Some weeks, a score of nine out of eleven is enough to win 3 0 Thursday, but on March 19, all three tournament winners won at least ten games, leaving little doubt regarding the best performance in each event. GM Aravindh Chithambaram won the first tournament with 10/11, followed by even more decisive performances in the later tournaments, with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda scoring 10.5/11 in the second tournament and GM Sina Movahed matching that score in the third event. The women’s prizes went to IM Polina Shuvalova in the first event with seven points, IM Meri Arabidze in the second event, with five points, and IM Deysi Cori in the third event, with 6.5 points.
1st Tournament: Aravindh Wins His First 3 0 Thursday
In the first tournament of the day, Aravindh lost in the second round to FM Erekle Tabatadze. Rather than despairing, he recovered and won his next nine games in a row. Along the way, Aravindh defeated many of the top finishers in 3 0 Thursday events this year. His first super GM test was against a participant in the upcoming candidates, GM Matthias Bluebaum in round seven.
In the next round, he defeated the most successful 3 0 Thursday player to date, IM Renato Terry.
After Terry, Aravindh defeated SCC finalist GM Denis Lazavik and then the young superstar IM Faustino Oro. Aravindh clinched his victory in the final round by defeating GM Parham Maghsoodloo with a Puzzle Rush style tactic. Can you find it?Â
Lazavik took second place with nine points, ahead of Movahed on tiebreaks.
2nd Tournament: Duda Nearly Perfect
In round three of the second tournament, Duda ran into an old nemesis, IM Levy Rozman. Rozman, who recently broke a 3000 blitz rating on Chess.com, had beaten Duda in their previous two encounters. Rozman won a piece and pressed for a win, but Duda managed to hold the draw. With that challenge behind him, Duda won his remaining eight games to take first place by a 1.5 point margin!Â
Like Aravindh before him, Duda had to overcome Bluebaum. After he misplayed the opening, this was perhaps the closest to defeat that Duda came in the whole event.
In the tenth round, Duda clinched tournament victory with a win against GM Igor Vakhlamov.
Behind Duda, GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac took second place with nine points, followed by Bluebaum in third with 8.5.
3rd Tournament: Movahed Takes Third 3 0 Thursday Title
Movahed has been performing well in recent blitz tournaments, winning the under-16 ChessKid Youth Championship and a Titled Tuesday earlier this month. He left little doubt in the third tournament, winning by a 1.5-point margin. His only blemish was a fifth-round draw against fellow Iranian Maghsoodloo. After that he went on a tear, including this seventh-round win against GM Emin Ohanyan, who had been leading with 6/6.
Heading into the final round, IM Yoseph Theolifus Taher was only half a point back, so Movahed still needed to perform. He escaped trouble and even managed to win an endgame against GM Tuan Minh Le.
After that performance, Taher took second place with nine points, followed by Ohanyan in third with 8.5 points.Â
3 0 Thursday is a set of three weekly Swiss tournaments for verified titled players featuring their favorite time control. Each of the three tournaments is an 11-round Swiss with a 3+0 time control. The combined prize fund is $3,000 every week.