Titled Tuesday presented by SEOCrawl took a surprising turn on May 10 as none other than GM Magnus Carlsen played in the early event, his first games on Chess.com since February 2021. Carlsen delivered, effectively clinching the tournament with a round to spare and ending with a 10/11 score for a full-point victory.
The late tournament begins at 2 p.m. Pacific/23:00 Central European and after its conclusion, we will update this report with those results.
The early tournament was joined by 393 players but perhaps no name bigger, and definitely no name more shocking, than Carlsen.
Nice to see World Champion @MagnusCarlsen trying his luck in our early #TitledTuesday and facing @TaniaSachdev!
You can follow the games here:https://t.co/vg2aWeW2zu pic.twitter.com/aoNBYMaN7b
— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) May 10, 2022
Using the Nimzo-Larsen (1.b3) as White and Owen Defense (1…b6) as Black, only draws in rounds four and 11 kept Carlsen from GM Hikaru Nakamura‘s Titled Tuesday record of 11/11. GMs Axel Bachmann, Jeffery Xiong, and Vladimir Fedoseev were tied with nine points for the next best score.
Broadcast of the early tournament hosted by FM James Canty III.
Carlsen defeated Xiong in round eight on his way to the victory. During the break after that round, Canty analyzed the game on-air (starting around 1:37:40 in the embedded broadcast above).
Carlsen then defeated GM Grigoriy Oparin in round nine after Oparin allowed the tactic 28…Bh6 and 29…Qg7.
In round 10, GM Parham Maghsoodloo was duly punished for a daring yet dubious sacrifice out of the opening.
By this point, Carlsen’s tiebreaks were so strong that his full-point lead entering the final round was insurmountable, and he accepted Fedoseev’s draw offer instead of playing out an equal rook ending. Despite the tournament clinching draw, Carlsen now has the highest blitz rating on Chess.com:
May 10 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Number | Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | SB |
| 1 | 2 | GM | MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3189 | 10 | 68.5 | |
| 2 | 277 | GM | chito89 | Axel Bachmann | 2492 | 9 | 59 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3064 | 9 | 55 | |
| 4 | 6 | GM | Bigfish1995 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3038 | 9 | 54.25 | |
| 5 | 22 | GM | Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2903 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 6 | 142 | IM | MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3036 | 8.5 | 56.25 | |
| 7 | 8 | IM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3006 | 8.5 | 52.5 | |
| 8 | 24 | GM | Sanan_Sjugirov | Sanan Sjugirov | 2913 | 8.5 | 48.25 | |
| 9 | 26 | GM | Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 2911 | 8.5 | 47.75 | |
| 10 | 7 | GM | exoticprincess | Baadur Jobava | 3002 | 8.5 | 46.75 | |
| 11 | 40 | GM | MrTattaglia | Kozak Adam | 2874 | 8.5 | 44.25 | |
| 12 | 129 | GM | A-Fier | Alex Fier | 2708 | 8 | 52.75 | |
| 13 | 10 | GM | OparinGrigoriy | Grigoriy Oparin | 2988 | 8 | 52 | |
| 14 | 21 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2907 | 8 | 51 | |
| 15 | 51 | FM | honestgames | Egor Lashkin | 2829 | 8 | 48.5 | |
| 16 | 48 | GM | Chopper1905 | Mustafa Yilmaz | 2847 | 8 | 48 | |
| 17 | 50 | IM | RobertoJBM | Roberto Junio Brito Molina | 2829 | 8 | 47.75 | |
| 18 | 37 | FM | KazakhFighter04 | Kazybek Nogerbek | 2870 | 8 | 47.25 | |
| 19 | 42 | GM | nrvisakh | Visakh NR | 2862 | 8 | 46.5 | |
| 20 | 5 | GM | mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3015 | 8 | 46 | |
| 58 | 181 | WIM | bsnsun | Dinara Wagner | 2554 | 7 | 30 |
(Full final standings here.)
Carlsen won $1,000 for first. Bachmann had the best tiebreaks of the players on nine and won $750, while Xiong won $300 and Fedoseev earned $150. GM Sergei Zhigalko won the $100 prize for fifth (on tiebreaks) while WIM Dinara Wagner won the $100 prize as the top woman.
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