Mamedyarov Wins October 26 Titled Tuesday
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the October 26 edition of Titled Tuesday with a score of 10/11. It was his first win in the event since January 19 and third overall. In sole second place was GM Jose Martinez with 9.5/11. Four players tied for the next best score of 9/11, with GMs Baadur Jobava and Hikaru Nakamura taking third and fourth place, respectively, on the tiebreak system.
492 players competed in the final Titled Tuesday of October. As usual it was an 11-round Swiss tournament that used a 3+1 time control.
Live broadcast of this week's tournament, hosted by WGM Dina Belenkaya.
Entering the final round, two players were tied for the lead on 9/10: Mamedyarov and Nakamura. They did not play for a draw to wait and see if 9.5/11 would be a winning score, which it has been in the past.
And it was Mamedyarov, who will be playing as the #13 seed in the 2021 Speed Chess Championship (SCC) Main Event beginning in November, who toppled SCC #1 seed Nakamura to win Titled Tuesday. Mamedyarov won two pieces for a rook and two pawns and later won an exchange, giving him an extra piece that he converted to victory.
That meant a clear second place was readily available for one of the three players on 8.5/10, and Martinez pulled it off by defeating GM Aleksey Sorokin. Martinez's connected passed pawns won an endgame against Sorokin's more active rook.
Mamedyarov and Martinez had faced each other earlier, in what turned out to be a pivotal round seven matchup. Connected passed pawns were a theme then, too, just on the other side of the board.
That victory over Martinez was sandwiched between Mamedyarov's two draws in the event, as he completed an undefeated performance with the win over Nakamura.
October 26 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB | Prize |
| 1 | 8 | GM | @Azerichess | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 3026 | 10 | 73 | $750 | |
| 2 | 4 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 3015 | 9.5 | 57.25 | $400 | |
| 3 | 11 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2968 | 9 | 57.5 | $150 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3229 | 9 | 55.75 | $100 | |
| 5 | 17 | GM | @Njal28 | 2916 | 9 | 54 | |||
| 6 | 10 | NM | @Sviridov_Valery | Valery Sviridov | 3000 | 9 | 53.75 | ||
| 7 | 6 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 2994 | 8.5 | 58.5 | ||
| 8 | 24 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2876 | 8.5 | 57.25 | ||
| 9 | 39 | GM | @Aleksey_Sorokin | Aleksey Sorokin | 2865 | 8.5 | 54.25 | ||
| 10 | 25 | GM | @VerdeNotte | Gawain Jones | 2888 | 8.5 | 53.75 | ||
| 11 | 9 | GM | @champ2005 | Raunak Sadhwani | 2946 | 8.5 | 53.25 | ||
| 12 | 30 | GM | @jcibarra | Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2849 | 8.5 | 51.5 | ||
| 13 | 26 | GM | @Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 2901 | 8.5 | 51 | ||
| 14 | 63 | IM | @francyIM | Francesco Sonis | 2772 | 8.5 | 48 | ||
| 15 | 38 | GM | @Zkid | Steven Zierk | 2844 | 8 | 51 | ||
| 16 | 16 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2884 | 8 | 50.5 | ||
| 17 | 36 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 2836 | 8 | 49.25 | ||
| 18 | 81 | IM | @jacky72 | Mihnea Costachi | 2733 | 8 | 48.5 | ||
| 19 | 14 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2924 | 8 | 46.5 | ||
| 20 | 2 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3063 | 8 | 44.5 | ||
| 61 | 226 | WFM | @4empechement | Xeniya Balabayeva | 2510 | 7 | 36 | $100 |
(Full final standings here.)
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's Swiss tournament for titled players running every week. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time/19:00 Central European each Tuesday.
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.
