GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took home Titled Tuesday on February 3, becoming the first player all year to score 10/11, allowing him to avoid tiebreaks to beat out GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Alexey Sarana on 9.5 points. The win was not only Vachier-Lagrave’s first of the 2026, it was his first in more than two years, the previous coming on January 16, 2024. As a result, he jumped from 10th place to third place in the winter split standings with just three weeks remaining.
Broadcast
If you missed the Take Take Take broadcast with GMs David Howell and Simon Williams, you can catch it below!
Vachier-Lagrave and IM Danny Rensch, playing from the Take Take Take studios where the latter scored 5.5/11, gave interviews after the tournament. Danny gave a wide-ranging interview including a preview of the upcoming Speed Chess Championship Finals as well.
CCT Standings
Titled Tuesday’s role in the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) continues, with the second of three splits about two-thirds done. The updated top 10 for the Winter Split is as follows:
| Rank | Fed | Player | Score | Week 10 |
| 1 | GM Magnus Carlsen | 41 | ||
| 2 | GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 30 | ||
| 3 | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 22 | +10 | |
| 4 | GM Samuel Sevian | 21 | ||
| 5 | GM Alexey Sarana | 19 | +5 | |
| 6 | GM Vincent Keymer | 18 | ||
| 7 | GM Denis Lazavik | 18 | ||
| 8 | GM Arjun Erigaisi | 15 | +7 | |
| 9 | GM Haik M. Martirosyan | 14 | ||
| 10 | GM Hikaru Nakamura | 13 |
Full Standings | Titled Tuesday Info | CCT Info | CCT Standings
Tournament Recap
In what turned out a foreboding game for him, GM Magnus Carlsen—sporting a mustache—avoided a mate-in-five and won in the first round, while Rensch managed to make a draw against GM David Paravyan. Carlsen won in the next two rounds as well, but wasn’t able to wriggle out of losses as effectively the rest of the tournament as he had been in round one, and ultimately finished 29th place—yes, a Carlsen “fade” is still a 93rd percentile performance.
During the first four rounds, the 12-year-old IM Faustino Oro, still looking to potentially become the youngest grandmaster ever, started to make noise. Coming out of the first break, he improved to 5/5 by putting on a game Howell described as “very one-sided against a very strong grandmaster,” GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov.
After another Oro brilliancy in round six, only he and GM Pranav Venkatesh had a perfect 6/6 score. It was Pranav who won to move to 7/7, leaving behind him on 6.5 points the trio of Vachier-Lagrave, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, and GM Aleksandr Shimanov. Pranav’s perfect score did not survive into the second break, as Bortnyk took him out in round eight, while Vachier-Lagrave beat Shimanov to share the lead with Pranav—even though Vachier-Lagrave would later describe the game as his “one big scare” of the tournament.
In the ninth round, Vachier-Lagrave took sole lead, which he never relinquished, taking down Bortnyk by making his pieces look silly trying to defend the kingside.
The top two boards in the 10th round both ended in draws, with Vachier-Lagrave against Sarana as well as GM Zhamsaran Tsypydov against GM Aleksandar Indjic unable to convert big clock advantages. The results were still great news for Vachier-Lagrave, who retained sole lead in the tournament with just a round left.
Nor did he give anyone a chance to catch up. Able to play his long-favored Najdorf Sicilian against Tsypydov in the final round, Vachier-Lagrave achieved bigtime queenside superiority. Although Tsypydov was able to fight back, he eventually lost a knight tied down to blocking checkmate on c2—or at least losing the knight turned out to be his best option, rather than the immediately winning queen sacrifice he allowed Vachier-Lagrave to play instead.
It was also the first game on the top boards that ended, so anyone peeking at the standings already knew who had won the tournament. Arjun, who had been flying under the radar all tournament, was able to grab second place on 9.5/11 after achieving a five-to-one pawn advantage against Indjic in the endgame, overcoming Indjic’s extra bishop.
After Arjun and Sarana in second and third, GM Matthias Bluebaum finished fourth, Oro fifth after toppling GM Hans Niemann in the last round, and GM Sina Movahed sixth with nine points each. The women’s prize went to 18-year-old Hungarian WGM Zsoka Gaal on seven.
February 3 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 32 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 3198 | 10 | 77.5 | |
| 2 | 14 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3232 | 9.5 | 74 | |
| 3 | 15 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3231 | 9.5 | 73 | |
| 4 | 19 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3208 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 5 | 21 | IM | @FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3208 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 6 | 17 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3212 | 9 | 66 | |
| 7 | 38 | IM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 3154 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 8 | 70 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 3018 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3222 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 10 | 22 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3192 | 8.5 | 68.5 | |
| 11 | 41 | GM | @Zhuu96 | Zhamsaran Tsydypov | 3132 | 8.5 | 67 | |
| 12 | 52 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 3097 | 8 | 79 | |
| 13 | 5 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3245 | 8 | 78 | |
| 14 | 35 | GM | @Micki-taryan | Haik Martirosyan | 3152 | 8 | 74 | |
| 15 | 13 | GM | 2NikoTheodorou | Nikolas Theodorou | 3203 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 16 | 61 | GM | @vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 3049 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 17 | 33 | GM | 2amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3152 | 8 | 69 | |
| 18 | 9 | GM | @FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3218 | 8 | 69 | |
| 19 | 26 | GM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 3181 | 8 | 68 | |
| 20 | 2 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3246 | 8 | 67 | |
| 70 | 277 | WGM | @GaalZsoka | Zsoka Gaal | 2622 | 7 | 51.5 |
Prizes: $1,000, $750, $350, $250, $150, $100, $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.
