Nepomniachtchi, Andreikin Win March 22 Titled Tuesday
It took the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix, where GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Daniil Dubov were both playing on Tuesday, to break their two-week Titled Tuesday winning streak. In their places were GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, winning the early tournament, and GM Dmitry Andreikin, winning the late one. Andreikin also finished in second earlier in the day and now has three consecutive top-two finishes, and four straight events in the top-five.
Early Tournament
350 players joined the early tournament, which saw both Nepomniachtchi and Andreikin score 10/11. It was the first time this year that 10 points were not enough to win a Titled Tuesday, something that also only happened three times throughout 2021. In this tournament, no one else scored more than 8.5 points as GMs Alexey Sarana, David Paravyan, and S.L. Narayanan rounded out the top-five.
Broadcast of the early tournament hosted by FM Anna-Maja Kazarian.
Given the final standings, the key game of the early event came somewhat early, the Nepomniachtchi-Andreikin matchup in the seventh round. Nepomniachtchi needed only 26 moves to dispatch his tournament rival with a sacrificial attack.
That ended up being the only blemish of Andreikin's early tournament, and he was able to catch up by the end of round nine as Nepomniachtchi drew his next two games. However, tiebreaks fell Nepo's way in the end.
In Nepomiachtchi's last two games, he faced two Chess.com streaming mainstays, IM Le Tuan Minh and GM Jose Martinez, defeating them both. First, he played nearly perfectly against Le; then, he clinched the tournament after playing the King's Gambit against Martinez, checkmating against two queens.
Andreikin kept pace with wins over Sarana and GM Dmitrij Kollars in the final two rounds, but they weren't enough.
March 22 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 3 | GM | @lachesisQ | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 3082 | 10 | 74.25 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3091 | 10 | 68 | |
| 3 | 5 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3031 | 8.5 | 59 | |
| 4 | 25 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2950 | 8.5 | 55.5 | |
| 5 | 21 | GM | @Indianlad | S.L. Narayanan | 2947 | 8.5 | 52 | |
| 6 | 18 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 2959 | 8.5 | 51 | |
| 7 | 38 | GM | @Man-Chuk | Manuel Petrosyan | 2893 | 8.5 | 50 | |
| 8 | 6 | IM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3013 | 8 | 57.5 | |
| 9 | 14 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 2960 | 8 | 53.5 | |
| 10 | 10 | GM | @GM_dmitrij | Dmitrij Kollars | 2951 | 8 | 52.25 | |
| 11 | 43 | GM | @TimofeevAr | Artem Timofeev | 2853 | 8 | 52 | |
| 12 | 76 | GM | @Alexander_Donchenko | Alexander Donchenko | 2766 | 8 | 50.25 | |
| 13 | 26 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2938 | 8 | 49 | |
| 14 | 4 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 2990 | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 15 | 34 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 2842 | 8 | 44.5 | |
| 16 | 33 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2917 | 8 | 43.75 | |
| 17 | 48 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 2812 | 8 | 43 | |
| 18 | 46 | IM | @DuDaKi | Daniel Fernandez | 2847 | 8 | 42.5 | |
| 19 | 27 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2903 | 7.5 | 47 | |
| 20 | 17 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2924 | 7.5 | 46.5 | |
| 25 | 102 | WGM | @Flawless_Fighter | Polina Shuvalova | 2661 | 7.5 | 37 |
(Full final standings here.)
Nepomniachtchi won $1,000 for his victory. Andreikin took $750 for second. Sarana earned $300 for third, Paravyan $150 for fourth, and Narayanan $100 in fifth. Winning $100 as the highest-scoring woman in the field was WGM Polina Shuvalova.
Late Tournament
After his 10 points were not enough early, Andreikin needed only nine to claim the late tournament. In fact, all of the late top-five scored nine, tiebreaks now working in Andreikin's favor instead of against. Even that almost didn't happen, with GM Vladimir Fedoseev finishing second just 0.25 tiebreak points behind. Completing the top-five were GM Parham Maghsoodloo, GM Vladislav Artemiev (tied on third) and GM Rodrigo Vasquez.
Broadcast of the late tournament hosted by GM Daniel Naroditsky.
It was a comeback effort for Andreikin, who was on 3.5 points after five rounds. He remained a point off of the leaders in the late stages, needing a win out of the theoretically-drawn rook-and-bishop vs. rook ending in round 10 to stay there.
Fedoseev and Artemiev entered the final round a full point ahead of the field on 9/10 each, yet both lost. Andreikin got the chance to beat Artemiev himself, which he did.
Fedoseev played Vasquez, and it was an even wilder game than Andreikin-Artemiev. The evaluation bar on the broadcast seemed to go haywire at times as it tried to keep up. Fedoseev at one point had a mate-in-six, and just a couple moves after that he was lost.
Of course, the tournament was an overall success for Fedoseev, his 8/8 start carrying him to second place and within the smallest tiebreak margin of first. Along the way, he beat players such as GMs Gata Kamsky, Paravyan, and Sarana.
March 22 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3091 | 9 | 60.75 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | @Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3036 | 9 | 60.5 | |
| 3 | 24 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2943 | 9 | 54.5 | |
| 3 | 2 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 3101 | 9 | 54.5 | |
| 5 | 21 | GM | @K_A_S_T_O_R | Rodrigo Vasquez | 2943 | 9 | 53.25 | |
| 6 | 4 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3031 | 8.5 | 58.75 | |
| 7 | 23 | GM | @Njal28 | Aram Hakobyan | 2933 | 8.5 | 55 | |
| 8 | 17 | GM | @VladDobrov | Vladimir Dobrov | 2939 | 8.5 | 50.25 | |
| 9 | 22 | GM | @BillieKimbah | Maxim Matlakov | 2938 | 8.5 | 49.25 | |
| 10 | 30 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 2917 | 8 | 52.5 | |
| 11 | 27 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 2904 | 8 | 52 | |
| 12 | 3 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3022 | 8 | 48.75 | |
| 13 | 15 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2950 | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 13 | 18 | GM | @SantoBlue | Vahap Sanal | 2927 | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 15 | 13 | GM | @exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 2957 | 8 | 43.5 | |
| 16 | 7 | IM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 2994 | 8 | 42.5 | |
| 17 | 100 | FM | @Yaryi_sergey | Sergey Yaryi | 2672 | 8 | 39.5 | |
| 18 | 49 | GM | @alexrustemov | Alexander Rustemov | 2786 | 8 | 38.5 | |
| 19 | 12 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara | 2960 | 7.5 | 48 | |
| 20 | 94 | GM | @DryCounty | Alex Fishbein | 2672 | 7.5 | 42.5 | |
| 35 | 53 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2810 | 7 | 32.25 |
(Full final standings here.)
Andreikin's win earned him $1,000 and a total of $1,750 for the day. Winning $750 for second place was Fedoseev. Maghsoodloo and Artemiev both won $225, as they tied for third even after counting tiebreaks. The $100 prizes went to Vasquez for fifth and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk for first among women, her third time winning that prize in the last two weeks.
Titled Tuesday is a weekly Swiss tournament for titled players only held every Tuesday by Chess.com. There are two events every week, starting at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 23:00 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.
