Carlsen Takes Titled Tuesday In Final Round Triumph Over Nakamura

GM Magnus Carlsen won Titled Tuesday by a full point on September 9, but don’t let the final margin fool you into thinking the result was a runaway. Tied with GM Alireza Firouzja entering the final round of play, Carlsen needed to defeat GM Hikaru Nakamura to secure victory after Firouzja could not do the same against GM Oleksandr Bortnyk. Bortnyk would ultimately take second in the field of 454 players, with Firouzja settling for third.

Broadcast

If you missed the official Take Take Take broadcast with Kaja Snare, GM Robert Hess, and International Arbiter (IA) Kristoffer Gressli, you can catch it below!

Recap

Carlsen started the tournament with a 7/7, making him the last perfect player, although he had some luck after getting a worse position in the sixth round against GM Sina Movahed when the latter’s connection gave out and the game was decided on time. In the same round, Bortnyk found himself in a very difficult position on both the board and clock against IM Renato Terry, but it ended up being Terry who made the time-trouble blunder.

That meant that the showdown between the eventual top-two finishers happened in round seven. Once again, the clock was a big part of the story, as Bortnyk again had to desperately try to avert a loss on time. Just when it looked like he might pull off the salvaging job, he gave up his last knight, but turned out unable to promote his a-pawn to make up for it.

Carlsen’s perfect run did not last another round after he was matched with Firouzja. In a rare material imbalance of rook versus five pawns, Carlsen pushed for a win with the pawns, but no win was to be found.

What looked like a possible Carlsen runaway was now a lead for Firouzja, but his next matchup was no easier, and he made a draw with Nakamura. That set up a three-way tie with two rounds left, between Carlsen, Firouzja, and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Carlsen was able to handle Duda, while Firouzja took out GM Frederik Svane to keep pace entering the final round. With the two co-leaders having already played, the tournament would come down to a Carlsen-Nakamura matchup and a Firouzja-Bortnyk battle.

Carlsen opened with the London System and, as Hess noted in his commentary, had an advantage in the tournament situation with a draw doing Nakamura no good. Moving second to boot, Nakamura’s position never really got off the ground, and Carlsen was able to win after spending fewer than four of his five available minutes.

In the other game, Bortnyk was able to obtain a decisive advantage with the black pieces after opening with Alekhine’s Defense. Each side ended up with a queen and rook left, but Firouzja’s king was in far more danger, and Bortnyk wound up finding an impressive and dramatic knockout blow.

Fortunately for Firouzja, while he fell to third place, he didn’t fall any lower, retaining stronger tiebreaks than fourth-place IM Kacper Drozdowski and fifth-place GM Liem Le. Duda took sixth with the best tiebreaks on 8.5 points, and IM Anastasia Avramidou took home the women’s prize.

September 9 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)