Nihal Again In Titled Tuesday

GM Nihal Sarin won his second Titled Tuesday of the last six weeks on April 21, rejoining GM Sina Movahed atop the spring split standings. Whereas in his previous victory, Nihal led wire-to-wire, this week he lost in the third round. Nonetheless, he was able to win outright once again, after being the only player on 8.5/10 or better entering the final round to win his game.

CCT Standings

Nihal and Movahed have opened up a sizeable advantage on the rest of the spring split field as they work to earn some final CCT points.

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

Tournament Recap

Returning to Titled Tuesday after the Candidates Tournament, GM Hikaru Nakamura was one of 16 players to begin this week’s event on 4/4, and one of six to improve to 5/5. By the end of six rounds, only three of the 424 participants—70 of whom entered rated 3000 or higher—were still perfect: Nakamura, GM Hans Niemann, and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

It was only Niemann who moved to 7/7, defeating GM Sam Sevian rather easily, while Duda played Nakamura to a draw.

With GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov joining Duda and Nakamura on 6.5/7, the Niemann-Nakamura matchup still arrived in round eight. What looked like a boring queenless middlegame became tactical and turned in Nakamura’s favor.

Duda also moved to 7.5 points entering the final break, with his knights making quite the final impression against Abdusattorov.

Niemann was one of five players still with a chance at a half-point back of Nakamura, the others being Nihal and GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Pranav Venkatesh, and Vladislav Artemiev. When play resumed, Duda and Niemann’s back-and-forth game finally swung Niemann’s way, although in the end it was decided on the clock. Meanwhile, going up a knight in an endgame didn’t help Nakamura do more than draw against Nihal. Maghsoodloo and Movahed defeated Pranav and Artemiev, and so now Nakamura, Niemann, and Maghsoodloo held the top spots on 8/9 each. GMs Sina Movahed and Rasmus Svane joined Duda and Nihal on 7.5/9.

In the 10th round, no one ever took control in Nakamura-Maghsoodloo, either on the board or the clock, and they agreed to a draw in an equal rook-and-pawn ending with about a minute each left. The result allowed Niemann to move back into the sole lead as his rooks came to dominate Movahed’s position.

Also in the 10th, Nihal beat Svane (below) after tactically swiping a pawn, while GM Wesley So took out Duda—leaving Nakamura, Maghsoodloo, and Nihal half a point behind Niemann.

Nihal got White as the one attempting to knock Niemann down again, while Nakamura and Maghsoodloo each got Black against So and Arjun. Those two (Nakamura and Maghsoodloo) both got into some trouble out of the opening, as So and Arjun were each able to dominate and occupy the d5-square. Meanwhile, almost every piece in Niemann-Nihal stayed on the board well into the middlegame; when trades started to happen, they favored Nihal. So finished off Nakamura in the first of the three important games to end.

Nihal then broke through against Niemann, taking the sole lead for himself for the first time all tournament.

The Arjun-Maghsoodloo game was still outstanding, but it was already all but decided. Nihal clinched outright victory once Arjun put on the finishing touches.

And with that, first place was officially decided—if you’re only going to lead a tournament after a single round, why not make it the last round?

Seven players tied for second on nine points, and it was So who emerged in second place on the tiebreaks, with Arjun, Niemann, Abdusattorov, and GM Denis Lazavik lining up behind him in third through sixth place, respectively. Teenage WFM Nivedita V C from India won her first ever women’s prize.

April 21 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 25)

Full final standings.