On-Fire Firouzja Finishes First In September 22 Titled Tuesday

GM Alireza Firouzja won Titled Tuesday outright on September 22, starting 7/7 before a brief setback followed by a 3/3 performance to end the tournament. GM Denis Lazavik, who went undefeated but made three draws, finished sole second while breaking Firouzja’s tie with GM Ian Nepomniachtchi entering the final round. Nepomniachtchi still took third place on tiebreaks ahead of GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Vincent Keymer, and four other players on nine points.

The win was Firouzja’s second of the year and 22nd all time, the third most in tournament history behind Nakamura and GM Magnus Carlsen.

Broadcast

In case you missed it, here’s this week’s broadcast with GM Robert Hess:

Recap

Firouzja, Lazavik, Nepomniachtchi, and Nakamura were all on 4/4 after the first break, Nakamura making “the impossible possible,” according to Hess in the third round after playing into a discovered check on purpose and winning from a position that had appeared drawn.

But the craziest move of the tournament came in the next round, from an unexpected source in IM Robert Piliposyan, whose 16.Rxd7!! helped him become one of just nine players on 5/5.

In the sixth round, Nakamura fell to 4.5/6 with a loss against IM Sergey Sklokin-Bagiyan, who improved to 6/6. Sklokin-Bagiyan was easily the most surprising of the four players on that score, with the others being Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi, and GM Fabiano Caruana.

About Firouzja vs. Nepomniachtchi in the seventh round, Hess pointed out, “This is not the Candidates.” Both players were streaming, while neither Caruana nor Sklokin-Bagiyan was. Caruana won easily, while Firouzja outplayed Nepomniachtchi after the two players traded errors in the opening. Nepomniachtchi ended up with a passed pawn on b2 surrounded by white pawns on a2, b3, and c2, but Firouzja had the passer well under control in victory.

In the battle of seven-out-of-sevens, Firouzja led Caruana +27 =7 -18 in their Chess.com history entering the game. Caruana got the white pieces, but over-pressed on the kingside. Just when Firouzja looked to be on his way to 8/8 entering the break, however, Caruana made it tough on him, going up by more than a minute on the clock and then rapidly turning things completely around into checkmate.

Only GM Andrey Esipenko entered the ninth round half a point behind Caruana, with Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi, Keymer, Piliposyan, Sklokin-Bagiyan, and GM Iniyan Paneerselvam a point behind. Esipenko developed a small edge but dropped his a-pawn, leading to an equal position of both sides having king, queen, one rook, and all of their e- through h-pawns. Caruana was ahead on the clock by 45 seconds and still had the $4,250 perfect score bounty available to him and him alone, but took a draw by repetition to retain the sole lead in the tournament. Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi, and Keymer joined Esipenko on 8/9.

Caruana got Black once again in the 10th round, now facing Nepomniachtchi, and the combination proved too much after Nepomniachtchi’s 39.Ne6!!, cutting off Caruana’s rook from the defense of the g6-pawn. His defense collapsed almost instantly into checkmate.

Caruana wasn’t the only first board at the ongoing Olympiad, which had its lone rest day Tuesday, to lose in the 10th round as Keymer lost to Firouzja. Esipenko drew Nakamura to join Caruana on 8.5/10, as did Lazavik and GM Andy Woodward, the latter in a rook-versus-rook dirty flag with 0.4 seconds left himself.

With the coleaders Firouzja and Nepomniachtchi having already faced off, four 11th-round games would decide the tournament: Lazavik–Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja–Woodward, Caruana–Nakamura, and Keymer–Esipenko.

Keymer won first, while Lazavik went up on the board to the point where time became his greatest enemy. Firouzja and Nakamura were also pushing for victory, but they had the added benefit of a time advantage. Nakamura won first, then Lazavik and Firouzja nearly simultaneously. 

The win was good news for both, of course, but especially Firouzja, whose tiebreaks would have come up slightly short had he taken the draw. Instead, he avoided the matter altogether with his solid 10 points. Surprisingly, Caruana ended up in just 11th place, as Woodward finished 10th with the best tiebreaks among the 8.5/11-scoring players.

Final Standings

Full final standings.