No One Beats Niemann On His Way To Titled Tuesday Victory

“HN” won another Titled Tuesday on September 30, but this time it was GM Hans Niemann who took home the victory, while last week’s winner GM Hikaru Nakamura was runner-up this week. Only two draws kept the undefeated Niemann from a perfect score, and no one won a game off Nakamura either.

Not a bad first Titled Tuesday after a while! pic.twitter.com/dMy6RymAKJ

— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) September 30, 2025

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

The field of 430 players was somewhat lighter than previous weeks, with GM Magnus Carlsen the most notable missing name—but he had a great excuse: 

Thanks❤️ https://t.co/V3nkU0R16J

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) September 30, 2025

With Carlsen out and Nakamura making draws in both rounds four and five, the field was more open than usual. GM Alexander Grischuk took advantage of the circumstances early on, reaching a score of 7/7 after a win with Black against compatriot GM Andrey Esipenko.

In round eight, Grischuk was finally held down, making a draw with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Grischuk still led the field, but now had a group of seven players just a half-point behind him, thanks in part to a draw between Niemann and Nakamura in the same round. (Niemann would state in post-tournament comments that he considered this a psychological victory, because he thought he played a longer game than Nakamura’s moves indicated he wanted.)

Unfortunately for Grischuk—who was trying to win immediately following last Friday’s Freestyle victory—that lead didn’t last any longer as GM Ian Nepomniachtchi would go on to take it from him. While opposite-colored bishops are known to lead to equal endgames, you still have to be careful with queens remaining on the board, and Grischuk blundered into a fork.

Nepomniachtchi now joined Niemann and Duda as co-leaders, but he wasn’t able to enjoy his lead much longer either. Niemann impressed the commentators with his 21st and 22nd moves to win material. Niemann never lost his edge after that.

Making Niemann’s situation even better, Nakamura defeated Duda in the same round, which gave Niemann the outright lead.

Nakamura was the only player who could pass (not just match) Niemann in the standings, but wouldn’t get to do the job himself after their earlier draw. Instead, Niemann faced GM Alireza Firouzja, while Nakamura played Nepomniachtchi.

An emotive Niemann was aggressive from the get-go and also built up a significant clock advantage, turning a close matchup on paper into a game that was not much in doubt on the back half.

That result rendered Nakamura’s win against Nepomniachtchi only good enough for second place, as Nakamura only needed four of his five allotted minutes to get there. One way to neutralize the equalizing effect of opposite-colored bishops is to have two far-advanced passed pawns with the opposing king nowhere in sight. 

A whopping 12 players entered the last round on eight points, and they ended up playing for third place after the Niemann and Nakamura victories. GM Bogdan Daniel Deac, who was one of the players to draw Nakamura, took it home, followed by GM Vidit Gujrathi, IM Renato Terry, and GM Liem Le to round out the top six. GM Jose Martinez also finished with nine points, but missed the first round to leave himself with non-competitive tiebreaks. Finally, the women’s prize belonged to IM Padmini Rout.

September 30 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)