruana, Carlsen simply outlasted Bortnyk in an endgame.
Relive every round of Carlsen's dominant performance below:
Every Carlsen Game | July 4 Titled Tuesday | Late
July 4 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3284 | 11 | 72.5 | |
| 2 | 7 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3120 | 9 | 79.5 | |
| 3 | 12 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3044 | 9 | 77 | |
| 4 | 18 | GM | @TigrVShlyape | Gata Kamsky | 3010 | 9 | 75 | |
| 5 | 11 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3048 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 6 | 61 | GM | @VojtechPlat | Vojtěch Plát | 2882 | 9 | 58.5 | |
| 7 | 10 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3044 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 8 | 17 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2994 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 9 | 21 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 2962 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
| 10 | 4 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3127 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 11 | 30 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2964 | 8.5 | 61 | |
| 12 | 23 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2982 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 13 | 29 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2936 | 8 | 67 | |
| 14 | 51 | FM | @FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 2815 | 8 | 65.5 | |
| 15 | 19 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2977 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 16 | 20 | IM | @0gZPanda | Anthony He | 2957 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 17 | 22 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2967 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 18 | 80 | GM | @Aygehovit1992 | Nikita Matinian | 2708 | 8 | 60 | |
| 19 | 39 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2889 | 8 | 60 | |
| 20 | 57 | GM | @KNVB | Aman Hambleton | 2796 | 8 | 59 | |
| 62 | 67 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2707 | 7 | 47.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Carlsen won $1,000 with the tournament victory. Caruana rode his 7/7 start to second place and $750. GM Jose Martinez finished third for $350, GM Gata Kamsky fourth for $200, and GM Matthias Bluebaum fifth for $100. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 women's prize.
Early Tournament
Now for the day's first tournament, which Korobov won on a more typical 9.5 points. He also went undefeated, but made three draws.
After nine rounds, it was not at all clear who would win thanks to a five-way tie: Korobov, IM Harshavardhan GB, and GMs Rauf Mamedov, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and Alexey Sarana all had eight points. Korobov did his job by defeating Sarana, surviving an attack out of the Nimzo-Indian.
The other player in that group to win was Harshavardhan, who defeated Mamedov after Mamedov hung his queen.
Korobov and Harshavardhan now co-led the field by a half point, thus a draw would guarantee them at least a tie for first. So they made one after three moves. And the two players who could catch them, Vokhidov and GM Jeffery Xiong, also made a draw, in a 61-move stalemate. Korobov's earned the tournament win much better tiebreaks compared to Harshavardhan.
July 4 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 22 | GM | @GOGIEFF | Anton Korobov | 3008 | 9.5 | 72.5 | |
| 2 | 60 | IM | @Legendinunknown | Harshavardhan GB | 2886 | 9.5 | 61 | |
| 3 | 40 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 2895 | 9 | 74 | |
| 4 | 32 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2922 | 9 | 71 | |
| 5 | 8 | GM | @Baku_Boulevard | Rauf Mamedov | 3047 | 9 | 70 | |
| 6 | 35 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2938 | 9 | 70 | |
| 7 | 2 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3104 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 8 | 29 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 2964 | 9 | 61 | |
| 9 | 17 | GM | @Krakozia | Denis Khismatullin | 3017 | 9 | 58 | |
| 10 | 4 | GM | @Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3078 | 8.5 | 75.5 | |
| 11 | 5 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3038 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 12 | 26 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2946 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 13 | 37 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2925 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 14 | 23 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2967 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 15 | 63 | IM | @demon64fields | Oleg Vastrukhin | 2844 | 8.5 | 65 | |
| 16 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3154 | 8.5 | 61 | |
| 17 | 6 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3044 | 8 | 78 | |
| 18 | 14 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2960 | 8 | 77 | |
| 19 | 20 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2988 | 8 | 71 | |
| 20 | 3 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3070 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 24 | 113 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2707 | 8 | 63.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Korobov won $1,000 while Harshavardhan claimed $750. GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son ended up in third place, winning $350. GM Rasmus Svane finished fourth for $200 and Mamedov in fifth for $100. The $100 prize to the highest-scoring woman, as in the late tournament, went to Goryachkina.
Titled Tuesday is a weekly Chess.com Swiss tournament for titled players. Two 11-round events are held each Tuesday, an early one at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and then another 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.
