Sinquefield 04: Fight for second already?

2014 Sinquefield Cup

This super-GM double round-robin tournament is being played from August 27th to September 7th. It is billed as the strongest tournament in the history of chess.

The players – Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) – are the world's number 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9, the average rating is 2801, making this the first ever Category XXIII tournament!

The prize fund is US $315,000 in total, with the winner getting $100,000, the runner up $75,00, and the rest $50,000 – $20,000. The venue is the Chess Club and Scholastic Center at 4657 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108. Tickets cost $15 per round, $65 for five rounds and $100 for all ten rounds.

Round Four

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Nakamura was brave enough to repeat the Archangel Spanish after his loss yesterday with this sytem agaisnt Veselin Topalov. Today's opening was not as successful as yesterday (where Nakamura was arguably just better out of the opening) but it was enough for the American to obtain decent counterchances.

Nakamura is at -1, but he has played three blacks and one white

MVL tried to hold on to a slight edge but there was nothing to be found, Nakamura gradually equalized and the players agreed to a draw in an equal endgame on move 30.

Clear seond place: Maxime Vachier-Lagarve with 50%

Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ Topalov, Veselin
Carlsen's opening did not bring him any sort of advantage. Despite almost tricking Topalov and obtaining just a little bit of pressure in an endgame, the Bulgarian's position proved to be very solid. After some further trades the players went into an equal endgame.

The players played a drawn endgame out to the position in the board

After that the usual story in Carlsen's game is that the Norwegia plays like a machine, puts pressure on his opponent's apparently out of nowhere and some of the times his opponent breaks. However today what happened was that every move that Carlsen played placed him in a more dangerous and dubious position. The World Champion held on to a draw, and it doesn't seem as if Topalov missed a real winning chance, but by the end of the game it was Black that was thinking of winning.

Carlsen has not found his shape in Saint Louis, his play ressembles nothing what he did last year

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Aronian, Levon
The Italian's preparation in this tournament continues to be very strong. Today his new move 15.Na2!? was nothing earth-shattering and it is hardly a refutation of the variation that Aronian chose in the Spanish; but it certainly brings the game to new interesting waters. Despite the apparently locked position there were dangers for both sides.

Aronian checks with a computer what happened in his second defeat in a row

The Armenian player was the first to err, and his idea of closing the center with 16...d4 is questionable at best. Once Caruana installed his queen on h5 it was clear that only one side was playing for the advantage. A subsequent beautiful piece sacrifice left Caruana with two pawns and a big initiative plus some rolling pawns on the kingside, and Aronian's position only got worse and worse from there. Caruana finished his opponent off perfectly and moves to a simply unbelievable 4-0.

A beautiful game from Caruana. By this point the result was clear.

The Italian interviewed by Channel Two of Norwegian TV. Fabiano is solidly the number two
in the world and "only" 40 points away from Carlsen in the live rating list.

A Saint Louis fan with his new prized picture! The players are being incredibly friendly
and taking the time to sign autographs and take pictures after the rounds.

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Commentary provided by Grandmaster Ben Finegold, who is doing live commentary for the Saint Louis Chess Club at the Lester's Bar next to the tournament site. Commentary thanks to the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Standings

Photos by Lennart Ootes

Pairings

Games start at 2 p.m. local time (21:00h CEST, 23:00h Moscow, Thursday 0:30 New Delhi, 04:00h Tokyo, 05:00 Canberra – check your location here).

Playoffs, if necessary, will be on the 7th at noon.

The games will be broadcast live on Playchess, with expert analysis (see schedule below).

Broadcast Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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.