Savchenko wins title on Tuesday against Nakamura in multi-tournament

GM Boris Savchenko won Titled on Tuesday September 28 with a score of 10/11 after declining an early drawing offer and beating GM Hikaru Nakamura in the final round. It was his second titled victory on Tuesday and his first since 2018. GM Federico Perez Ponsa and GM Rustam Khusnutdinov placed second and third respectively, each with 9.5 / 11.

In an impressive and memorable twist, Nakamura has competed in two tournaments at once, playing in Titled Tuesday while simultaneously playing in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour!

516 titled players took part in this week’s Titled Tuesday, which was the usual 11 Swiss rounds with 3 + 1 time control. The event garnered special attention due to its more than doubled prize fund of $ 5,000, a consequence of server issues that plagued last week’s event.

Live broadcast of this week’s tournament, hosted by WGM Nemo Zhou.

The decisive match was played in the final round between Nakamura and Savchenko. After just a few hits, Nakamura offered a draw, which Savchenko bravely refused. (A draw would have given them both 9.5 / 11 points, but Nakamura was probably well ahead of the tiebreaker, and Perez Ponsa and Khusnutdinov would end up getting 9.5 / 11 as well.) Nakamura took a decisive advantage, but then he blundered. with 26.Bg5 allowing Savchenko to return to the game.

Before the final round, Nakamura seemed to dominate the tournament. He won his first eight games, putting him flawlessly in the lead with 8/8. This feat was all the more notable as he actually took part in two tournaments at the same time! Many spectators expressed their admiration and disbelief that he dominated Titled Tuesday while simultaneously playing against GM Wesley So in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. (In fact, after a few quick draws, he beat So in both of the blitz tiebreakers.)

Nakamura wins eighth consecutive game in mad race

Nakamura drew in laps 9 and 10, allowing Savchenko to catch up in the standings. Savchenko wins against GM Sanan Sjugirov on round 10 was critical. The game seemed to be dynamically balanced until White captured a poisoned pawn on a7, allowing Black to make threats in the last row. 32 … Kf7 from Savchenko! was an extremely powerful prophylactic movement, averting future failures and thus reinforcing the black attack.

Savchenko’s victory in the ninth round against general manager Artem Timofeev was also decisive. The opening was a classic Sicilian, and after the thematic sacrifice of Knight 23.Nd5 !, Savchenko had a winning position. A few later mistakes got Timofeev back into the game, but Savchenko ended up taking the win in a race against time.

September 28 Titled Tuesday | Final ranking (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Titled Tuesday is a Swiss tournament that takes place every week on Chess.com for titled players. It starts at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time / 7:00 p.m. Central European time every Tuesday.