GM Meier Crushes Field In Second Titled Player Tuesday

TITLED PLAYERS:

To register for December 30th's event, be online in Live Chess (http://www.chess.com/live) and logged in at any point during the one hour before the event is set to start at 11am PT, 2pm ET!

Despite the growth of the field to 70 players and 17 grandmasters, GM Georg Meier obliterated the competition at this month's Titled Player Tuesday. The German star won his first eight games en route to 8.5/9, which was 1.5 more than anyone else.

What makes that feat even more impressive? Take a look at who finished tied for second with 7.0/9 -- GM Maxim Dlugy (formerly ranked first by the World Blitz Chess Association) and GM Leinier Dominguez (2008 World Blitz Champion and former world top 10 player).

The winner of the inaugural event, GM Baadur Jobava, did not play this time. Meier shared third place in that tournament.

Meier took out five GMs along the way. He beat Dutch GM David Klein in round two (no relation), and followed with a late tactic the next round versus countryman GM Gerhard Schebler.

After muddling around for while with the two bishops, Black slipped with an errant king move, allowing the breakthrough trick 78. d5! with the idea of 79. Bxb6. Schebler flagged before making a response (the event is played at a time control of 3+2).

Also with one foot in the lead early was GM Nouki (identity not public). For those tiring of the Berlin endgame structures of the world championship, this early-round game of his became interesting very quickly. Eventually Nouki won on time when his opponent couldn't quickly answer all the double rook threats.

Also hot early was GM Robert Hess, who won four in a row and very nearly made it five. Why was his start so impressive? He was playing on his phone!

The event took place during the closing ceremony of the world championship. With GM Magnus Carlsen's second GM Jon Ludvig Hammer's job done, he decided to move the pieces around himself.

Hammer's exchange sacrifice was coolly rebuffed by the eventual winner:

The stage became set for a showdown between Meier and Nouki in round six. After 114 moves, the bishop finally proved superior to the knight, which had run out of squares.

The two had some lighthearted chat after the game. Nouki is from France and the chat was in French.

Nouki to Meier: "Congrats Georg. Tu as tué mon tournoi." (You killed my tournament.)

Meier to Nouki: "Quand on perd contre moi on hait le jeu pour une minute, non?" (When you lose against me one hates the game for a minute, right?)

The Webster student then beat fellow Death Match winner IM Yaacov Norowitz in round seven in an endgame nearly identical to Anand-Carlsen round nine. Meier took out Dominguez afterward before a final-round draw with Dlugy.

GM Leinier Dominguez while winning the 2013 FIDE Grand Prix in Greece (photo courtesy Anastasia Karlovich of FIDE)

One final notable game was this round seven tussle. Besides the 177 moves, the fortress was notable for another reason. At nearly the exact same time in Sochi, Russia, Carlsen's oldest sister Ellen Carlsen had the exact same ending in a friendly game at the bar!

To be exact, she had pawns on f2, g3, h4 with a Black pawn on h5. I pointed out to her that you could remove White's h-pawn and still hold the fort, whereupon Magnus immediately pointed out that the g-pawn is also superfluous. If you don't believe the world champion, these two Chess.com members just proved it!

The final prize places were thus:

1. GM Georg Meier 8.5/9, $500

(T)2. GM Maxim Dlugy 7.0/9, $187.50

(T)2. GM Leinier Dominguez 7.0/9, $187.50

(T)4. GM JackSnipe (identity not technically public, but his picture gives it away!) 6.5/9, $31.25

(T)4. GM Mikhailo Oleksienko 6.5/9, $31.25

(T)4. IM Yaacov Norowitz 6.5/9, $31.25

(T)4. IM Zhanibek Amanov 6.5/9, $31.25

Tying up a few loose ends:

• The next Titled Player Tuesday will be Tuesday, December 30, 2014. Chess.com regrets the confusion over the starting time for this one (the U.S. had Daylight Savings occur between the first and second events). 
• The next tournaments will be 11 a.m. Los Angeles, 2 p.m. New York, 7 p.m. London, 8 p.m. Paris, 10 p.m. Moscow. Make sure you check your local starting time here.
• There is no late entry to the tournaments at this time. To register, log in to live chess a few minutes before the start and you'll see the tournament in the "events" tab.
• If you get disconnected in the middle of a game during the event, when logging back on to live chess, make sure to reenter the tournament if your game does not automatically appear.
• If you'd like to play but don't have your USCF or FIDE title by your username yet, send a message to Patzer24 or Monitor.
• You can now read our "Titled Player Tuesday Historical Archive" at this link.