GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is your winner for Titled Tuesday on July 21, scoring 9.5/11 points and a big win over GM Fabiano Caruana in the seventh round that proved to be the difference between first and second place—Caruana also scored 9.5 points, but Vachier-Lagrave had the tiebreak advantage.
The win was Vachier-Lagrave’s 13th ever in Titled Tuesday, his 10th since 2022, and his first since February of this year, when he won twice.
Recap
A group of five players began 5/5, all of whom have won Titled Tuesday before: GMs Pranav Venkatesh, Alexey Sarana, and Zhamsaran Tsydypov in addition to Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana. But it was the 2020/21 FIDE Candidates alums who reached 6/6 ahead of their seventh-round showdown.
For most of the game, it appeared Caruana with White was going to be the one to advance to 7/7 until he undefended a rook, dropping his excellent e6-pawn to a pin. That’s what turned the game from a White win into a draw, but a few moves later, the draw turned into a winning position for Black when Vachier-Lagrave won another pawn, this time via a fork. From there, he easily converted the rook ending.
Perfection was not long for this tournament, however, after Vachier-Lagrave only made a draw with IM Renato Terry in the eighth round. The perfect score bounty is now $2,250, which would nearly double the winner’s prize. GM Alexander Grischuk managed to tie with Vachier-Lagrave entering the break after defeating Sarana with three connected passed pawns. The win would help Grischuk end up taking third place.
Vachier-Lagrave made another draw coming out of the break, this with Grischuk, and they were joined on 8/9 points by Tsydypov (after GM Jeffery Xiong hung a fork) and GM Christopher Yoo (who outplayed Terry in endgame). Caruana, GM Vladimir Fedoseev, and GM Sergey Drygalov loomed a half-point back.
Yoo was Vachier-Lagrave’s challenge in the 10th round, but he grabbed a pawn early on that turned out to be unsafe, and had to resign on just move 25, leaving Vachier-Lagrave a draw away from a guaranteed tie for first place.
With a win against Drygalov, Caruana was able to get back to within half a point of Vachier-Lagrave, while a draw between Tsydypov and Grischuk kept them there as well.
In the final round, Vachier-Lagrave took Black against Sarana but easily held the draw. Only Caruana would end up catching him, after this clinical win over Tsydypov, while Grischuk only made a draw with Terry.
And so Vachier-Lagrave had his win once the tiebreaks were finalized, Caruana just missing his fourth career Titled Tuesday. Tiebreaks also preferred Grischuk over So, while Sarana finished atop a group of 11 players on 8.5/11 to take fifth.
Standings Table (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 2 | GM | @LyonBeast | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 3295 | 9.5 | 80.5 | |
| 2 | 13 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3241 | 9.5 | 78 | |
| 3 | 14 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 3237 | 9 | 74.5 | |
| 4 | 8 | GM | @GMWSO | Wesley So | 3243 | 9 | 70 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | @mishanick | Aleksei Sarana | 3273 | 8.5 | 79.5 | |
| 6 | 32 | GM | @Rud_Makarian | Rudik Makarian | 3126 | 8.5 | 75.5 | |
| 7 | 9 | GM | @Zhuu96 | Zhamsaran Tsydypov | 3245 | 8.5 | 74.5 | |
| 8 | 4 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 3257 | 8.5 | 73 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | @Fedoseev-Vladimir | Vladimir Fedoseev | 3217 | 8.5 | 72.5 | |
| 10 | 21 | GM | @sergoy | Sergey Drygalov | 3160 | 8.5 | 71 | |
| 11 | 57 | IM | @Kirill_Klukin | Kirill Klukin | 3029 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
| 12 | 10 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3226 | 8.5 | 70.5 | |
| 13 | 27 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 3147 | 8.5 | 70 | |
| 14 | 17 | GM | @ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3202 | 8.5 | 69 | |
| 15 | 34 | GM | @hansen | Eric Hansen | 3108 | 8.5 | 60.5 | |
| 16 | 5 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3222 | 8 | 71 | |
| 17 | 26 | IM | @ChessFighter_2011 | Dau Khuong Duy | 3136 | 8 | 69.5 | |
| 18 | 6 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3217 | 8 | 69 | |
| 19 | 80 | GM | @KaterynaLagno | Kateryna Lagno | 2948 | 8 | 68.5 | |
| 20 | 7 | GM | @Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3220 | 8 | 66 | |
| 21 | 35 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 3097 | 8 | 63.5 | |
| 22 | 24 | IM | @rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3129 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 23 | 2 | FM | @snowlord | Ivan Yeletsky | 3121 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 24 | 19 | GM | @sokidze | Ihor Samunenkov | 3147 | 8 | 61 | |
| 25 | 20 | FM | @bubeliang | Havard Haug | 3141 | 8 | 60.5 |
Full final standings.
Prize Table
| Prize | Winner | Amount |
| Perfect Score Bounty | n/a* | $2,000* |
| 1st | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | $2,500 |
| 2nd | GM Fabiano Caruana | $1,500 |
| 3rd | GM Alexander Grischuk | $1,000 |
| 4th | GM Wesley So | $700 |
| 5th | GM Alexey Sarana | $400 |
| 6th | GM Rudik Makarian | $400 |
| 7th | GM Zhamsaran Tsydypov | $250 |
| 8th | IM Renato Terry | $250 |
| 9th | GM Vladimir Fedoseev | $250 |
| 10th | GM Sergey Drygalov | $250 |
| Top Woman | GM Kateryna Lagno | $250 |
| Top Senior (50+) | GM Alexander Rustemov | $250 |
| Top Youth (U16) | IM Dau Khuong Duy | $250 |
| Top Girl (U16) | WFM Anastasiia Hnatyshyn | $250 |
| Top non-GM | IM Renato Terry | $250 |
| Top non-IM | FM Artin Ashraf | $250 |
| Best Debut or Return | FM Aditya Varun Gampa | $250 |
| Most Brilliant Move | GM Ihor Samunenkov | $100 |
| Best Game | IM Kirill Klukin | $100 |
| Streamer 1st | IM Renato Terry | $100 |
| Streamer 2nd | GM Jan Gustafsson | $100 |
| Woman Streamer | WFM Anna Cramling | $100 |
*Bounty grows by $250 per week without a perfect score, and resets once a perfect score has been achieved.
Game and Move of the Day
These winners are announced by Thursday each week. If you would like to nominate a game or a move (including your own) in this or future weeks, click here!
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.