Firouzja Dominates Late After Nearly Winning Early
After GM Denis Lazavik upset GM Alireza Firouzja in the 10th round of the early Titled Tuesday event of March 26 and went on to win, Firouzja scored a dominant 10.5/11 in the late contest to capture the second tournament. It was Lazavik's first win of the year and Firouzja's second of the month.
Early Tournament
After seven rounds, four of the 606 players emerged as co-leaders of the day's first event. Firouzja was the only one of those four to win in the eighth round, taking the outright lead, but his draw in the ninth round allowed Lazavik to catch back up.
Lazavik, who led for much of last week's early tournament before finishing in third place, finished the job this week. Once again his key game came against Firouzja in round 10.
Lazavik held GM Hikaru Nakamura to a draw in the final round, retaining the lead but allowing two players to catch up. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda was one of them, by defeating GM Etienne Bacrot.
IM Rud Makarian upset GM Hans Niemann to also finish with 9.5 points.
The highest tiebreak actually belonged to GM Matthias Bluebaum all the way down in 33rd place, but among the tournament leaders, Lazavik held a comfortable edge on Duda. Only Nakamura and Grischuk scored nine points, with Nakamura's tiebreaks holding a slight edge there. Firouzja ended up stuck in sixth, but he would avenge himself later.
March 26 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 9 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3111 | 9.5 | 73 | |
| 2 | 4 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3127 | 9.5 | 69.5 | |
| 3 | 6 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 3109 | 9.5 | 65 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3265 | 9 | 71 | |
| 5 | 15 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3072 | 9 | 70 | |
| 6 | 11 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3089 | 8.5 | 75 | |
| 7 | 13 | GM | @SpeedofLight0 | Andrew Hong | 3071 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 8 | 80 | GM | @baki83 | Etienne Bacrot | 2902 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 9 | 10 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3086 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 10 | 27 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3007 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 11 | 30 | GM | @Shield12 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 3009 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 29 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3013 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 13 | 37 | FM | @JimDiGrease | Ivan Zemlyanskii | 2967 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 14 | 5 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3098 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 15 | 46 | FM | @Zohid6 | Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov | 2932 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 16 | 83 | GM | @superchess02 | Iniyan P | 2878 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 17 | 17 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 3032 | 8.5 | 60 | |
| 18 | 54 | IM | @Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 2921 | 8.5 | 56.5 | |
| 19 | 58 | GM | @KuzubovYuriy | Yuriy Kuzubov | 2932 | 8 | 71 | |
| 20 | 109 | GM | @js20000 | Jan Subelj | 2829 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 70 | 165 | GM | @Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2688 | 7 | 61.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Lazavik claimed $1,000 for his efforts, while Duda settled for $750 and Makarian for $350. Nakamura won $200 and Grischuk earned $100, while GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won her eighth $100 women's prize of the year.
Late Tournament
Despite Firouzja's mammoth score in the late event, he only won by half a point as FM Ivan Yeletsky scored 10/11 in the field of 510.
Yeletsky's only loss came against... did you guess Firouzja? It happened in round seven, when Yeletsky was wiped out in a Najdorf Sicilian. Firouzja channeled GM Bobby Fischer with 7.Bc4 before decisively advancing his f-pawn.
The win put Firouzja on a perfect 7/7, but he didn't stay there, managing only a draw against Nakamura in the very next round. From then on, Firouzja never lost, but nor did Yeletsky, although the FM benefited from a strange Nakamura blunder in the ninth round—Nakamura perhaps anticipating a check on g4 instead of 42.Rf4, as he made his response in 0.4 seconds.
Firouzja didn't put the tournament away, then, until he defeated GM Arjun Erigaisi in the 11th round by laying a sneaky trap from an equal position on move 44. Even though Arjun led by almost a minute on the clock, he captured a seemingly hanging rook only to find himself in unescapable checkmate. To be fair to Arjun, it was a rather bizarre mating pattern.
Below Firouzja and Yeletsky, no one else had more than nine points. Four Americans were tied on that score: GM Jeffery Xiong, GM Sam Sevian, Nakamura, and Niemann. All were within 2.5 tiebreak points, but Niemann had the tough luck of finishing sixth.
March 26 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | Tiebreak 1 |
| 1 | 10 | GM | @Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3134 | 10.5 | 74.5 | |
| 2 | 44 | FM | @snowlord | Ivan Yeletsky | 2996 | 10 | 72.5 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3106 | 9 | 72.5 | |
| 4 | 2 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 3152 | 9 | 71.5 | |
| 5 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3266 | 9 | 71 | |
| 6 | 5 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3130 | 9 | 70 | |
| 7 | 18 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3052 | 8.5 | 66.5 | |
| 8 | 81 | GM | @promen1999 | Benjamin Gledura | 2874 | 8.5 | 62.5 | |
| 9 | 13 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3050 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 10 | 53 | GM | @XDPS | Pablo Salinas Herrera | 2914 | 8.5 | 56.5 | |
| 11 | 24 | GM | @DrVelja | Velimir Ivic | 3029 | 8 | 80 | |
| 12 | 35 | GM | @hansen | Eric Hansen | 2980 | 8 | 76.5 | |
| 13 | 49 | GM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2945 | 8 | 75 | |
| 14 | 71 | FM | @rezamahdavi2008 | reza mahdavi | 2894 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 15 | 7 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 3088 | 8 | 72 | |
| 16 | 64 | GM | @ViIIagra | Cristobal Henriquez | 2900 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 17 | 38 | GM | @Durarbayli | Vasif Durarbayli | 2948 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 18 | 3 | GM | @Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3110 | 8 | 69 | |
| 19 | 15 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3037 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 20 | 21 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 3004 | 8 | 67.5 | |
| 67 | 116 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2699 | 7 | 50.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Firouzja won $1,000 while Yeletsky claimed $750 for the rare 10-point, second-place finish. Xiong earned $350, Sevian $200, and Nakamura $100 to round out the top five, while GM Alexandra Kosteniuk took the $100 women's prize.
Titled Cup Standings
Xiong supplanted GM Dmitry Andreikin in the fifth open standing spot. Nakamura and Goryachkina continue to comfortably lead the open and women's standings. CM Artem Bardyk still leads Lazavik in the junior standings, but Lazavik has still only played 16 times compared to Bardyk's more than 20. GM Gata Kamsky and WCM Veronika Shubenkova still lead their sections.
Open
| # | Username | Score | Player |
| 1 | @Hikaru | 184.5 | GM Hikaru Nakamura |
| 2 | @Polish_fighter3000 | 177.0 | GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda |
| 3 | @mishanick | 174.5 | GM Alexey Sarana |
| 4 | @Jospem | 172.0 | GM Jose Martinez |
| 5 | @jefferyx | 168.0 | GM Dmitry Andreikin |
Women
| # | Username | Score | Player |
| 1 | @Goryachkina | 133.0 | GM Aleksandra Goryachkina |
| 1 | @karinachess1 | 126.0 | IM Karina Ambartsumova |
| 3 | @ChessQueen | 92.5 | GM Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| 4 | @Sanyura | 81.0 | IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya |
| 5 | @Fh2411 | 80.0 | IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham |
Other Category Leaders
Juniors: CM Artem Bardyk (137.5 points)
Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (156.5 points)
Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (74.5 points)
The new 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 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.
