Carlsen and Firouzja Win Titled Tuesday, Surprising... No One

NathanielGreen

Jul 31, 2024, 7:52 AM | 15 | Chess Event Coverage

The world's official top two blitz players, GMs Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja, won the two Titled Tuesday tournaments on July 30. Firouzja won the early tournament, his third victory of the year, and Carlsen took his fifth win late.

While Firouzja required standings tiebreaks over GMs Matthias Bluebaum and Anish Giri, Carlsen did not, assisted in part by second-place GM Fabiano Caruana missing the first round before scoring 9.5/10 the rest of the way.

Early Tournament (Firouzja, 9.5/11)
Late Tournament (Carlsen, 10/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

A field of 720 players vied for the first crown of the day, and Firouzja got there in the end. The only direct matchup between the Firouzja-Bluebaum-Giri trio was a remarkable 10th-round draw between Firouzja and Bluebaum...

Titled Tuesdays are wild pic.twitter.com/TThrRsY1oz
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) July 30, 2024

...so the tournament was decided in other games. It was not a straight-line path to the top, as GM Jakhovir Sindarov was the last perfect player as he reached 7/7, while GM Daniel Naroditsky led on 9/10 entering the final round.

Sindarov's bid at perfection, which included a win over Firouzja in round six, ended with a draw against GM Hikaru Nakamura in round eight, but his bid for the top lasted until he lost the last two games, against Naroditsky and Giri.

For Giri, wins in the last five rounds were enough to share first, but not quite enough to claim it on tiebreaks. Bluebaum, who scored a half-point against Naroditsky in round nine before his draw with Firouzja in round 10, picked up GM Ian Nepomniachtchi as his final-round opponent. They quickly reached an endgame with Nepomniachtchi a pawn down but retaining compensation. Bluebaum ground him down anyway.

That was enough for Bluebaum to keep a tiebreak advantage on Giri, but not enough to eclipse Firouzja. It was Firouzja who had the opportunity to take down the leader Naroditsky in the last round, and Firouzja earned not only the tiebreak points but also the style points as: unlike Giri or Bluebaum, he won before move 40.

July 30 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	4		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3178	9.5	80
2	12		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3138	9.5	74.5
3	15		GM	@AnishOnYoutube	Anish Giri	3099	9.5	70.5
4	3		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3183	9	77.5
5	20		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	3057	9	71
6	26		GM	@Alexander_Zubov	Alexander Zubov	3034	9	70.5
7	2		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3236	9	69.5
8	24		GM	@LiemLe	Liem Le	3043	9	60.5
9	7		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3146	8.5	80.5
10	16		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3086	8.5	74.5
11	19		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3063	8.5	74
12	5		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3135	8.5	72.5
13	23		GM	@FGHSMN	Bharath Subramaniyam	3028	8.5	69.5
14	83		IM	@scarabee43	Marco Materia	2901	8.5	68.5
15	54		GM	@Fandorine	Maksim Chigaev	2932	8.5	68
16	99		IM	@Yaacovn	Yaacov Norowitz	2866	8.5	68
17	119		IM	@Legendinunknown	Harshavardhan GB	2854	8.5	68
18	114		GM	@sokidze	Ihor Samunenkov	2864	8.5	66
19	133		FM	@GoltsevDmitry2000	Goltsev Dmitry	2807	8.5	65
20	194		IM	@kingnb	Nitish Belurkar	2744	8.5	62.5
40	253		WGM	@Sanyura	Aleksandra Maltsevskaya	2684	8	57

(Full final standings here.)

Firouzja won the $1,000 first-place prize while Bluebaum settled for the $750 prize and Giri for $350. Naroditsky held onto fourth place to win $200 in consolation, while GM David Paravyan finished fifth for $100. WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya was the women's leader for $100, scoring eight points and finishing 40th.

Late Tournament

An undefeated Carlsen took home the top prize in the late field of 584, only making draws in rounds eight and 11. Because of birthday boy Caruana's missing round, the two never faced each other.

My wish is powerful, but to expect for it to come true after you late join is a bit much. https://t.co/C92uADzRuj pic.twitter.com/XmL4mHGb9g
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) July 31, 2024

Carlsen started 7/7 before Firouzja ended perfection with a draw. GM Sergei Zhigalko was now tied with Carlsen for first place through eight rounds, but that did not last long.

From there, Carlsen never relinquished the outright lead. Another win in the 10th round, against GM Christopher Yoo, effectively locked things up as Carlsen's sacrificial onslaught 28.Nxf7!! and 29.Rg8+!! brought checkmate.

Caruana ended up with the day's highest winning percentage, which was important for him as his tiebreaks suffered greatly from the missing round. Instead, he finished a clean second, thanks to wins like this one in the final round against GM Denis Kadric.

Firouzja returned to the top five, but only in fourth place as the best tiebreaks on nine points belonged to GM Vugar Rasulov.

July 30 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3290	10	80.5
2	159		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3117	9.5	58
3	26		GM	@vugarrasulov	Vugar Rasulov	3009	9	75
4	4		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3189	9	73
5	14		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3084	9	71
6	2		GM	@nihalsarin	Nihal Sarin	3224	9	71
7	8		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3135	9	69.5
8	52		GM	@Kiborg95	Denis Kadric	2938	8.5	76
9	10		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3110	8.5	72.5
10	37		GM	@Paralinch	Daniil Lintchevski	2966	8.5	70
11	11		GM	@BogdanDeac	Bogdan-Daniel Deac	3079	8.5	70
12	38		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2983	8.5	69.5
13	17		IM	@Rud_Makarian	Rudik Makarian	3048	8.5	68.5
14	5		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3138	8.5	68
15	31		GM	@DominguezOnYoutube	Leinier Dominguez Perez	2988	8.5	68
16	53		GM	@kuli4ik	Mikhail Demidov	2931	8.5	65.5
17	25		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	2998	8.5	64.5
18	58		GM	@moro182	Luca Moroni Jr	2919	8.5	61.5
19	55		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	2938	8	75.5
20	13		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3086	8	73.5
21	95		IM	@SaraBlackPanther	Bibisara Assaubayeva	2821	8	72.5

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won the $1,000 prize for first place while Caruana took home $750 for second place. Rasulov earned $350 in third and Firouzja $200 in fourth, which took his daily total to $1,200. The $100 prizes went to GM Oleksandr Bortnyk in fifth place and IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, whose 21st-place finish earned the women's prize.

Titled Cup Standings

Carlsen stayed in fourth, but is creeping up toward second and might well get there with enough events. Nakamura might be tough to catch, though.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	198.5	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@Polish_fighter3000	185.0	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3	@mishanick	184.5	GM Alexey Sarana
4	@MagnusCarlsen	184.0	GM Magnus Carlsen
5t	@Jospem	182.0	GM Jose Martinez
5t	@DenLaz	182.0	GM Denis Lazavik

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@ChessQueen	141.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2	@Goryachkina	139.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@Flawless_Fighter	138.5	IM Polina Shuvalova
3-t	@Meri-Arabidze	137.5	IM Meri Arabidze
5	@karinachess1	135.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (182.0 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (168.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (115.0 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.