Titled Tuesday on March 17 was decided on the clock, as GM Nihal Sarin took home the victory with a final-round win over GM Nils Grandelius, with just 0.7 seconds remaining when Grandelius’ time expired in a drawn rook ending. Nihal started 8/8 and nearly all of his games on the back end of the tournament saw both players’ clocks fall into single digits but, with just one exception against GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, Nihal’s speed won out each time. GM Aleksandar Indjic was a surprise second-place finisher with 9.5 points, and six players tied for third place, which Bortnyk claimed on tiebreaks.
Broadcast
If you missed the Take Take Take broadcast with GM David Howell, WFM Maud Rodsmoen, and CM Jon Kristian Haarr, you can catch it below!
An apologetic Nihal gave an interview afterward: “I really want to say sorry to Nils… not the way I wanted to end it.”
CCT Standings
Nihal moved into a tie for first in the spring split after three weeks, as neither previous winner has finished top-ten in another tournament yet.
| Rank | Fed | Player | Score | Week 3 |
| 1 | GM Nihal Sarin | 10 | +10 | |
| 2 | GM Sina Movahed | 10 | ||
| 3 | GM Javokhir Sindarov | 10 | ||
| 4 | GM Dmitry Andreikin | 7 | ||
| 5 | GM Aleksandar Indjic | 7 | +7 | |
| 6 | GM Magnus Carlsen | 7 | ||
| 7 | GM Nikolas Theodorou | 7 | ||
| 8 | GM Arjun Erigaisi | 6 | +2 | |
| 9 | GM Denis Lazavik | 5 | ||
| 10 | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 5 |
Full Standings | Titled Tuesday Info | CCT Info | CCT Standings
Tournament Recap
Nihal was just one of two players to get more than halfway through the tournament unscathed. The other 6/6 player was GM Levon Aronian, who escaped a desperate situation against GM Hans Niemann, heard loudly lamenting his apparent victory turning into defeat.
But it would be Nihal, not Aronian, as the last perfect player, after a ridiculous conclusion to their seventh-round battle, one that foreshadowed how the rest of Nihal’s tournament would go.
Also ridiculous: a solid 15 players were now tied for second place, a full point behind Nihal. Out of all the options, Nihal’s contest in the eighth round came against Niemann. Once again, Nihal won a game that went down to the wire, moving to 8/8. Behind him, Indjic, Bortnyk, and Grandelius were among six players on 7/8.
It was Bortnyk who got the next shot at Nihal, in a battle of both wits and of vocal cords as both players were spotted singing along to their music playlists. Yet another game went down to the wire for Nihal, but this time he could not survive the time scramble. The players made their last 19 moves in a combined 10.4 seconds—that’s 0.27 seconds per ply—and Bortnyk came out ahead.
Five players were now tied on 8/9: Nihal, Bortnyk, Grandelius, GM Minh Le, and Indjic, who got there by defeating GM Hikaru Nakamura with Black.
Grandelius greeted Bortnyk with a momentum-shifting win of his own, avoiding a last-second trap.
Meanwhile, Nihal recovered by defeating Le with 1:42 still on his clock, while Indjic continued his run, leaving a three-way tie for first place. Another giant tie, 16 players, developed behind them, but the deficit being a full point, none were playing for first place.
Instead, the top spot came down to Nihal playing Grandelius and Indjic facing GM Wesley So. Grandelius, trying to win his first ever Titled Tuesday, had his chances before the game devolved into a time scramble. Indjic’s game ended in a draw, but Grandelius could not hold his own, and Nihal had the victory with less than a second left after 105 moves.
Unfortunately for Grandelius, he ended up in the unpaid seventh place after tiebreaks, although he did gain some CCT standings points. After Bortnyk in third, the remaining prizes went to GMs Matthias Bluebaum in fourth (making him the highest-finishing Candidate of the four who played), Aleksandr Shimanov in fifth, Arjun Erigaisi in sixth, and IM Anastasia Bodnaruk in the top women’s spot.
March 17 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 3 | GM | @nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3350 | 10 | 79.5 | |
| 2 | 55 | GM | @Beca95 | Aleksandar Indjic | 3112 | 9.5 | 81 | |
| 3 | 22 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3217 | 9 | 77.5 | |
| 4 | 24 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3211 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 5 | 35 | GM | @shimastream | Aleksandr Shimanov | 3172 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 6 | 7 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3262 | 9 | 72 | |
| 7 | 50 | GM | @Grandelicious | Nils Grandelius | 3087 | 9 | 72 | |
| 8 | 11 | GM | @HansOnTwitch | Hans Niemann | 3257 | 9 | 70 | |
| 9 | 13 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3232 | 8.5 | 76.5 | |
| 10 | 2 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3338 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 11 | 53 | GM | @GeorgMeier | Georg Meier | 3082 | 8.5 | 71.5 | |
| 12 | 66 | GM | @OhanyanEminChess | Emin Ohanyan | 3022 | 8.5 | 62 | |
| 13 | 21 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3205 | 8 | 75.5 | |
| 14 | 6 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3251 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 15 | 25 | GM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 3178 | 8 | 72.5 | |
| 16 | 4 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3279 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 17 | 39 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3149 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 18 | 28 | GM | @LevonAronian | Levon Aronian | 3188 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 19 | 26 | GM | @GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 3183 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 20 | 79 | GM | @tacticthunder | Dimitris Alexakis | 3005 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 68 | 263 | IM | @Vesper2018 | Anastasia Bodnaruk | 2652 | 7 | 57.5 |
(Full final standings.)
Prizes: Nihal $1,000, Indjic $750, Bortnyk $350, Bluebaum $250, Shimanov $150, Arjun $100, Bodnaruk $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.