Nakamura Scores 10.5/11, Wins On Tiebreaks, Then Sweeps

NathanielGreen

Updated: May 15, 2024, 2:05 PM | 33 | Chess Event Coverage

It's always tough to stop GM Hikaru Nakamura, but it's becoming nigh impossible in Titled Tuesday. He swept both tournaments on May 14, the second time in just the past four weeks, giving him a total of 12 victories for the year when no one else has more than three.

In an unprecedented occurrence, a score of 10.5/11, one mere draw from perfection, was not enough to win the early tournament. Nakamura and GM Alexander Grischuk both scored 10.5 points, but Nakamura played the slightly tougher schedule and won on the tiebreak score, while Grischuk was forced to settle for second place. The late tournament was less of a doozy, with Nakamura scoring 9.5 points, but a full point less was somehow good enough to win outright this time.

Early Tournament (Nakamura, 10.5/11)
Late Tournament (Nakamura, 9.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

In a jumbo jet-sized field of 747 players in the early tournament, two of them stole the show. Outside of their draw in round nine—yes, against each other—Nakamura and Grischuk both scored a perfect 10/10. When someone scores 10.5 points, we don't usually show their draw, especially a boring 28-move draw, but this one was historic by Titled Tuesday standards. Stockfish gave Grischuk a marginal edge in the final position, but not enough that anyone would blame him for taking the draw.

Nakamura and Grischuk's full-point lead on everyone else was now half a point, so neither player could let up, and neither player did. In round 10, Nakamura took out GM Tuan Minh Le in 50 moves with 11 seconds on his clock, then Grischuk kept pace by beating GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in 60 moves with just three seconds to go.

Surely the 11th round would now be decisive, yes? By no means. Nakamura would face GM Anish Giri, who was still only a half-point behind the leaders, meaning a win for Giri would have him leapfrog Nakamura in the standings. Grischuk, meanwhile, faced GM Matthias Bluebaum, for whom a win would tie Grischuk in the standings.

But, of course, Nakamura and Grischuk both won again. Nakamura did so first, avoiding Giri's likely Najdorf Sicilian with 4.Qxd4, winning a pawn on move 19, then giving it back on move 43 but winning just 13 moves later as his connected passed pawns on the queenside began to march.

Chat was hype, we were fighting for first place until the end. Got to play Alireza and Hikaru!
Finished 4th, taking a prize for the third time out of 10 consecutive TT streams this year.

Interesting
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) May 14, 2024

Grischuk, meanwhile, got into a slugfest with Bluebaum that lasted 116 moves, although some bitter-end fighting from Bluebaum lengthened the proceedings. According to the tablebase, Grischuk was winning from move 63 onward, and had multiple avenues to victory on every turn (with the formal exception of capturing the bishop on move 101).

Unfortunately, for Grischuk, it wasn't enough. Based on the tiebreak system, the fact he was facing a player on 8.5 points in the final round, while Nakamura got one on nine points, was already a bad sign. On the other hand, finishing in second place with a 95% score is one way to hit the record books.

May 14 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3235	10.5	80.5
2	4		GM	@Grischuk	Alexander Grischuk	3140	10.5	77
3	20		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3017	9.5	67
4	17		GM	@AnishOnYoutube	Anish Giri	3038	9	74
5	39		FM	@snowlord	Ivan Yeletsky	2959	9	74
6	9		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3069	9	73.5
7	77		IM	@the_chess_child	Ilamparthi A R	2911	9	71
8	6		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3092	9	69.5
9	27		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2984	9	68
10	69		GM	@platy3	Alan Pichot	2892	9	66.5
11	10		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3069	8.5	77
12	3		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3110	8.5	72
13	5		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3103	8.5	71
14	18		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3002	8.5	68
15	22		GM	@FormerProdigy	David Navara	2999	8.5	67.5
16	15		GM	@DominguezOnYoutube	Leinier Dominguez Perez	3022	8.5	66
17	16		GM	@sergoy	Sergey Drygalov	3011	8.5	65.5
18	8		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3047	8.5	64.5
19	114		GM	@chito89	Axel Bachmann	2843	8.5	63
20	235		FM	@Hope_6	Airat Sadubayev	2695	8.5	61.5
21	628		WFM	@czechbul17	Patricie Naymanova	2295	8.5	56

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $1,000 while Grischuk, unbelievably, had to settle for the second-place prize of $750. GM Jose Martinez finished outright third on 9.5 points and earned $350. Giri, despite his final round loss, finished fourth for $200 while FM Ivan Yeletzky came in fifth and earned $100. WFM Patricie Naymanova, seeded 628/747, scored 8.5 points to finish in a surprising 21st place, and claimed the $100 women's prize.

