Carlsen Scores Huge With Back-To-Back Tournament Victories

GM Magnus Carlsen won Titled Tuesday for the second straight week on September 16, scoring 10.5 points with only a draw against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda preventing him from the perfect 11/11 in what he called “definitely one of my more comfortable Titled Tuesday wins.” Duda made a second draw, which ended up being the difference as his score of 10/11, usually enough to win, earned him second place. No one else in the field even scored 9.5 points.

Broadcast

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

Recap

Carlsen and Duda both started 6/6 before drawing each other in the seventh round, ending the final chances in the tournament for a perfect score. In the round prior, Carlsen had played a great time scramble that led to checkmate against GM Andrew Tang on move 104.

Following the Carlsen-Duda draw, now four players shared the lead on 6.5 points, but Carlsen took the sole lead as the only one of them to win in the eighth round. He never lost his grip on that standing.

A rematch from last week between Carlsen and GM Sina Movahed followed. After some luck in their game last week, this time Carlsen won what he called maybe “the most interesting game [he’s] ever played in Titled Tuesday.” Carlsen had the win in hand, but had to navigate seven straight checks at the end of the game to lock it up.

At the same time, Duda avoided a third straight draw and started another winning streak by toppling IM Renato Terry. Duda then followed that up with a win against Tang when Duda’s passed a-pawn and two bishops (with an extra rook for good measure) overcame Tang’s queen.

Only Duda could now catch Carlsen, with the entire rest of the field at least one full point behind Duda. That didn’t stop them both from winning again, Carlsen earning the victory against GM Andrey Esipenko and Duda finishing up against GM Dmitry Andreikin.

Tang, who lost to both top-two finishers, was a perfect 9/9 against everybody else and took third place on the back of that performance. His final win, against FM Stanislav Bukreev, was in some ways similar to his earlier loss to Carlsen: an endgame time scramble with rooks and bishops and (nearly) ending in mate. Carlsen is one of the few players who can keep up with Tang, who finished this game with just five seconds left on his clock, in such a situation.

GM Vincent Keymer—coming off a strong but ultimately disappointing performance in the FIDE Grand Swiss—GM Alexey Sarana, and IM Murad Ibrahimli rounded out the top six, while FM Rose Atwell won the women’s prize.

September 16 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)