GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM Hikaru Nakamura, and IM Renato Terry won the second week of 3 0 Thursday events, which were held on November 20. GM Magnus Carlsen almost secured his first 3 0 Thursday victory in the first session, but a final-round loss let Duda catch him and secure first place on tie-breaks.
Duda started the first tournament well, winning his first six games, before dropping a point to GM Sina Movahed. He faced a critical test against GM Matthias Bluebaum in the eighth round. Bluebaum took over, but was a fraction of a second too slow and Duda scored a fortunate victory.
It didn’t get any easier for Bluebaum, who faced Carlsen in the ninth round. Carlsen won a clean game and took over the tournament lead.Â
Heading into the final round, Carlsen had the sole lead with 9/10, but he ran into GM Haik Maritrosyan, who played a flawless game.
The win brought Maritrosyan into a tie for first with 9/11, along with Carlsen and GM Alexey Sarana. Meanwhile Duda defeated Terry to join the leaders and claim the best tiebreak score.
IM Karina Ambartsumova took the 1st tournament women’s prize with 5.5/11.
Nakamura has already won nine Titled Tuesday tournaments this year, so it’s no surprise that he collected his first victory in 3 0 Thursday. Nakamura overcame a shaky start to the event, drawing 16-year-old GM Savva Vetokhin in round four and losing to Movahed in an exciting fifth-round game. Movahed allowed Nakamura to promote to a second queen, but neither one could prevent checkmate.
Nakamura responded well to adversity, winning his final six games of the tournament! He caught Movahed after round nine, when the latter lost to GM Jeffery Xiong. In the 10th round, Nakamura defeated Xiong convincingly.
Nakamura didn’t take over the sole lead, however, until the final moments of the event. Movahed drew his last game with GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan. Meanwhile, Nakamura reached a drawn endgame with GM Jules Moussard, who hung his queen in the closing seconds of the game.
Ambartsumova won the women’s prize for the second straight tournament, this time scoring 6/11.Â
The third tournament of the day was a huge success for Terry. After a last round loss to Duda cost him a shot at first in the first tournament, he made sure to win the third event by a full point over IM Reza Mahdavi and Sarana.
The critical game for determining first place occurred in the sixth round. Both Terry and Mahdavi had won their first five games. Mahdavi dominated the game, but couldn’t checkmate quickly enough and had to settle for a draw.Â
Terry had much less trouble in his other games. Besides the draw with Mahdavi, Terry finished with eight wins, and draws against GM Benjamin Bok and IM Garg Aradhya. The following endgame grind, against GM Mitrabha Guha, was an example of Terry’s ability to win from quiet positions.
WFM Hoang Minh Tho Do narrowly surpassed Ambartsumova to take the women’s prize with 6/11.
3 0 Thursday features three tournaments every week for titled players. The events are on Thursday every week at 11 a.m., 4 p.m., and 9 p.m. ET / 17:00, 22:00, and 3 a.m. (+1) CET / 9:30 p.m., 2 a.m. (+1), and 5 a.m. (+1) IST.
