Nakamura Extends Titled Cup Lead

NathanielGreen

Updated: Feb 7, 2024, 11:06 AM | 15 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Hikaru Nakamura continued his hot start to the year in Titled Tuesday on February 6, finishing third in the early tournament and winning the late tournament, his third win of 2024. The early event was won by Polish GM Kacper Piorun. Both he and Nakamura needed tiebreaks to claim victory.

The Chess Prophet fantasy chess game also debuted and will begin running every Titled Tuesday.

Official opening of Chess Fantasy aka Chess Prophets today for Tilted Tuesday!

I might play…. got a flight 17:50😝https://t.co/F8PZbuf8HB
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) February 6, 2024

Early Tournament (Piorun, 10/11)
Late Tournament (Nakamura, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

The early field of 830 players was the first Titled Tuesday to crack 800 since April 6, 2021, and the largest since 875 players joined on August 4, 2020. Piorun was the surprise winner, losing only in the fifth round against GM Bharath Subramaniyam but winning every other game.

Guys, I'm so over the moon. This was my first time streaming this tournament on Twitch and had no expectations. But here we are, somehow at the top after many tense games (including ones against Jospem, Caruana and Bok) - will be hard to repeat that . And thx for all congrats! ❤️ https://t.co/uOjcUqrEI1
— Kacper Piorun (@gmsolver) February 6, 2024

That six-game streak to end the tournament did not put Piorun into a tie for first until after the 10th round, when he and three others—GM Christopher Yoo, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and IM-elect Sina Movahed—were on nine points each. Three more players were on 8.5 points, and Piorun played and defeated one of them, GM Benjamin Bok.

Yoo, whose only loss was one round before Piorun's, needed only 26 moves to defeat Vachier-Lagrave's Najdorf Sicilian. Due to worse tiebreaks vs. Piorun, it could only take Yoo to second place.

Movahed had the least fortunate final-round pairing of those on nine points: Nakamura. The American's victory in a rook endgame took him to third place and dropped Movahed to 10th.

February 6 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	116		GM	@kpio91	Kacper Piorun	2901	10	77
2	39		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Yoo	3011	10	69.5
3	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3326	9.5	78
4	51		GM	@h4parah5	Jaime Santos	2970	9.5	70
5	4		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3158	9	77.5
6	16		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3055	9	76
7	50		GM	@BillieKimbah	Maxim Matlakov	2967	9	75
8	83		IM	@yosephtaher	Yoseph Theolifus Taher	2913	9	70
9	101		GM	@xamax2000	Max Warmerdam	2891	9	69.5
10	23		FM	@Sina_Movahed	Sina Movahed	3042	9	69
11	64		GM	@mitrabhaa	Mitrabha Guha	2940	9	68.5
12	59		GM	@lilleper1	Jonas Bjerre	2942	9	67.5
13	60		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	2947	9	59
14	26		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3037	8.5	77.5
15	27		GM	@Denis_Makhnyov	Denis Makhnev	3022	8.5	74
16	12		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3054	8.5	72
17	44		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	2985	8.5	70.5
18	7		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3087	8.5	69.5
19	22		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3020	8.5	66.5
20	53		GM	@tptagain	David Anton	2951	8.5	65.5
24	353		GM	@Juwen	Ju Wenjun	2634	8.5	58.5

(Full final standings here.)

Piorun claimed the $1,000 prize for first place while Yoo settled for the $750 in second. Nakamura won $350 for third place and GM Jaime Santos Latasa $200 for fourth. The $100 prizes went to Vachier-Lagrave in fifth place and women's World Champion GM Ju Wenjun, who finished 24th for the top women's score.

Late Tournament

The late tournament is now achieving fields that late last year were typical of the early tournament, with 548 playing this week. Nakamura rode a perfect 7/7 start to victory despite two players, GMs Nihal Sarin and Dmitry Andreikin, ultimately catching him in the standings.

Nakamura's one hiccup, which dropped him temporarily into fourth place, came in round nine against Vachier-Lagrave.

Vachier-Lagrave then beat GM Andrew Hong in round 10 but, as in the early tournament, could not wrap things up in round 11. This time, Nihal won after Vachier-Lagrave missed his 14th move.

Andreikin for his part beat GM Daniel Naroditsky, ending the tournament on a four-game winning streak, but his earlier results helped leave him behind in the tiebreak scoring. Instead, Nakamura won his last two games and edged out Nihal on tiebreaks.

Nakamura's final win came against GM Harsha Bharathakoti. Nakamura made things interesting with a novel exchange sacrifice in a familiar opening, which worked out.

February 6 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3323	9.5	75
2	6		GM	@nihalsarin	Nihal Sarin	3137	9.5	74
3	14		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3077	9.5	65
4	4		GM	@LyonBeast	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	3171	9	73
5	18		GM	@SpeedofLight0	Andrew Hong	3052	9	66
6	15		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3054	8.5	76
7	31		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3007	8.5	73.5
8	51		GM	@Harsha_Bharathakoti	Harsha Bharathakoti	2936	8.5	73
9	39		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2961	8.5	67.5
10	5		GM	@Konavets	Sam Sevian	3119	8.5	67
11	52		GM	@KuzubovYuriy	Yuriy Kuzubov	2915	8.5	65.5
12	78		GM	@GadimbayliA	Abdulla Gadimbayli	2854	8.5	62
13	8		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3079	8.5	61.5
14	85		GM	@iwanyu	Alvar Alonso Rosell	2866	8.5	60
15	44		FM	@dmitrijiIM	Dmitry Rostovtsev	2935	8.5	56
16	30		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	2999	8	75.5
17	2		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3195	8	74
18	10		GM	@GMWSO	Wesley So	3082	8	74
19	86		GM	@dretch	Conrad Holt	2860	8	71.5
20	27		GM	@igorkovalenko	Igor Kovalenko	3003	8	68.5
56	157		IM	@karinachess1	Karina Ambartsumova	2682	7	67.5

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won another $1,000 to reach $1,350 on the day. Nihal won $750 in second place and Andreikin $350 in third. Vachier-Lagrave finished fourth for $200 and a daily total of $300 after his fifth-place finish earlier. Hong won the fifth-place prize in this event for $100, and IM Karina Ambartsumova won the $100 women's prize.

Titled Cup Standings

While Nakamura extended his lead in the Titled Cup, there have been some shifts elsewhere in the top five, with GM David Paravyan now in second place. Ambartsumova leads the women's standings for the second straight week, with no changes in the top five.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	101.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@dropstoneDP	92.0	GM David Paravyan
3	@Zhigalko_Sergei	87.0	GM Sergei Zhigalko
4	@mishanick	85.5	GM Alexey Sarana
5	@Jospem	85.5	GM Jose Martinez
4	@jcibarra	85.5	GM Jose Ibarra

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@karinachess1	67.0	IM Karina Ambartsumova
2	@Goryachkina	59.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@Sanyura	51.5	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
4	@jinbojinbo	40.5	GM Zhu Jiner
5	@anasta10	40.0	FM Anastasia Avramidou

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: CM Artem Bardyk (67.0 points)

Seniors: GM Alex Rustemov (76.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (37.5 points each)

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.