The last Titled Tuesdays of July saw two players, GMs Maksim Chigaev and Salem Saleh, win their first of 2025. For Chigaev, it had been nearly a decade since his previous victory on June 7, 2016, while Saleh previously won on June 28, 2022. Chigaev won outright with 10 points, ahead of GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Denis Lazavik in second, while Saleh won on tiebreaks over GM Jeffery Xiong.
In addition, with many eyes on the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, there was some crossover here: GM Fabiano Caruana found the time to start 8.5/9 and finish fourth in the late Titled Tuesday while being one of the players in Riyadh.
Early Tournament
Chigaev, originally from Russia but now based in Spain, hadn’t won Titled Tuesday since it was a nine-round, 3+2 tournament held only twice a month. Back then, he scored 7/9 and led a field of 94 players. This time, the field of 518 was more than five times larger, and he scored more points than there even were rounds last time.
Chigaev made two early draws, in rounds four and five, but won every other game he played. The early draws, combined with Bortnyk’s scorching 8/8 start, made it unclear that Chigaev might win the whole thing. Bortnyk was still able to convert his start, which included a win over the world champion in the sixth round, into a second-place finish.
When GM Parham Maghsoodloo ended Bortnyk’s run in the ninth round, Chigaev was one of five players now tied on 8/9, along with Bortnyk, Maghsoodloo, Lazavik, and FM Artin Ashraf. Chigaev took it upon himself in the 10th round to do what Bortnyk could not and topple Maghsoodloo, although it was a win on time in an unclear, albeit piece-up, position.
Ashraf was the only other of the five to also win his 10th-round game, setting up a clash for all the marbles. (That’s not the most fitting idiom for chess, is it? Although I suppose if you cut the tops of the pawns off you could play a game of marbles with those… but I digress.)
Third place belonged to Lazavik after he, like Chigaev in the 10th round, won in the 11th on time without a significant advantage on the board. GM Gukesh Dommaraju finished fourth, GM Bharath Subramaniyam fifth, and WFM Zarina Nurgaliyeva won the women’s prize on 7.5 points.
July 29 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Score | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 35 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 3043 | 10 | 78 | |
| 2 | 17 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3122 | 9.5 | 75 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3220 | 9.5 | 69.5 | |
| 4 | 22 | GM | @GukeshDommaraju | Gukesh Dommaraju | 3080 | 9 | 75 | |
| 5 | 38 | GM | @FGHSMN | Bharath Subramaniyam | 3022 | 9 | 72.5 | |
| 6 | 23 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 3071 | 9 | 71 | |
| 7 | 20 | GM | @Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 3087 | 9 | 65.5 | |
| 8 | 12 | GM | @Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3103 | 9 | 64.5 | |
| 9 | 5 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 3184 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | @jcibarra | Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2996 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 11 | 52 | NM | @Little_Skib | Ethan Sheehan | 2952 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 50 | GM | @FormerProdigy | David Navara | 2958 | 8.5 | 66 | |
| 13 | 47 | GM | @Kosak12 | Jakub Kosakowski | 2962 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 14 | 76 | FM | @ChessMaster2011_1 | Jake Shanty | 2893 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 15 | 16 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3072 | 8 | 77.5 | |
| 16 | 15 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3091 | 8 | 76 | |
| 17 | 73 | NM | @nochewycandy | Isaac Chiu | 2886 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 18 | 9 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3146 | 8 | 71 | |
| 19 | 58 | GM | @Gareth-Bale11 | Mamikon Gharibyan | 2925 | 8 | 65 | |
| 20 | 55 | CM | @MrLion3000 | Isaak Parpiev | 2934 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 36 | 134 | WFM | @Zarinur | Zarina Nurgaliyeva | 2759 | 7.5 | 62 |
Prizes: Chigaev $1,000, Bortnyk $750, Lazavik $350, Gukesh $200, Bharath $100, Nurgaliyeva $100.
Late Tournament
Saleh and GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac were the last perfect players in the late field of 380, scoring 6/6 before drawing each other in the seventh round. In the eighth round, Saleh got back on track, while Deac lost. Then, in the ninth round, Saleh beat the eventual runner-up Xiong in a comeback victory, where one move changed the computer evaluation from four points in Black’s favor to four points in White’s.
