The Best of Them All
Every Tuesday, an 11-round online blitz Swiss is conducted on the famous chess website, chesscom, which is open to all the titled chess player – Titled Tuesday.
Post pandemic, the tournament has grown more popular and is now even conducted twice every Tuesday (Early and Late editions), offering attractive prizes for the top finishers, considering players can take-part from the comfort of their homes. Consequently, some of world’s best blitz players including like Magnus, Firouzja, Duda, MVL, Nepomniachtchi contest frequently.
World No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura is a regular visitor to the event. He plays and streams his games on platforms like Twitch and Kick almost every Tuesday. Hikaru is known to be one of the highest-rated blitz players on the website, getting contests only from the likes of Carlsen, Firouzja, or Nihal Sarin, who are regulars on the top 3 leaderboard.
Hikaru has won the Titled Tuesday on numerous occasions, but is also the only player to have clinched a DOUBLE multiple times!
Last Tuesday, Nov 12, Hikaru swept the Early and the Late Titled Tuesday by scoring 10/11 in both!
Only five other players have achieved this feat: Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, MVL, and José Martinez. But the most impressive part is that none of these players have scored a Double more than once, while this was Nakamura’s EIGHTH Double!
Final standings of the Nov 12 Early and Late Titled Tuesday:
Hikaru attributes his impressive performances and results in chess to the fact that he can play without any pressure of doing well since he considers himself merely a ‘Chess Streamer’ and not a professional chess player – he “literally doesn’t care”!
