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Speedy Minh Le Wins 9 Straight To Take Titled Tuesday GM Tuan Minh Le won his first Titled Tuesday of the year on August 18, and the 12th of his career, after coming out ahead of GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Arjun Erigaisi on tiebreaks with a score of 9.5/11. Le recovered from a first-round loss by ripping off nine consecutive wins thereafter, the first seven on the board and the last two by forcing his opponents out of time in equal positions. Recap The top three finishers at the recent Esports World Cup—GMs Magnus Carlsen, Denis Lazavik, and Hikaru Nakamura—all played and all suffered from an "Esports World Cup hangover," as Nakamura termed it on stream. All three had lost a game by the end of round three, and only Nakamura would end up in the top 20. The last player with a perfect score was, in fact, GM Sergey Drygalov, who has won Titled Tuesday before, back on September 26, 2023. After six rounds, GM Christopher Yoo, GM Bharath Subramaniyam, and IM Yoseph Taher were also on 100 percent scores, but only Drygalov made it to 7/7. He did so with an impressive win over Bharath, pushing his edge on the board and the clock into victory as Yoo and Taher drifted into a draw. Once again, however, a perfect score was not to be. Facing 16-year-old IM Aleksandr Usov in his next game, Drygalov was caught off guard by 21...Nxe5!! and resigned five moves later. Next week's ever-growing bounty, should someone hit 11/11, is worth $3,250. Usov ended up the sole leader after Yoo and Taher lost to GMs Alexey Sarana and Sina Movahed, respectively. Meanwhile, Le scored his seventh straight win to join seven players on 7/8, creating an impressive-looking checkmate against Bharath. Maghsoodloo, Arjun, and Nakamura were among those lurking farther back on 6.5/8 as the final break began. Play then resumed and Usov, like Drygalov, could not hold the lead, falling to Movahed. Le flagged GM Oleksandr Bortnyk for his eighth straight win, while IMs Marco Materia and Khuong Duy Dau won with more traditional methods against Sarana and Drygalov. As Movahed, Le, Materia, and Khuong moved to 8/9, Maghsoodloo and Arjun stayed half a point behind them, but Nakamura fell a bit more behind after only a draw with GM Nodirbek Yakubboev. The 10th round saw, as the seventh had, just one of the four co-leaders take another W. And, as in the ninth round, Le's quickness decided his game; the computer evaluation and Materia's clock both read all zeroes, but Le's clock read 2.5 seconds, and he now held the sole lead by half a point. Maghsoodloo was among those just behind, after a game where reliance on the computer evaluation shows a sudden blunder from Yoo on move 45. In reality, Maghsoodloo's pieces from move 27 onward were ever so slightly better—more scope for his bishop, a better square for his knight, a more active king—and Yoo eventually cracked. In the final round, despite some brief winning chances against Movahed that could have locked up sole first place, Le settled for a draw by agreement with the two of them on nearly equal time and positions. At the same time, Arjun had already long handled Khuong in a game that was basically over by move 22, although it ran for another 22. Maghsoodloo won in the final round as well and, despite getting caught, Le's tiebreaks remained stronger than either Maghsoodloo or Arjun, who settled for the next two spots. Sarana and Nakamura rounded out the top five with nine points each, followed by Movahed and GM Martyn Kravtsiv, also on nine. Yoo, Taher, and Usov claimed the last spots in the top 10. | Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak | | 1 | 26 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3183 | 9.5 | 71.5 | | | 2 | 8 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3255 | 9.5 | 70 | | | 3 | 5 | GM | GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3302 | 9.5 | 58 | | | 4 | 7 | GM | mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3272 | 9 | 74.5 | | | 5 | 1 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3397 | 9 | 73 | | | 6 | 3 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3314 | 9 | 72 | | | 7 | 63 | GM | Cayse | Martyn Kravtsiv | 3047 | 9 | 67 | | | 8 | 19 | GM | ChristopherYoo | Christopher Woojin Yoo | 3208 | 8.5 | 76 | | | 9 | 44 | IM | yosephtaher | Yoseph Theolifus Taher | 3130 | 8.5 | 74 | | | 10 | 13 | IM | Dolphin_2010 | Aleksandr Usov | 3230 | 8.5 | 73 | | | 11 | 29 | GM | aquarium76 | Nodirbek Yakubboev | 3158 | 8.5 | 73 | | | 12 | 4 | GM | vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3277 | 8.5 | 66.5 | | | 13 | 20 | GM | Andreikka | Andrey Esipenko | 3192 | 8.5 | 66 | | | 14 | 22 | IM | ChessFighter_2011 | Dau Khuong Duy | 3184 | 8.5 | 65.5 | | | 15 | 6 | IM | FaustinoOro | Faustino Oro | 3259 | 8.5 | 64.5 | | | 16 | 25 | GM | GMBenjaminBok | Benjamin Bok | 3146 | 8.5 | 58.5 | | | 17 | 58 | IM | DonkyDonkyDonkey | Eray Kilic | 3068 | 8 | 73.5 | | | 18 | 23 | IM | scarabee43 | Marco Materia | 3176 | 8 | 72 | | | 19 | 52 | GM | Kurufzugun | Cristobal Henriquez | 3096 | 8 | 71.5 | | | 20 | 37 | GM | Gordima | Dmitry Gordievsky | 3115 | 8 | 71 | | | 21 | 40 | FM | yavrukurt40 | Dincer Tasdogen | 3103 | 8 | 70 | | | 22 | 14 | GM | LiemLe | Liem Le | 3195 | 8 | 67 | | | 23 | 62 | IM | NovozhilovSemen | Semen Novozhilov | 3038 | 8 | 67 | | | 24 | 9 | GM | DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3213 | 8 | 66 | | | 25 | 41 | GM | Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 3093 | 8 | 66 | Prize Table | Prize | Winner | Amount | | Perfect Score Bounty | n/a* | $3,000* | | 1st | GM Tuan Minh Le | $2,500 | | 2nd | GM Parham Maghsoodloo | $1,500 | | 3rd | GM Arjun Erigaisi | $1,000 | | 4th | GM Alexey Sarana | $700 | | 5th | GM Hikaru Nakamura | $400 | | 6th | GM Sina Movahed | $400 | | 7th | GM Martyn Kravtsiv | $250 | | 8th | GM Christopher Woojin Yoo | $250 | | 9th | IM Yoseph Theolifus Taher | $250 | | 10th | IM Aleksandr Usov | $250 | | Top Woman | FM Rose Atwell (49th) | $250 | | Top Senior (50+) | TBA | $250 | | Top Youth (U16) | TBA | $250 | | Top Girl (U16) | TBA | $250 | | Top non-GM | IM Yoseph Theolifus Taher | $250 | | Top non-IM | FM Dincer Tasdogen | $250 | | Best Debut or Return | TBD | $250 | | Most Brilliant Move | TBD | $100 | | Best Game | TBD | $100 | | Streamer 1st | TBD | $100 | | Streamer 2nd | TBD | $100 | | Woman Streamer | TBD | $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.