Grandmaster Jose Martinez secured victories in the first two 3+0 Thursday tournaments on Chess.com on March 26, matching a feat previously achieved only by Fabiano Caruana. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk won the third event with a dominant 10.5/11 score, preventing Martinez from a clean sweep.
On March 26, Chess.com hosted its weekly set of three 3+0 Thursday tournaments for verified titled players, each an 11-round Swiss event with a combined $3,000 prize fund. GM Jose Martinez dominated the first two, starting with a narrow win in the opener by half a point over CM Roman Al Nosach, who won his first seven games before settling for second with nine points. Martinez clinched first by defeating Bortnyk in the final round, while IM Khuong Duy Dau took third on tiebreaks with nine points. IM Polina Shuvalova earned the women's prize with 7.5/11, notably beating three 3100-rated opponents including GM Vladimir Fedoseev; she later became the first woman to break 3000 in blitz on the platform. In the second tournament, Martinez built a stronger lead, winning his first six games and beating top-25 players GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Parham Maghsoodloo in rounds five and six. Duda and Maghsoodloo tied for second at 8.5/11, with Maghsoodloo topping tiebreaks and GM Sina Movahed third; WFM Veronika Shubenkova won the women's prize with seven points. Martinez sought a hat trick in the third but faltered after losses and draws, including to GM Magnus Carlsen, finishing at 6.5/11. Bortnyk prevailed with 10.5/11, beating key foes like Carlsen (via time-pressure blunder), FM Havard Haug, Maghsoodloo, and IM Renato Terry. Terry took second at 8.5/11 after drawing Carlsen, who placed third with eight points despite a clever knight fork loss to Haug. WGM Qianyun Gong claimed the women's prize with six points.