Nakamura Posts Big Score After Near Miss

NathanielGreen

Updated: Jun 12, 2024, 8:28 AM | 13 | Chess Event Coverage

GMs Alexey Sarana and Hikaru Nakamura are your Titled Tuesday victors for June 11, 2024. Sarana won by the thinnest of margins in the early tournament, needing the second tiebreak before his 10 points were finally determined to have earned first place ahead of Nakamura's 10 points. No such calculations were necessary for the late tournament as Nakamura put up a score of 10.5 to win by a healthy 1.5-point margin.

For Sarana, it was his second win in as many weeks, while for Nakamura, it was his second 10.5-point performance in less than a month.

Early Tournament (Sarana, 10/11)
Late Tournament (Nakamura, 10.5/11)
Titled Cup Standings

Early Tournament

Sarana won his first seven games to take the lead on the field of 723 players until he was held to a draw by Nakamura in round eight. Catching up with him at that point was not Nakamura, who had also played a draw in the sixth round, but GM Javokhir Sindarov. But Sarana would dispatch him and reclaim sole first with a 33-move kingside attack as Black in the ninth round.

Sarana drew again in the 10th round, this time with GM Daniil Dubov. Now, it was Nakamura who entered a tie for first after beating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi with a 34-move kingside attack as Black (which should sound familiar to readers of the... previous paragraph).

And so things came down to the final round, where Sarana faced GM Aryan Tari while Nakamura took on GM Hans Niemann. Nakamura's decision to play the Smith-Morra Gambit with White ultimately paid off with a 44-move victory after Niemann let a knight hang out to dry on a3.

The result was not enough for Nakamura after Sarana's game against Tari. In a rook ending by move 27 and a pure king-and-pawn ending by move 36, Sarana won a promotion race after Tari's fatal misstep, 44.gxf5.

With both players on 10 points and the first tiebreak score also tied, it was a photo finish, but Sarana had done just enough to overcome the Nakamura beast. No one would be so lucky later on.

June 11 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	5		GM	@mishanick	Alexey Sarana	3131	10	80
2	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3234	10	80
3	4		GM	@Duhless	Daniil Dubov	3129	9.5	65
4	7		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3112	9	79.5
5	13		GM	@GM_dmitrij	Dmitrij Kollars	3048	9	74.5
6	10		GM	@lachesisQ	Ian Nepomniachtchi	3063	9	72
7	33		IM	@Murad_Ibrahimli	Murad İbrahimli	2995	9	71
8	18		GM	@frederiksvane	Frederik Svane	3012	9	68.5
9	15		GM	@vi_pranav	Pranav V	3031	9	66.5
10	12		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3043	8.5	75.5
11	17		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3034	8.5	73
12	2		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3174	8.5	72.5
13	35		GM	@TigrVShlyape	Gata Kamsky	2976	8.5	72
14	16		GM	@AryanTari	Aryan Tari	3024	8.5	71.5
15	80		GM	@ViIIagra	Cristobal Henriquez	2890	8.5	70.5
16	62		GM	@FXDon77	Xu Yi	2901	8.5	70
17	50		GM	@Nitzan_Steinberg	Nitzan Steinberg	2949	8.5	70
18	20		GM	@sergoy	Sergey Drygalov	3013	8.5	69
19	47		GM	@Zhigalko_Sergei	Sergei Zhigalko	2933	8.5	67.5
20	27		IM	@Szparu	Miłosz Szpar	2980	8.5	66.5
61	291		IM	@annasargsyan_m	Anna M. Sargsyan	2616	7.5	51.5

(Full final standings here.)

Sarana won $1,000 for his efforts, while Nakamura settled for $750 in second place. Dubov finished third for $350 as the only player on 9.5 points. GM Dmitry Andreikin earned $200 in fourth place, GM Dmitrij Kollars $100 in fifth place, and IM Anna M. Sargsyan won the $100 women's prize, just as she had done in the early June 4 tournament the week before.

Late Tournament

For the first time ever since Titled Tuesday began its twice-a-week cadence in February 2022, the late edition cracked 600 participants, winding up at a record 610. There could have been 6,000 players and none would have seemed to have a chance against the form Nakamura displayed, even though the final result was in doubt up to the very last round.

It was actually in the fifth round, however, where Nakamura's chance at perfection ended after his draw against prodigious GM-elect Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who only turned 13 years old on June 3.

Instead, the longest run at perfection belonged to GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, whose win over GM Sergey Drygalov brought the 18-year-old Indian star to an 8/8 score.

