Sinquefield 05: Carlsen keeps lead

The Sinquefield Cup is taking place from September 9th to September 15th at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The tournament brings together the top two players in the world as well as the top two Americans in a double round robin. The time control is the standard FIDE 90 minutes for 40 moves plus thirty minutes at move 40 with 30 second increment throughout. Sofia rules apply, which means none of the games can be drawn before move 30 - with certain exceptions.

Round five

Nakamura's sunglasses made at least one more appearance in this tournament

An unfazed Carlsen was able to neutralize Nakamura without too many issues

Carlsen used the Spanish for the second time in a row, but this time he preferred the Berlin set-up to the more traditional 3... a6

Aronian was better prepared against the Dutch this time around

Kamsky was somewhat taken aback by the fact that Aronian repeated the same line that he played against Carlsen, however the Armenian had an interesting new idea

Andrew Martin again brings excellent commentary of this game:

Spectators

The Sinquefield Cup has an enormous amount of resources dedicated to local spectators. Besides the playing hall and the live commentary that is being broadcasted from the chess club's basement, there is also live commentary in the bar next to the club, Lester's, as well as accross the street in the Chess World Hall of Fame. Here are some of the impressions of how the spectators are able to enjoy the tournament:

The main playing hall is sectioned off, and it is almost impossible to get a good view of the players as there are dozens of spectators trying to get to the front row. Flash photography is allowed for the media on the first few minutes of the game, but afterwards the only way to take a picture is from behind the roped-off area.

The bar next to the Club, Lester's, has provided catering service throughout the tournament. Here the spectators can come, play some chess, enjoy the live commentary on the TVs and eat as much food as they can handle.

Also at Lester's the team of Ben Finegold and Ronen Har-Zvi provides live commentary

Some spectators came from quite far: Daniela de la Parra from Mexico and Katerina Nemcova from Czech Republic, both students at the University of Texas at Brownsville

With the perfect weather the tournament has been having, many people decide to play a few blitz games outside the club while the players duke it out upstairs

Jeanne Sinquefield, without her support and Rex's none of this would be possible

Outside the World Chess Hall of Fame there is a giant chess board

With an even more giant chess king: the tallest chess piece in the world at around fifteen feet of height

Inside, more spectators...

...with live commentary by Varuzhan Akobian and Ian Rogers

After the games the players sometimes gracefully give autographs. Sometimes they are just forced to give them by the marauding crowd.

Photos by Alejandro Ramirez

Standings

Schedule

The games start at 20:00h European time, 22:00h Moscow, 2 p.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.