By his own admission, it wasn’t pretty, but GM Magnus Carlsen got the job done in Titled Tuesday on December 16, scoring 9.5 points to win outright despite a loss in the second round and a worse final position in the 11th round as he successfully flagged GM Alexander Grischuk. Grischuk still came in fifth place, but GMs Haik Martirosyan, Sam Sevian, Parham Maghsoodloo all cleared him in the standings.
Carlsen has now won two of the last three Titled Tuesdays, while last week’s winner Sevian has enjoyed top-four finishes in all three of them, putting the two of them atop the overall standings in the December-February Titled Tuesday split.
Broadcast
If you missed the official Take Take Take broadcast with Sverre Krogh Sundbo and GM David Howell—joined for rounds 5-8 by WFM Anna Cramling and Wirtual—you can catch it below! This week’s broadcast was held from Take Take Take sponsor Lovable’s headquarters in Stockholm.
After the tournament, Carlsen appeared for the post-tournament interview, saying about his game against Grischuk: “I don’t always do it, but in the last round, this is not charity. I’m trying to win the tournament, he’s trying to win the tournament, and those are the means I had to do it with.”
This is not charity.
—Magnus Carlsen
CCT Standings
The updated top 10 for the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) standings are as follows:
| Position | Fed | Title | Player | Total | TT Split 1 | TT Split 2 | TT Split 3 | SCC | CGC |
| 1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen | 81 | 61 | 20 | – | – | – | |
| 2 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | 48 | 41 | 7 | – | – | – | |
| 3 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | 32 | 32 | 0 | – | – | – | |
| 4 | GM | Denis Lazavik | 31 | 24 | 7 | – | – | – | |
| 5 | GM | Alexey Sarana | 23 | 21 | 2 | – | – | – | |
| 6 | GM | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 21 | 20 | 1 | – | – | – | |
| 7 | GM | Sam Sevian | 19 | 0 | 19 | – | – | – | |
| 8 | GM | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 18 | 18 | 0 | – | – | – | |
| 9 | GM | Pranesh M | 16 | 16 | 0 | – | – | – | |
| 10 | GM | Dmitry Andreikin | 16 | 16 | 0 | – | – | – |
And the current winter split top 10:
| Position | Fed | Title | Player | Points | Week 3 |
| 1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen | 20 | +10 | |
| 2 | GM | Sam Sevian | 19 | +5 | |
| 3 | GM | Haik Martirosyan | 14 | +7 | |
| 4 | GM | Denis Lazavik | 7 | ||
| 5 | GM | Sina Movahed | 7 | ||
| 6 | GM | Vladislav Artemiev | 7 | +2 | |
| 7 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | 7 | +2 | |
| 8 | GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | 4 | +4 | |
| 9 | GM | Alexander Grischuk | 4 | +3 | |
| 10 | GM | Aleksandr Shimanov | 3 |
Tournament Recap
While Carlsen lost in the second round to Indian GM Iniyan P, the other usual Titled Tuesday favorite GM Hikaru Nakamura lost in the fourth to IM Reza Mahdavi. The fourth round also saw what Howell called “one of the biggest turnarounds I’ve seen in ages” when GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, just as it appeared GM Nihal Sarin had forestalled his attack, broke through for checkmate.
The win made Bortnyk one of 15 players on a 4/4 start entering the first tournament break, but he would not make 5/5. Sevian, trying to defend last week’s title, did hit 5/5, but GM Denis Lazavik stopped him in the sixth round. The next three boards all saw draws, which suddenly left Lazavik the last player on a 100% score. But it was Nakamura’s underpromotion that stole the sixth-round show on the broadcast.
In the seventh round, Grischuk ended Lazavik’s run and took the lead himself, where he was joined by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The eighth-round Grischuk-Abdusattorov contest was a draw, while Nakamura defeated Sevian and Martirosyan took down GM Bogdan Daniel Deac to create a four-way tie for first entering the final break.
When play resumed for the ninth round, Nakamura defeated Abdusattorov in 33 moves to take the sole lead after Grischuk and Martirosyan played to a draw.
But Carlsen needed just 21 moves against world championship candidate GM Matthias Bluebaum to put himself on the horizon with a win after the irresistible shots 13.Nxd5!! and 16.Qxg7!!.
With Bortnyk and GM Vladislav Artemiev now also half a point back of Nakamura, the 10th round brought our Carlsen-Nakamura showdown. Multiple factors finally worked against Nakamura, who played as Black, having just competed in the Global Chess League, while working with a spotty connection and geographically oceans away from his wife and newborn son. Hikaru fell 90 seconds behind on the clock, and his position was no better, with Carlsen winning easily.
Among the other co-leaders entering the round, only Grischuk won his game. With Carlsen and Grischuk on 8.5/10, and nine players behind them on 8/10, their game loomed large. A decisive game result would provide a decisive tournament result, but a draw would make it anyone’s tournament.
Grischuk built an advantage for part of the middlegame, but come the endgame there was not much play left in the position. On the clock, however, Carlsen had enough of a lead to push for the win by flag, even after losing his passed b-pawn. In the process, it was Grischuk who ended up dominating the board… but Carlsen still had a rook, pawn, and five seconds when Grischuk’s time expired after 105 moves. Game—and tournament—over, in Carlsen’s favor. “I would have loved to win on good technique rather than dirty flagging,” Carlsen immediately told his streaming audience, “but it’s the name of the game” to flag.
That was bad news for Martirosyan, Sevian, and Maghsoodloo, although tiebreaks worked out such that Grischuk would have likely finished first place had he held the draw. As it was, Martirosyan just barely eked out the tiebreak for second place over Sevian, with Maghsoodloo a little further back in fourth. WIM Afruza Khamdamova took home the women’s prize.
December 16 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @MagnusCarlsen | Magnus Carlsen | 3378 | 9.5 | 74.5 | |
| 2 | 23 | GM | @Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 3165 | 9 | 74 | |
| 3 | 14 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 3209 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3218 | 9 | 69 | |
| 5 | 12 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3220 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 6 | 5 | GM | @Sibelephant | Vladislav Artemiev | 3247 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 7 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3397 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 8 | 20 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3189 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 9 | 18 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3177 | 8.5 | 71.5 | |
| 10 | 29 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 3112 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 11 | 19 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3184 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 12 | 11 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3185 | 8.5 | 60 | |
| 13 | 25 | IM | @rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3148 | 8 | 73.5 | |
| 14 | 37 | GM | @Jakhongir-Vakhidov | Jakhongir Vakhidov | 3067 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 15 | 4 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3273 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 16 | 21 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3177 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 17 | 31 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 3087 | 8 | 71 | |
| 18 | 58 | GM | @maciek_92 | Maciej Klekowski | 3025 | 8 | 70 | |
| 19 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3286 | 8 | 67 | |
| 20 | 38 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 3065 | 8 | 66.5 | |
| 65 | 170 | WIM | @FARIZA2018 | Afruza Khamdamova | 2734 | 7 | 53 |
Prizes: Carlsen $1,000, Martirosyan $750, Sevian $350, Maghsoodloo $250, Grischuk $150, Artemiev $100, Khamdamova $100. Streamers’ prizes to be posted on the events page.
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.
