The final Titled Tuesdays of July noticed two gamers, GMs Maksim Chigaev and Salem Saleh, win their first of 2025. For Chigaev, it had been practically a decade since his earlier victory on June 7, 2016, whereas Saleh beforehand gained on June 28, 2022. Chigaev gained outright with 10 factors, forward of GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Denis Lazavik in second, whereas Saleh gained on tiebreaks over GM Jeffery Xiong.
As well as, with many eyes on the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, there was some crossover right here: GM Fabiano Caruana discovered the time to begin 8.5/9 and end fourth within the late Titled Tuesday whereas being one of many gamers in Riyadh.
Early Match
Chigaev, initially from Russia however now based mostly in Spain, hadn’t gained Titled Tuesday because it was a nine-round, 3+2 event held solely twice a month. Again then, he scored 7/9 and led a subject of 94 gamers. This time, the sphere of 518 was greater than 5 occasions bigger, and he scored extra factors than there even have been rounds final time.
Chigaev made two early attracts, in rounds 4 and 5, however gained each different recreation he performed. The early attracts, mixed with Bortnyk’s scorching 8/8 begin, made it unclear that Chigaev would possibly win the entire thing. Bortnyk was nonetheless capable of convert his begin, which included a win over the world champion within the sixth spherical, right into a second-place end.
When GM Parham Maghsoodloo ended Bortnyk’s run within the ninth spherical, Chigaev was one among 5 gamers now tied on 8/9, together with Bortnyk, Maghsoodloo, Lazavik, and FM Artin Ashraf. Chigaev took it upon himself within the Tenth spherical to do what Bortnyk couldn’t and topple Maghsoodloo, though it was a win on time in an unclear, albeit piece-up, place.
Ashraf was the one different of the 5 to additionally win his Tenth-round recreation, establishing a conflict for all of the marbles. (That is not essentially the most becoming idiom for chess, is it? Though I suppose should you minimize the tops of the pawns off you possibly can play a recreation of marbles with these… however I digress.)
Third place belonged to Lazavik after he, like Chigaev within the Tenth spherical, gained within the eleventh on time with no vital benefit on the board. GM Gukesh Dommaraju completed fourth, GM Bharath Subramaniyam fifth, and WFM Zarina Nurgaliyeva gained the ladies’s prize on 7.5 factors.
July 29 Titled Tuesday | Early | Last Standings (Prime 20)
| Rank | Rating | Fed | Title | Username | Title | Score | Rating | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 35 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 3043 | 10 | 78 | |
| 2 | 17 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3122 | 9.5 | 75 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3220 | 9.5 | 69.5 | |
| 4 | 22 | GM | @GukeshDommaraju | Gukesh Dommaraju | 3080 | 9 | 75 | |
| 5 | 38 | GM | @FGHSMN | Bharath Subramaniyam | 3022 | 9 | 72.5 | |
| 6 | 23 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 3071 | 9 | 71 | |
| 7 | 20 | GM | @Arseniy_Nesterov | Arseniy Nesterov | 3087 | 9 | 65.5 | |
| 8 | 12 | GM | @Dr_Tyger | Haowen Xue | 3103 | 9 | 64.5 | |
| 9 | 5 | GM | @VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 3184 | 8.5 | 72 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | @jcibarra | Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez | 2996 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 11 | 52 | NM | @Little_Skib | Ethan Sheehan | 2952 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 50 | GM | @FormerProdigy | David Navara | 2958 | 8.5 | 66 | |
| 13 | 47 | GM | @Kosak12 | Jakub Kosakowski | 2962 | 8.5 | 64.5 | |
| 14 | 76 | FM | @ChessMaster2011_1 | Jake Shanty | 2893 | 8.5 | 59.5 | |
| 15 | 16 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3072 | 8 | 77.5 | |
| 16 | 15 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3091 | 8 | 76 | |
| 17 | 73 | NM | @nochewycandy | Isaac Chiu | 2886 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| 18 | 9 | GM | @Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3146 | 8 | 71 | |
| 19 | 58 | GM | @Gareth-Bale11 | Mamikon Gharibyan | 2925 | 8 | 65 | |
| 20 | 55 | CM | @MrLion3000 | Isaak Parpiev | 2934 | 8 | 64.5 | |
| 36 | 134 | WFM | @Zarinur | Zarina Nurgaliyeva | 2759 | 7.5 | 62 |
Prizes: Chigaev $1,000, Bortnyk $750, Lazavik $350, Gukesh $200, Bharath $100, Nurgaliyeva $100.
Late Match
Saleh and GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac have been the final good gamers within the late subject of 380, scoring 6/6 earlier than drawing one another within the seventh spherical. Within the eighth spherical, Saleh bought again on monitor, whereas Deac misplaced. Then, within the ninth spherical, Saleh beat the eventual runner-up Xiong in a comeback victory, the place one transfer modified the pc analysis from 4 factors in Black’s favor to 4 factors in White’s.
That very same ninth spherical, Caruana beat GM Dmitry Andreikin to maintain up with Saleh on 8.5/9, establishing a conflict between the 2 within the Tenth spherical.
