Vachier-Lagrave Takes Titled Tuesday, Advances In Esports World Cup Process

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the February 24 edition of Titled Tuesday to wrap up the winter split with his second win of the month, becoming one of eight qualifiers into the Chess.com Global Championship. Vachier-Lagrave won in the final round to reach 9.5 points and catch up with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who finished second on tiebreaks.

GMs Denis Lazavik, Nihal Sarin, and Fabiano Caruana rounded out the top five in that order, each scoring nine points in what turned out to be an important shakeout for CGC qualification. More on that below.

Broadcast

If you missed the Take Take Take broadcast with GM David Howell, GM Simon Williams, and CM Jon Kristian Haarr, you can catch it below!

CCT Standings

With the conclusion of the Winter Split today, the top eight players all qualified for the Chess.com Global Championship. Caruana, who would have one extra standings point with fourth place instead of fifth place today, is on the outside looking in. GM Vincent Keymer ranks ahead of Caruana and GM Alexey Sarana by virtue of their best single tournament results in the split: Keymer’s top finishes were first and second, Caruana’s were first and third, and Sarana’s were two third places.

Caruana and Sarana could still get in if there are withdrawals ahead of them, but as of now will need to qualify via the CGC Play-Ins instead.

Full Standings | Titled Tuesday Info | CCT Info | CCT Standings

Next week begins the Spring Split, a final chance for players to earn Champions Chess Tour standings points that could get them into the Esports World Cup, and for women to qualify for the Women’s Speed Chess Championship.

Tournament Recap

With 17 players on 4/4 entering the first break, Howell remarked that, “Everyone’s just in bang-on form today.” Several favorites were among those on the score, including Vachier-Lagrave, Lazavik, Nihal, and Caruana, as well as usual suspects GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura.

By the end of six rounds, only two of the 17 still had a perfect score. Carlsen, who came out of the fifth round by holding a dramatic “roller coaster” (Howell) of a game against IM Renato Terry, posted a study-like finish in a win against Nihal next. 

In the same round, Caruana’s first big mistake of the tournament, 40…Qa6, allowed a forced mate and made GM Sanan Sjugirov the only player besides Carlsen on 6/6. Nakamura (who drew in round five) had knocked GM Javokhir Sindarov off route, while Vachier-Lagrave and Lazavik drew to end each other’s run.

In the seventh round match between perfect players, Sjugirov had White, but Howell declared his position “dead lost” by move 12, while Vachier-Lagrave beat Nakamura to become the only other player with even 6.5 points. A whopping 15 players had exactly six, including Duda, who was still trying to work his way back from a fourth-round loss.

Carlsen’s unblemished score did make it to the next break, and he was lucky to hold a draw against Vachier-Lagrave, who was better or winning most of the game. Then, with the position down to rook-versus-rook at the end, he decided not to try to use his 30-second advantage on the clock to flag Carlsen, and instead traded off the rooks.

Carlsen still led by half a point, now over seven players on 7/8. Another draw, however, against GM Arjun Erigaisi—with 10 seconds left for Magnus and 18 for Arjun at the time of the threefold repetition—allowed a four-way tie on 8/9. Nihal, Duda, and Vachier-Lagrave joined Carlsen with wins over Terry, Sindarov, and GM Haik Martirosyan, respectively. 

Duda won on time with just 0.5 seconds on his own clock in that round, then turned Carlsen’s teetering draws into a knockout blow with a quite convincing win in the 10th round.

Meanwhile, Nihal and Vachier-Lagrave played to a draw, leaving Duda in the sole lead. When the 11th and final round started, Williams noted that Duda had a second straight game with White, and then noted that their game began the same way as one of his a decade previously against none other than his fellow commentator Howell.

Vachier-Lagrave was playing Arjun on the second board, but their game ended first. Vachier-Lagrave came back from a difficult position when Arjun, trying to simplify, spent 32 seconds on his 28th move, but still ran into a deflection/fork combo tactic. Vachier-Lagrave saw it quickly and converted from there without any issues, becoming the first player to move to 9.5/11.

Duda-Nihal eventually reached a time scramble, with all the heavy pieces still on the board to boot. Nihal saved it, but only for a draw, which was enough for Vachier-Lagrave to catch Duda in the standings on 9.5 points each. Vachier-Lagrave then ended up with a far better tiebreak score, having ended up waiting only three weeks between Titled Tuesday victories—his previous wait had been more than two years.

Sindarov and Terry scored nine points as well, but tiebreaks put them into sixth and seventh—although even, they had more tiebreak points than Duda. The women’s prize went to WGM Meri Arabidze on seven points.

February 24 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)