GM Sina Movahed won his second Titled Tuesday of the spring split and third of his career on April 7, scoring 10/11 to win outright. Movahed also now leads the spring split standings. GM Alexey Sarana rode an 8/8 start to finish in sole second on 9.5/11.
CCT Standings
Movahed moved ahead of GM Nihal Sarin as the spring split passed its halfway point.
| Rank | Fed | Name | Points | Week 7 |
| 1 | GM Sina Movahed | 20 | +10 | |
| 2 | GM Nihal Sarin | 17 | ||
| 3 | GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 14 | ||
| 4 | GM Hans Niemann | 13 | ||
| 5 | GM Tuan Minh Le | 12 | +5 | |
| 6 | GM Parham Maghsoodloo | 12 | +4 | |
| 7 | GM Zhamsaran Tsydypov | 10 | ||
| 8 | GM Javokhir Sindarov | 10 | ||
| 9 | GM Dmitry Andreikin | 9 | ||
| 10 | GM Alexey Sarana | 9 | +7 |
Full Standings | Titled Tuesday Info | CCT Info | CCT Standings
Tournament Recap
Movahed was not one of the early leaders after losing to American NM Ethan Sheehan (the senior of the two players at the ripe old age of 18) in the third round. Through six rounds, three players remained perfect: Sarana, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk, and GM Tuan Minh Le, who would ultimately finish in third place. Sarana and Bortnyk both won in less than 35 moves in the seventh round to set up a battle of 7/7 scores, where they were a full point above everyone else.
Sarana had White and held a pull throughout most of the game, and then broke the game open while still having over a minute on his clock and Bortnyk under 30 seconds. After 44 moves, Bortnyk resigned, leaving Sarana on a perfect 8/8 entering the last break.
At this point, Movhaed joined Bortnyk in second place on 7/8, as did GM Zhamsaran Tsydypov. In the ninth round, Tsydypov faced Sarana and Bortnyk battled Movahed. Bortnyk gave up the d5-square, and soon after that gave up a pawn, then two, then three, and could not recover.
Meanwhile, Sarana struggled to remain competitive, but was eventually able to force a draw by repetition, retaining the tournament lead.
He wasn’t so lucky in the 10th round. Sarana took Black for a second straight game, this time against Movahed, who was half a point behind. Another four players were on 7.5/9: Tsydypov, Le, GM Wesley So, and GM Arjun Erigaisi. Tsydypov misplayed the opening against So and lost a piece by move 15, resigning 11 moves later.
Sarana, meanwhile, once again tried to defend through difficulties. Movahed had several chances before he finally broke through, easily winning the ending.
Movahed now held the sole lead entering the final round, on 9/10, with Sarana and So on 8.5/10. A win with White against So would give Movahed the tournament. A draw or worse would let Sarana back into it, if he could win with White against Arjun.
In an unusual variation of the Open Spanish, both Movahed and So blinked. Movahed sacrificed a piece after a 23-second think, which So incorrectly captured after 17 seconds, but Movahed did not find the best continuation. So survived much of the early middlegame with his king on d7, but the floodgates opened only after he got it to c8. So eventually had to give up his queen for a rook (and still had the extra knight), but couldn’t reduce the pressure. Although he seemed to be closing the gap in the endgame, eventually his king was swallowed up.
Sarana’s game actually ended earlier, after he found a decisive finish.
Minh Le took third on tiebreaks ahead of GM Parham Maghsoodloo, while So held onto fifth with the best tiebreaks among those on 8.5, as GM Aravindh Chithambaram took sixth. IM-elect Rose Atwell won the women’s prize.
April 7 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 7 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3240 | 10 | 75.5 | |
| 2 | 14 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3161 | 9.5 | 73.5 | |
| 3 | 9 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3220 | 9 | 73 | |
| 4 | 6 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3229 | 9 | 69.5 | |
| 5 | 1 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3277 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 6 | 18 | GM | @Vaathi_Coming | Aravindh Chithambaram | 3108 | 8.5 | 74 | |
| 7 | 11 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3172 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
| 8 | 13 | GM | @LiemLe | Liem Le | 3130 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 9 | 29 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 3051 | 8.5 | 57 | |
| 10 | 12 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3193 | 8 | 76.5 | |
| 11 | 4 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3228 | 8 | 71 | |
| 12 | 19 | IM | @Kacparov | Kacper Drozdowski | 3083 | 8 | 67 | |
| 13 | 25 | FM | @ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 3058 | 8 | 67 | |
| 14 | 15 | GM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 3120 | 8 | 65 | |
| 15 | 26 | IM | @yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3032 | 8 | 60.5 | |
| 16 | 1 | GM | @artooon | Pranesh M | 3184 | 8 | 58.5 | |
| 17 | 49 | IM | @Aradhya2000 | Aradhya Garg | 2909 | 8 | 54.5 | |
| 18 | 8 | GM | @Zhuu96 | Zhamsaran Tsydypov | 3204 | 7.5 | 76 | |
| 19 | 3 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 3229 | 7.5 | 75 | |
| 20 | 67 | GM | @Martial2008 | Aksel Bu Kvaloy | 2898 | 7.5 | 71 | |
| 54 | 100 | FM | @RoseAtwell | Rose Atwell | 2777 | 6.5 | 67 |
Full final standings.
Prizes: Movahed $1,000, Sarana $750, Le $350, Maghsoodloo $250, So $150, Aravindh $100, Atwell $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.