Sevian Breaks Through For First Titled Tuesday Since 2021

An undefeated GM Sam Sevian won Titled Tuesday on December 9—his first since 2021—scoring 9.5 points to claim an outright victory ahead of five players on nine points. In that group, GM Denis Lazavik emerged from the tiebreak application to take second place.

Broadcast

If you missed the official Take Take Take broadcast with Kaja Snare and FM Lucas Ranaldi, you can catch it below!

Sevian was only able to join the post-tournament interview by audio, where he said about not having won in several years, “I’ve had second and third on tiebreaks so many times, but I never actually managed to win it until today, so definitely very happy about that.” GM Jose Martinez then came in live at the Take Take Take studio where he discussed a wide range of topics.

CCT Standings

The updated Champions Chess Tour (CCT) standings are as follows:

In the winter split itself, Sevian and FM Rose Atwell are out to fast starts. Sevian’s 14 points, after he also finished in the top 10 last week, leads the open field; Atwell dominates the women’s field so far with 17 points after winning this week’s women’s prize.

Tournament Recap

Several key games this week were draws, but draws weren’t a problem for either Sevian or Lazavik in the first half of the tournament, both of them starting 6/6. But even they made a draw with each other in the seventh round, as GM Vladislav Artemiev joined them in the lead. Artemiev got there with a win over IM Kacper Drozdowski and would ultimately finish in third place.

The eighth round only further muddied the situation, producing a six-way tie for first place on 7/8, and eight players behind that group on 6.5 points. Artemiev and Lazavik drew their game, as did Sevian with GM Hikaru Nakamura, which allowed GMs Alexey Sarana, Andrey Esipenko, and Aleksandr Shimanov to join the first-place tie by winning their games.

The final standings finally began to crystallize in round nine: Lazavik, Artemiev, and Sevian all won this time, and of the group behind them, only Hikaru—celebrating his 38th birthday—stayed half a point out of first. Lazavik’s win came against Esipenko, the world championship candidate who was also in the running in last week’s Titled Tuesday.

In the 10th round, Lazavik held a pull on the board pretty much all game against Nakamura, but also spent most of the game behind on the clock. In the end, Lazavik only managed to get a bishop and wrong rook pawn, resulting in a draw. Sevian grabbed this opportunity to take the sole tournament lead with just one round remaining, toppling Artemiev. Most of their game appeared to be a dead draw, but Artemiev blinked first in the resulting time scramble, hanging his rook.

As a result, Sevian suddenly held first place, with only Lazavik half a point back… and another nine rival hopefuls one point back. Sevian would clinch the tournament with a win, have great chances with a draw, and throw the tournament into disarray if GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda were to take the dub instead.

Lazavik and Sarana quickly made a draw, meaning that Sevian now only needed his own draw to secure outright first place, while a Duda win was still the most chaotic possibility. In the meantime, Nakamura’s chances at getting a Titled Tuesday victory for his birthday expired when he got his queen trapped against GM Mahammad Muradli, who would ultimately finish in sixth.

Sevian would indeed get the draw when his position against Duda reached bare kings on move 61, and so the seven-way tie for first place did not manifest.

Tiebreaks were still key to decide second place. Nakamura had the best tiebreak score in the entire field, putting him just two results away from first place (wins in the last round for himself and Duda) instead of 13th. A final-round loss for Sevian would probably have dropped him into third, as Lazavik and Artemiev held a tiebreaks advantage over him. Their tiebreaks earned them second and third place instead, by GM Haik Martirosyan in fourth, Shimanov in fifth, and Muradli in sixth.

Sarana came in seventh with 8.5 points, missing out a paid spot (but earning some CCT Standings points) in what was surely a frustrating tournament: not once but twice, he was just about to deliver checkmate when his clock ran out (including once just a single move away) to result in draws instead.

December 9 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)