The Saleh-Caruana recreation led to a draw, leaving the ultimate spherical to be decisive.
Xiong, who had defeated GM Sergei Zhigalko within the Tenth spherical, then gained on time over Caruana within the eleventh in an equal place, form of a mini-theme of the day. (Additionally, by that time it was about 1 a.m. native time for Caruana.)
Xiong’s win over Zhigalko was the other of that, ending in checkmate, however there was additionally somewhat little bit of function reversal for Xiong from his ninth-round recreation—this time he made the comeback.
Saleh made one other draw within the remaining spherical, nevertheless it was sufficient to say the event, whereas Xiong took second and Caruana settled for fourth place. The opposite prize winners have been GM Alexey Sarana in third, Deac in fifth, and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk taking the ladies’s prize in thirty sixth place.
July 29 Titled Tuesday | Late | Last Standings (Prime 20)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Title | Score | Rating | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 9 | GM | @Salem-AR | Salem AR Saleh | 3153 | 9.5 | 76.5 | |
| 2 | 11 | GM | @jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3129 | 9.5 | 74 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | @mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3172 | 9 | 73.5 | |
| 4 | 10 | GM | @FabianoCaruana | Fabiano Caruana | 3136 | 9 | 72 | |
| 5 | 7 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 3143 | 9 | 71.5 | |
| 6 | 8 | GM | @Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3131 | 9 | 70 | |
| 7 | 18 | GM | @xiaotong2008 | Xiao Tong | 3057 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 8 | 5 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3151 | 8.5 | 73.5 | |
| 9 | 15 | GM | @amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3061 | 8.5 | 69.5 | |
| 10 | 17 | GM | @kuli4ik | Mikhail Demidov | 3051 | 8.5 | 68 | |
| 11 | 26 | GM | @dropstoneDP | David Paravyan | 2984 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 12 | 31 | GM | @Elsa167 | Leon Livaic | 2967 | 8 | 76 | |
| 13 | 16 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 3048 | 8 | 70.5 | |
| 14 | 53 | FM | @GoltsevDmitry2000 | Dmitry Goltsev | 2876 | 8 | 68 | |
| 15 | 52 | CM | @Germanovs_Georgijs | Georgijs Germanovs | 2907 | 8 | 66 | |
| 16 | 71 | FM | @rychessmaster1 | Ryan Amburgy | 2811 | 8 | 62.5 | |
| 17 | 72 | IM | @AlexPapasimakopoulos | Alexandros Papasimakopoulos | 2822 | 8 | 59.5 | |
| 18 | 40 | GM | @ckgchess | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | 2914 | 8 | 56.5 | |
| 19 | 42 | NM | @Francisco_Ferrari | Francisco Ferrari Pironti | 2192 | 8 | 44.5 | |
| 20 | 24 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2988 | 7.5 | 70.5 | |
| 36 | 81 | GM | @ChessQueen | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2759 | 7 | 60.5 |
Prizes: Saleh $1,000, Xiong $750, Sarana $350, Caruana $200, Deac $100, Kosteniuk $100.
Grand Prix Qualifiers
The Titled Tuesday Grand Prix concluded again on Might 27. Congratulations to the Velocity Chess Championship qualifiers!
SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Rating | Title | Title |
| 1 | @MagnusCarlsen | 98.5 | GM | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2 | @Hikaru | 95.0 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
| 3 | @LiemLe | 93.0 | GM | Liem Le |
| 4 | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | 93.0 | GM | Arjun Erigaisi |
| 5 | @DenLaz | 92.5 | GM | Denis Lazavik |
| 6 | @Jospem | 92.0 | GM | Jose Martinez |
| 7 | @wonderfultime | 92.0 | GM | Tuan Minh Le |
| 8 | @HansOnTwitch | 92.0 | GM | Hans Niemann |
Ladies’s SCC qualifiers:
| Rk | Username | Rating | Title | Title |
| 1 | @ChessQueen | 74.5 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| 2 | @Flawless_Fighter | 72.5 | IM | Polina Shuvalova |
| 3 | @Goryachkina | 72.0 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina |
| 4 | @karinachess1 | 70.5 | IM | Karina Ambartsumova |
| 5 | @Meri-Arabidze | 69.0 | IM | Meri Arabidze |
| 6 | @Sanyura | 68.0 | WGM | Aleksandra Maltsevskaya |
| 7 | @anasta10 | 68.0 | FM | Anastasia Avramidou |
| 8 | @jinbojinbo | 67.0 | GM | Zhu Jiner |
Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and women (born 2005 or later) didn’t have SCC locations on the road, however there have been money prizes in every of those classes. The winners have been:
Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.5 factors (gained $2,500)
Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 factors (gained $2,500)
Ladies: WGM Anna Shukhman (@speshka), 66.5 factors (gained $1,000)
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly event for titled gamers, with two tournaments held every Tuesday. The primary event begins at 11:00 a.m. Japanese Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Normal Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Japanese Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Normal Time (subsequent day).