That same ninth round, Caruana beat GM Dmitry Andreikin to keep up with Saleh on 8.5/9, setting up a clash between the two in the 10th round.
The Saleh-Caruana game ended in a draw, leaving the final round to be decisive.
Xiong, who had defeated GM Sergei Zhigalko in the 10th round, then won on time over Caruana in the 11th in an equal position, sort of a mini-theme of the day. (Also, by that point it was about 1 a.m. local time for Caruana.)
Xiong’s win over Zhigalko was the opposite of that, ending in checkmate, but there was also a little bit of role reversal for Xiong from his ninth-round game—this time he made the comeback.
Saleh made another draw in the final round, but it was enough to claim the tournament, while Xiong took second and Caruana settled for fourth place. The other prize winners were GM Alexey Sarana in third, Deac in fifth, and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk taking the women’s prize in 36th place.
July 29 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 9 | GM | @Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 3153 | 9.5 | 76.5 | |
| 2 | 11 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3129 | 9.5 | 74 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3172 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 4 | 10 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3136 | 9 | 72 | |
| 5 | 7 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 3143 | 9 | 71.5 | |
| 6 | 8 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3131 | 9 | 70 | |
| 7 | 18 | GM | @xiaotong2008 | Xiao Tong | 3057 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 8 | 5 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3151 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 9 | 15 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3061 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 10 | 17 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 3051 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 11 | 26 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2984 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 31 | GM | @Elsa167 | Leon Livaic | 2967 | 8 | 76 | |
| 13 | 16 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 3048 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 14 | 53 | FM | @GoltsevDmitry2000 | Dmitry Goltsev | 2876 | 8 | 68 | |
| 15 | 52 | CM | @Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 2907 | 8 | 66 | |
| 16 | 71 | FM | @rychessmaster1 | Ryan Amburgy | 2811 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 17 | 72 | IM | @AlexPapasimakopoulos | Alexandros Papasimakopoulos | 2822 | 8 | 59.5 | |
| 18 | 40 | GM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2914 | 8 | 56.5 | |
| 19 | 42 | NM | @Francisco_Ferrari | Francisco Ferrari Pironti | 2192 | 8 | 44.5 | |
| 20 | 24 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2988 | 7.5 | 70.5 | |
| 36 | 81 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2759 | 7 | 60.5 |
Prizes: Saleh $1,000, Xiong $750, Sarana $350, Caruana $200, Deac $100, Kosteniuk $100.
Grand Prix Qualifiers
The Titled Tuesday Grand Prix concluded back on May 27. Congratulations to the Speed Chess Championship qualifiers!
SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
| 1 | @MagnusCarlsen | 98.5 | GM | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2 | @Hikaru | 95.0 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
| 3 | @LiemLe | 93.0 | GM | Liem Le |
| 4 | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | 93.0 | GM | Arjun Erigaisi |
| 5 | @DenLaz | 92.5 | GM | Denis Lazavik |
| 6 | @Jospem | 92.0 | GM | Jose Martinez |
| 7 | @wonderfultime | 92.0 | GM | Tuan Minh Le |
| 8 | @HansOnTwitch | 92.0 | GM | Hans Niemann |
Women’s SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Score | Title | Name |
| 1 | @ChessQueen | 74.5 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| 2 | @Flawless_Fighter | 72.5 | IM | Polina Shuvalova |
| 3 | @Goryachkina | 72.0 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina |
| 4 | @karinachess1 | 70.5 | IM | Karina Ambartsumova |
| 5 | @Meri-Arabidze | 69.0 | IM | Meri Arabidze |
| 6 | @Sanyura | 68.0 | WGM | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya |
| 7 | @anasta10 | 68.0 | FM | Anastasia Avramidou |
| 8 | @jinbojinbo | 67.0 | GM | Zhu Jiner |
Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) did not have SCC places on the line, but there were cash prizes in each of these categories. The winners were:
Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.5 points (won $2,500)
Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points (won $2,500)
Girls: WGM Anna Shukhman (@speshka), 66.5 points (won $1,000)
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).
