How Sweep It Is, As Nakamura Takes Double Victory

NathanielGreen

Nov 13, 2024, 8:37 AM | 16 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Hikaru Nakamura has done it again, winning both tournaments of Titled Tuesday on November 12. It is his eighth time achieving the feat of double victory since the second weekly event was added in February 2022—no one else has done it more than once—and the first since May 14. He also won last week's late tournament, giving him three in a row.

Nakamura scored 10 points in both of this week's events, but his opponents did not make things easy as he also needed tiebreaks in both. In the early event, he came out just ahead of GMs Alireza Firouzja and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, while GM Alexey Sarana was his near-equal in the late event.

It's a #TitledTuesday sweep for @GMHikaru, and both times he scored 10/11! pic.twitter.com/WqDaxLJSkw
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

Early Tournament
Late Tournament
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

For most of the early tournament, it seemed like Firouzja would be the one to coast through the field of 683 players. Nakamura lost to Duda in round seven, but then Duda would lose to Firouzja in round eight. Firouzja then extended his perfect run to nine games with a win over GM Magnus Carlsen in just 28 moves.

At that point, Nakamura took matters into his own hands. Firouzja did not make it easy on him, of course, as the game went on for 71 moves. With Nakamura up a piece but only having one pawn left to Firouzja's three, a draw might have seemed like the most probable outcome. But time pressure finally got to Firouzja, who had spent the last 30 moves with less than five seconds on his clock, and on his last move, he fell into a fork trying to keep his king centralized.

Entering the final round, Nakamura, Firouzja, and Duda were now all tied on 9/10, but they had already all played each other as well. Instead, the tournament would conclude with Nakamura playing against GM Denis Lazavik, Firouzja against GM Dmitry Andreikin, and Duda against GM Sam Shankland.

Firouzja and Duda dominated with Black, both forcing checkmate in under 40 moves. While it took Nakamura a little longer to win with White, he still got the job done. And in the end, that was enough to secure a half-point tiebreak advantage over Firouzja, who himself also led Duda by half a tiebreak point.

November 12 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3281	10	80
2	3		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3273	10	79.5
3	12		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3131	10	79
4	24		GM	@AnishOnYoutube	Anish Giri	3042	9	79
5	18		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3076	9	78.5
6	17		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3081	9	75.5
7	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3295	9	67.5
8	43		FM	@rezamahdavi2008	Reza Mahdavi	2957	9	66.5
9	20		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3060	9	65
10	6		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3122	8.5	77.5
11	22		GM	@Shankland	Sam Shankland	3028	8.5	70
12	140		FM	@SALVA-DALI	Alen Yeremyan	2785	8.5	69.5
13	82		FM	@PeshkaCh	Tykhon Cherniaiev	2866	8.5	68.5
14	59		GM	@MarkusRagger	Markus Ragger	2906	8.5	67.5
15	96		IM	@atbenina64	Abtin Atakhan	2823	8.5	67
16	4		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3165	8.5	66
17	62		FM	@Eagle_2019	Mamedov Edgar	2889	8.5	64
18	27		GM	@FGHSMN	Bharath Subramaniyam	3037	8	75.5
19	55		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2930	8	74.5
20	9		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3089	8	73.5
47	141		IM	@Vesper2018	Anastasia Bodnaruk	2752	7.5	64.5

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won the $1,000 prize for first place, while Firouzja settled for $750 and Duda for $350. GM Anish Giri managed fourth place for $200 and GM Daniel Naroditsky fifth place for $100, while several players also on nine points were left out. IM Anastasia Bodnaruk won the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Nakamura's run in the late event with 478 participants followed a similar track as the early event. He was not the last perfect player; he still entered the final round tied for first with someone he had lost to earlier, and they both won in the last round, but Nakamura's tiebreaks were better.

This time, it was in round six that Nakamura faced Sarana but could not win.

Sarana would lose in the very next round to GM Javokhir Sindarov, which left Sindarov as the last perfect player, but he could only split his last four games. The second of Sindarov's two losses came in round 10 against Nakamura.

And so, once again, a final-round tie could not be broken with a head-to-head matchup. This time, Nakamura faced IM Rudik Makarian, while Sarana took on GM Raunak Sadhwani. Unlike earlier in the day, Nakamura got the quicker win, needing only 26 moves to topple Makarian. Also, his tiebreak lead was a somewhat more comfortable 1.5 points.

Sarana would go on to beat Raunak in 59 moves and take second place.

November 12 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3307	10	76.5
2	13		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3114	10	75
3	6		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3131	9	80
4	15		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3049	9	73
5	17		GM	@Shankland	Sam Shankland	3048	9	71
6	5		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3125	9	65
7	19		GM	@champ2005	Raunak Sadhwani	3038	8.5	75
8	9		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3090	8.5	72.5
9	11		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3080	8.5	70.5
10	24		FM	@rezamahdavi2008	Reza Mahdavi	2971	8.5	65
11	40		IM	@Szparu	Miłosz Szpar	2908	8	76
12	20		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3005	8	72.5
13	38		GM	@pouya21	Pouya Idani	2930	8	71.5
14	23		GM	@VladimirKramnik	Vladimir Kramnik	2972	8	70.5
15	7		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3076	8	70.5
16	18		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3029	8	70
17	48		GM	@ChessSharkz	Kayden Troff	2875	8	68
18	57		FM	@PyrihRoman	Roman Pyrih	2807	8	68
19	56		GM	@PawelCzarnota	Pawel Czarnota	2841	8	68
20	3		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3117	8	66
47	71		IM	@Flawless_Fighter	Polina Shuvalova	2756	7	64

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won another $1,000 for $2,000 total on the day, while Sarana earned $750. Sindarov held onto third place and $350. GM Matthias Bluebaum won $200 in fourth, Shankland won $100 in fifth, and IM Polina Shuvalova won the $100 women's prize.

Titled Cup Standings

Nakamura hit 200 points, and it now seems like he will win the Titled Cup, barring a big comeback from Carlsen. There were shakeups elsewhere in the top five, with Duda now in third place.

In the women's standings, a few weeks ago it seemed GM Aleksandra Goryachkina might pull away, but her lead is now just half a point on both Shuvalova and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	200.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@MagnusCarlsen	194.5	GM Magnus Carlsen
3	@Polish_fighter3000	188.0	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
4-t	@mishanick	187.5	GM Alexey Sarana
4-t	@jefferyx	187.5	GM Jeffery Xiong

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 (123.0 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.