Firouzja Bounds Into CCT Contention With Comeback Victory

GM Alireza Firouzja won a tense Titled Tuesday on October 7, taking it on tiebreaks ahead of GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda after they all posted a 9.5/11 score. GM Xiao Tong, a 16-year old grandmaster rated over 3100 in Chess.com Blitz-rated, led most of the way with an 8.5/9 start before finishing in fourth place, announcing own his arrival as a Titled Tuesday contender.

Firouzja went undefeated, and could potentially have won outright had he not accidentally repeated a winning position in the ninth round. With the victory, he moved into second place in the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) standings, just one point behind GM Magnus Carlsen.

Broadcast

If you missed the official Take Take Take broadcast with Kaja Snare and GM David Howell, you can catch it below!

CCT Standings

Recap

Carlsen starts every tournament he plays as the favorite, but got a tough matchup early against GM Daniel Naroditsky, and wasn’t able to recover in the standings after “Magnus’s first blunder as a father,” as Howell commentated it. (No word on how much sleep Magnus was working on.)

The other perennial favorite, GM Hikaru Nakamura, was the last player on a perfect score. He reached 6/6 after fighting back from a tough spot against GM Andrey Esipenko.

Nakamura’s perfect run ended immediately thereafter, however, with a draw against Firouzja. His next result, against Xiao, was an even bigger jolt. In an equal, same-color bishop endgame, Nakamura had designs of winning on the clock, consistently rejecting Xiao’s offers of a bishop trade. But Xiao kept his nerves, and it was Nakamura who shock blundered the game away. A stunned Nakamura could only play the game to checkmate.

Carlsen’s tournament comeback attempt ended at GM Jeffery Xiong‘s hands in same round. (In case you’re liable to getting names mixed up, don’t worry, we never got a Xiao–Xiong game.) Xiao now led the proceedings on 7.5/8, with six players behind him on seven points.

Firouzja got an easily winning knight endgame against GM Levon Aronian in the ninth round, but just when he appeared on his way to convert, he repeated the position for a third time, resulting in a draw out of nowhere (Howell speculating that Firouzja was trying too hard to keep up clock pressure). 

In the same round, IM Rud Makarian ended Nakamura’s chances at a tournament comeback, allowing Makarian to stay half a point behind Xiao, tied with GM Aleksandr Shimanov.

And so, in a tournament with Carlsen, Nakamura, Firouzja, Nepo, Duda, Aronian, GMs Fabiano Caruana, Hans Niemann, Dmitry Andreikin, Denis Lazavik—the list could go on—the key 10th round game was Makarian vs. Tong, just as everyone predicted. Their game was a relatively uneventful draw, however, which allowed Firouzja to get back within half a point of Xiao with one round to go by defeating Shimanov.

Xiao still led the tournament outright, but had four players right behind him in Firouzja, Duda, Nepomniachtchi, and Makarian. Xiao had drawn Firouzja in the sixth round and defeated Nepomniachtchi in the seventh, so the matchups wound up being Xiao–Duda, Makarian–Firouzja, and Nepomniachtchi–Andreikin. With all eyes on Xiao versus Duda, the Polish star put on a clinic and threw the top of the standings into chaos.

Duda was only able to finish in third place, however, his victory in the game ultimately helping Firouzja and Nepomniachtchi even more. The latter two players’ winning performances in the 11th round happened largely off-broadcast, but they count nonetheless, and Firouzja ended up with a massive tiebreak score that ultimately carried him to his first Titled Tuesday victory of the season.

Shimanov was able to retain fifth place, with Lazavik in sixth, both of them earning a bit of cash for their troubles. Last week’s winner GM Pranesh M equaled their score but his tiebreaks fell short. The women’s prize, meanwhile, went to WFM Kalyani Sirin in 59th place out of the field of 434.

October 7 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)