Praggnanandhaa's reward for his eighth straight win was a showdown with Nakamura. Nakamura continued to play the Caro-Kann Defense in his games with Black, and this time, it eventually earned him an endgame victory.

By now Nakamura already had taken lone first place, but his lead only grew in the last two rounds. GM Alireza Firouzja was the first player to try to wrest the lead from Nakamura and even played the Caro-Kann himself, but he only lasted 26 moves.

In fact, of the six players who had trailed Nakamura by a half-point entering round 10, only GM Vladimir Fedoseev won in the round. This, of course, earned him the final-round matchup against Nakamura, and so even with Nakamura just a half-point from perfection, a win for Fedoseev would win the tournament.

Nakamura switched to 1...e5, and every single minor piece was already captured by move 17. In the heavy piece endgame, Nakamura's queen and rooks all remained slightly more active than Fedoseev's, and he eventually netted an extra central passed pawn in a rook ending. There were very few pawns, however (three against two), and so the game continued. Finally, Fedsoeev made the losing error with 68.Kd2, trying to keep his king off the back rank—according to the tablebase, every king move lost, while 68.Rh7 or 68.Rh8 would have kept the draw in order. Sadly for Fedoseev, his king ended up too far from Nakamura's pawn, eventually allowing Nakamura to cut off the king altogether.

And with that, there would be no comeback victory for Fedoseev, just a massive score for Nakamura. Fedoseev was not able to hold onto a paid position, either, as a total of eight players ended up on nine points. Instead, Firouzja took second, with GM Andrew Hong completing the podium. Two people you might have heard of, 2018 World Championship combatants GMs Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen, rounded out the top five. Finally, IM Polina Shuvalova won the women's prize on 7.5 points.

June 11 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Number	Rk	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	Tiebreak 1
1	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3263	10.5	74.5
2	6		GM	@Firouzja2003	Alireza Firouzja	3160	9	75.5
3	27		GM	@SpeedofLight0	Andrew Hong	3042	9	72.5
4	3		GM	@FabianoCaruana	Fabiano Caruana	3198	9	71
5	4		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3191	9	71
6	8		GM	@FairChess_on_YouTube	Dmitry Andreikin	3121	9	69.5
7	9		GM	@Bigfish1995	Vladimir Fedoseev	3128	9	64
8	11		GM	@DenLaz	Denis Lazavik	3101	9	61.5
9	19		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3053	9	60
10	10		GM	@rpragchess	Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu	3100	8.5	76.5
11	47		GM	@Jakhongir-Vakhidov	Jakhongir Vakhidov	2963	8.5	73
12	21		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Yoo	3045	8.5	72
13	17		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3049	8.5	65.5
14	18		GM	@GM_dmitrij	Dmitrij Kollars	3035	8.5	63.5
15	5		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3155	8.5	63
16	81		IM	@Kosak12	Jakub Kosakowski	2868	8.5	62
17	36		GM	@jcibarra	Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez	3001	8	73.5
18	56		GM	@Dedic8	Sergei Lobanov	2940	8	71
19	41		GM	@dropstoneDP	David Paravyan	2946	8	70.5
20	23		IM	@Mykola-Bortnyk	Mykola Bortnyk	3020	8	69.5
36	127		IM	@Flawless_Fighter	Polina Shuvalova	2760	7.5	68.5

(Full final standings here.)

The cash earnings were: $1,000 to Nakamura ($1,750 total on the day), $750 to Firouzja, $350 to Hong, $200 to Caruana, $100 to Carlsen, and $100 to Shuvalova.

Titled Cup Standings

Nakamura's score jumped another 2.5 points after his 20.5-point total eclipsed two nine-point tournaments. Sarana's win took him to within a point of second place in the open standings, while Andreikin took over fifth place after two solid scores. In the women's standings, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk continues to lead, but Shuvalova entered the top five with her late performance.

Open

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@Hikaru	197.0	GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	@Polish_fighter3000	184.5	GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
3	@mishanick	183.5	GM Alexey Sarana
4	@Jospem	180.5	GM Jose Martinez
5	@FairChess_on_YouTube	178.5	GM Dmitry Andreikin

Women

#	Username	Score	Player
1	@ChessQueen	139.5	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
2	@Goryachkina	137.0	GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
3	@Meri-Arabidze	134.0	IM Meri Arabidze
4	@karinachess1	133.0	IM Karina Ambartsumova
5	@Flawless_Fighter	125.5	IM Polina Shuvalova

Other Category Leaders

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (175.5 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (165.0 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (111.5 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.