GM Denis Lazavik won Titled Tuesday on November 4, seizing the outright lead away from GM Jose Martinez in the final round on a day where such tournament lead changes were typical. GM Magnus Carlsen took second place ahead of Martinez while GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Dmitry Andreikin, who finished fourth and eighth, respectively, also held at least a share of the tournament lead at various points. But Lazavik outlasted them all, and is now in fourth place in the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) autumn standings.
Broadcast
If you missed the official Take Take Take broadcast with Kaja Snare, GM David Howell, and Asbjorn Steinskog (Assios), you can catch it below!
CCT Standings
The updated standings, which will help determine six spots in the next Esports World Cup, are as follows:
Recap
Epitomized by his comment after round two—”Dreadful game. I don’t even want to look at that”—Carlsen got into some difficult positions early, but still started 5/5 along with Martinez. Their sixth round game was completely insane. Both players missed chances at achieving dominance, but just when the game seemed headed for a repetition, each player desperately avoided it. That turned out to be a better decision for Carlsen, who finally won the ending.
Carlsen’s shakier form in the first half of the tournament finally came back to bite him in the seventh against Nakamura. One blunder was all it took, and while Carlsen could come back against most opponents, he naturally did not get away with giving Nakamura such a big advantage.
Now Nakamura and Lazavik were the co-leaders. Nakamura got a little cute with the tricky Qh6. Although the queen was untouchable, the engine didn’t like the move, yet the pressure remained high enough the game was soon enough over anyway.
Nakamura’s outright lead lasted as long as Carlsen’s had, which is to say it did not. Nakamura took Black against Andreikin, who appeared to play rather tamely, but that approach ended up giving White the game’s only winning chances. Andreikin eventually won Nakamura’s isolated d-pawn, kept pushing, and took victory without ever being at risk of defeat. Andreikin’s performance may have been the smoothest win of the tournament for any player, as it is rare to see Nakamura achieve no counterplay for an entire game.
But Andreikin couldn’t enjoy his win for very long, either. Three rounds after his loss to Carlsen, Martinez found himself back in a share of the lead. That share belonged all to himself after his game with Andreikin, who had big advantages at two different points but was unable to hold after an attempt to activate his rook only led to its getting forked and lost.
Of course, the tournament’s theme of short-lived leads carried until the end. Martinez—who was playing from Goa, India after a game in the FIDE World Cup earlier in the day—only needed a draw to win the tournament outright. He held Lazavik at bay for a good long while, but not a good long while enough.
With both of them on nine points, Carlsen ultimately had the tiebreaks over Martinez. Nakamura, GM Jules Moussard, GM Fabiano Caruana, and 17th-place IM Polina Shuvalova rounded out the cash winners.
November 4 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 3 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3279 | 9.5 | 75 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3317 | 9 | 78 | |
| 3 | 9 | GM | @Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3147 | 9 | 69 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3385 | 8.5 | 78.5 | |
| 5 | 13 | GM | @Annawel | Jules Moussard | 3105 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 6 | 5 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3175 | 8.5 | 63 | |
| 7 | 20 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 3049 | 8.5 | 54.5 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3179 | 8 | 67 | |
| 9 | 23 | IM | @KillerBishop888 | Felix Ilinca | 2998 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 10 | 12 | GM | @penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3081 | 8 | 60.5 | |
| 11 | 25 | GM | @Nitzan_Steinberg | Nitzan Steinberg | 3013 | 8 | 60 | |
| 12 | 87 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3209 | 8 | 59.5 | |
| 13 | 10 | GM | @Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3105 | 8 | 59.5 | |
| 14 | 16 | GM | @Jakhongir-Vakhidov | Jakhongir Vakhidov | 3080 | 7.5 | 75.5 | |
| 15 | 18 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 3071 | 7.5 | 72 | |
| 16 | 22 | GM | @Anton_Demchenko | Anton Demchenko | 3029 | 7.5 | 69 | |
| 17 | 205 | IM | @Flawless_Fighter | Polina Shuvalova | 2924 | 7.5 | 53 | |
| 18 | 24 | FM | @Turboplombir | Sergey Sklokin | 3000 | 7.5 | 53 | |
| 19 | 38 | GM | @Szparu | Miłosz Szpar | 2928 | 7 | 71 | |
| 20 | 29 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 2990 | 7 | 70 |
Prizes: Lazavik $1,000, Carlsen $750, Martinez $350, Nakamura $250, Moussard $150, Caruana $100, Shuvalova $100.
After Party
The After Party is a two-hour arena that follows every Titled Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. ET/21:00 CET (4:00 p.m. ET on October 28 only). You can play, follow, or check the results for the After Party here and the Untitled After Party here.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players. It begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time.