Late Tournament

Mundanity returned for the field of 544 in the late tournament. No sky-high second place scores, just another victory for Nakamura. It wasn't that way the whole time, with Nakamura suffering a shock loss in the second round to FM Lucas Do Valle Cardoso.

From, there, however, Nakamura scored 8.5/9, only drawing GM Benjamin Bok in round 10. Nakamura's seven-game winning streak from games three through nine included victories over GM Fabiano Caruana in round seven and Martinez in round nine. Nakamura's Trompowsky Attack against Caruana quickly transposed into a Queen's Gambit Declined, but the more familiar opening ground didn't help stop the Nakamura train.

Bok did manage to slow it down, however, and the result was that GM Daniil Dubov led the tournament with 9/10 entering the final round, while Nakamura, Bok, Caruana, and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda were tied on 8.5 points.

It's another bit of Nakamura's devil magic to turn that situation into an outright victory, but indeed he did. It helped, of course, that he had the opportunity to take Dubov down himself.

From there it was a matter of Caruana and Duda drawing each other in 47 moves while Bok lost to Bluebaum. And there you had it, another Nakamura victory in Titled Tuesday.

May 14 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3240	9.5	71
2	6		GM	@Duhless	Daniil Dubov	3125	9	77
3	11		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3086	9	74
4	10		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3094	9	69.5
5	2		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3209	9	67
6	21		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3016	9	66.5
7	22		GM	@rasmussvane	Rasmus Svane	2995	9	65
8	7		GM	@Polish_fighter3000	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	3115	9	63.5
9	19		IM	@MITerryble	Renato Terry	3029	9	61
10	15		GM	@GMBenjaminBok	Benjamin Bok	3062	8.5	72
11	13		GM	@Oleksandr_Bortnyk	Oleksandr Bortnyk	3057	8.5	70.5
12	17		GM	@DominguezOnYoutube	Leinier Dominguez Perez	3024	8.5	68.5
13	14		GM	@Sanan_Sjugirov	Sanan Sjugirov	3038	8.5	63.5
14	8		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3086	8.5	62
15	9		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3078	8.5	58.5
16	18		GM	@Jospem	Jose Martinez	3023	8	77
17	64		FM	@artin10862	Artin Ashraf	2903	8	72.5
18	62		IM	@Szparu	Milosz Szpar	2903	8	71.5
19	12		GM	@LiemLe	Liem Le	3045	8	71
20	29		GM	@Durarbayli	Vasif Durarbayli	2948	8	69
38	180		GM	@jinbojinbo	Jiner Zhu	2678	7.5	64

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won another $1,000, for the daily total of $2,000. Dubov managed to hold second place in the eight-player tie on nine points behind Nakamura, earning $750. Bluebaum finished third for $350, Caruana fourth for $200, and—oh, yeah—GM Magnus Carlsen also played, finishing in fifth place for $100. GM Jiner Zhu was the $100 women's prize winner with 7.5 points.

Titled Cup Standings

We had a change atop the women's standings, with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk scoring eight points in the early tournament, her 20th appearance of the year, and replacing GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in first place. Meanwhile, Nakamura gained two more points in the Titled Cup standings, to 194, and it seems within reach by the end of the year to average 10 points in his top 20 performances.

GM Denis Lazavik continues to lead the juniors, with GM Christopher Yoo 15.5 points behind but possibly having the ability to make noise down the line; Yoo's top scores are already higher but he needs to match Lazavik's consistency.

GM Gata Kamsky continues to hold a safe lead among seniors, while WCM Veronika Shubenkova's 27.5-point advantage in the girls section is the largest of any section leader's.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	194.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@Polish_fighter3000	182.5	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3	@mishanick	180.5	GM Alexey Sarana
4	@Jospem	178.5	GM Jose Martinez
5	@jefferyx	176.0	GM Jeffery Xiong

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@ChessQueen	137.0	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2	@Goryachkina	134.5	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@Meri-Arabidze	130.5	IM Meri Arabidze
3	@karinachess1	130.5	IM Karina Ambartsumova
5	@Sanyura	121.0	IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (172.5 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (164.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (102.0 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.