Magnus Carlsen Wins Titled Tuesday With Javokhir Sindarov

May 7, 2025

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The first Titled Tuesdays of May went to GMs Magnus Carlsen and Javokhir Sindarov. Carlsen scored 10 points in his victory and Sindarov scored 9.5, but both needed tiebreaks, Carlsen over GM Bharath Subramaniyam and Sindarov ahead of last week’s late winner, GM Hans Niemann. The win was Carlsen’s sixth of the year (and his fourth in six weeks), extending his lead for the most wins this year, and Sindarov’s second, following one on March 25.

Congratulations to Javokhir Sindarov for winning the late #TitledTuesday, by tiebreaks over Hans Niemann! pic.twitter.com/aKRHV0ICKB

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 7, 2025

Early Tournament

Carlsen and his archnemesis, GM Hikaru Nakamura, were the last of 596 players to threaten a perfect score, reaching 8/8 before drawing each other. Multiple players staying at a 100% score for so long is rare, but it’s no surprise that when it did happen here, it was with these two players. Unfortunately for Nakamura, however, the half-point in round nine was his last of the day.

Carlsen, meanwhile, needed just 31 moves to win in round 10 against GM Frederik Svane, giving him the sole lead with just one round left, after Svane ended the theoretical part of proceedings with an immediate mistake.

GM Christopher Yoo, who defeated Nakamura in the 10th round, would hold Carlsen to a draw in the 11th and end up in fourth place. That draw gave Bharath a chance to catch up to Carlsen in the standings with his own win against Nakamura, which took a 94-move slog.

Carlsen’s tiebreaks were insane, however, clearing Bharath’s by 15.5 points. The only blemish on Bharath’s record had come against Carlsen himself, with the typical matchup between eventual top-two finishers happening earlier than usual, on round four. Carlsen and Bharath slugged it out with neither player gaining a significant advantage for nearly 50 moves, but Bharath finally committed a couple errors and ran out of time on move 60.

Other prize winners were GM Aleksandr Shimanov in third, GM Arjun Erigaisi in fifth, and IM Karina Ambartsumova with her second consecutive women’s prize.

May 6 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank	Seed	Fed	Title	Username	Name	Rating	Score	1st Tiebreak
1	2		GM	@MagnusCarlsen	Magnus Carlsen	3262	10	85
2	40		GM	@FGHSMN	Bharath Subramaniyam	3073	10	69.5
3	31		GM	@shimastream	Aleksandr Shimanov	3094	9.5	70.5
4	24		GM	@ChristopherYoo	Christopher Woojin Yoo	3065	9.5	68
5	13		GM	@GHANDEEVAM2003	Arjun Erigaisi	3132	9	79.5
6	32		GM	@wonderfultime	Tuan Minh Le	3077	9	70.5
7	28		GM	@frederiksvane	Frederik Svane	3107	9	70
8	11		GM	@VincentKeymer	Vincent Keymer	3143	9	66.5
9	9		GM	@Javokhir_Sindarov05	Javokhir Sindarov	3178	9	66
10	16		GM	@mishanick	Aleksei Sarana	3084	9	65
11	1		GM	@Hikaru	Hikaru Nakamura	3334	8.5	88
12	25		GM	@jefferyx	Jeffery Xiong	3063	8.5	69.5
13	14		GM	@AnishGiri	Anish Giri	3115	8.5	65
14	20		GM	@Msb2	Matthias Bluebaum	3066	8.5	56.5
15	23		GM	@gurelediz	Ediz Gürel	3104	8	77
16	36		GM	@DanielNaroditsky	Daniel Naroditsky	3078	8	72
17	18		GM	@Parhamov	Parham Maghsoodloo	3121	8	71.5
18	5		GM	@HansOnTwitch	Hans Niemann	3189	8	68.5
19	99		IM	@PiliposyanRobertChess	Robert Piliposyan	2846	8	67.5
20	87		GM	@Miguelito	Miguel Santos Ruiz	2858	8	67
79	131		IM	@karinachess1	Karina Ambartsumova	2702	7	54

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Carlsen $1,000, Bharath $750, Shimanov $350, Yoo $200, Arjun $100, Ambartsumova $100.

Late Tournament

While the previous event had two players on 8/8, this one had a single player on 7/7, although GM Aravindh Chithambaram would only end up in 19th place. Niemann was the player to knock him off his perch in round eight, and needed just 26 moves with Black to do it, although Aravindh also missed a singular moment where he could have taken the edge himself.

The win put Niemann in sole first, but only temporarily, as Sindarov immediately took him down in an even shorter game—just 17 moves! Niemann needed to break a pin to save a pawn, but chose the wrong option, losing a piece to a deflection tactic.

Now Sindarov and GM Parham Maghsoodloo shared the lead on 8/9. In their ensuing matchup, Sindarov ground out a win after Maghsoodloo dropped an exchange in the first 20 moves and was unable to recover despite no catastrophic errors.

Sindarov was now in the same position as Carlsen earlier: up by half a point over a two-way tie in second with one round left, and facing one of them, having already beaten the other. Sindarov held the draw against Nakamura despite being down a piece in a pawnless endgame. Rook-knight-and-king against rook-and-king is usually a draw with best play, and Sindarov never made a losing move according to the tablebase before the 50-move rule kicked in.

Instead, Nakamura’s chance at taking out Sindarov came just before, when an extra set of pieces was still on the board. When Nakamura eliminated the final pawn on move 65, Sindarov needed to find 66.Rh1. None of Nakamura’s winning responses moved the rook, which is what he did, and there was no win to be had thereafter. (You can follow the whole tablebase analysis here.) Of course, with less than five seconds on your clock as both players had, you basically have to be a computer to work out any of this.

While Sindarov held off Nakamura, Niemann would catch up with the leader after winning his final-round game, but it wasn’t enough, by a margin of 1.5 tiebreak points. Niemann’s 33-move win against GM Yagiz Erdogmus and his Scandinavian Defense nonetheless guaranteed second place.

The rest of the top five finished on nine points, half a point ahead of sixth. After tiebreaks, the order went GM Jose Martinez third, Maghsoodloo fourth, and Nakamura fifth. WFM Veronika Shubenkova won the women’s prize.

Finally, if you are just as bored as these players apparently were, you can play through this 428-move game from the final round.

May 6 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Seed Fed Title Username Name Rating Score 1st Tiebreak

1 5 GM @Javokhir_Sindarov05 Javokhir Sindarov 3181 9.5 75

2 3 GM @HansOnTwitch Hans Niemann 3189 9.5 73.5

3 14 GM @Jospem Jose Martinez 3087 9 70

4 10 GM @Parhamov Parham Maghsoodloo 3121 9 68

5 1 GM @Hikaru Hikaru Nakamura 3331 9 67

6 9 GM @Sina-Movahed Sina Movahed 3125 8.5 70.5

7 2 GM @MagnusCarlsen Magnus Carlsen 3262 8.5 67.5

8 73 IM @I_am_Javi Ernesto Fernandez 2854 8.5 59.5

9 7 GM @legendisback1 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus 3131 8 72.5

10 12 GM @Sargsyan_Shant Shant Sargsyan 3094 8 69

11 98 GM @AngeloGM Kevin Cori 2760 8 68.5

12 6 GM @GHANDEEVAM2003 Arjun Erigaisi 3132 8 67

13 87 GM @Evgeny81 Evgeny Postny 2785 8 66.5

14 34
IM @MatthewG-p4p Matvey Galchenko 2976 8 63

15 44 GM @PeacefulWarrior888 Arman Mikaelyan 2941 8 62.5

16 16 GM @Annawel Jules Moussard 3068 8 60.5

17 30 IM @scarabee43 Marco Materia 2969 8 56

18 17 GM @penguingm1 Andrew Tang 3075 8 55.5

19 33 GM @Vaathi_Coming Aravindh Chithambaram 2988 7.5 76

20 13 GM @DanielNaroditsky Daniel Naroditsky 3061 7.5 75.5

45 149
WFM @Lady_Nika Veronika Shubenkova 2623 7 56.5

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Sindarov $1,000, Niemann $750, Martinez $350, Maghsoodloo $200, Nakamura $100, Shubenkova $100.

Grand Prix Standings

Time is running out in the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix, with now just three weeks and six tournaments left for players to qualify for the 2025 Speed Chess Championship. This week, Niemann moved into the top eight, displacing GM Oleksandr Bortnyk. Bortnyk and GM Minh Le are currently out on tiebreaks, with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda half a point out, so there is still a lot of jostling that could happen in three weeks.

Rk Username Score Title Name

1 @MagnusCarlsen 97.5 GM Magnus Carlsen

2 @Hikaru 95.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura

3 @DenLaz 92.5 GM Denis Lazavik

4 @LiemLe 92.0 GM Liem Le

5 @Jospem 92.0 GM Jose Martinez

6 @Msb2 91.5 GM Matthias Bluebaum

7 @GHANDEEVAM2003 91.5 GM Oleksandr Bortnyk

8 @HansOnTwitch 91.0 GM Arjun Erigaisi

The list of eight women in line to qualify for the Women’s Speed Chess Championship has remained more static of late, and IM Anastasia Avramidou is the only player within a point of making the list.

Rk Username Score Title Name

1 @ChessQueen 74.0 GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

2 @Flawless_Fighter 72.0 IM Polina Shuvalova

3 @karinachess1 70.5 IM Karina Ambartsumova

4 @Goryachkina 69.5 GM Aleksandra Goryachkina

5 @Meri-Arabidze 68.5 IM Meri Arabidze

6 @Sanyura 67.5 WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

7 @jinbojinbo 66.5 GM Jiner Zhu

8 @Fh2411 66.5 IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham

Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) do not have SCC places on the line, but there will be cash prizes in each of these categories. The current leaders are:

Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.0 points

Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points

Girls: WFM Kalyani Sirin (@rollercoaster29), 64.0 points

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).