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2015 Sinquefield CupThis super-GM single Round Robin brings together some of the best players in the world. This is the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour. The players – Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Fabiano Caruana (USA), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Viswanathan Anand (India), Wesley So (USA). The venue is the Chess Club and Scholastic Center at 4657 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108. Tickets can be purchased at the Saint Louis Chess Club. |
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Round Seven
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Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
0-1
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
0-1
|
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
½-½
|
So, Wesley | 2779 |
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
½-½
|
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
½-½
|
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
Daniel King shows the highlights from round 7: Nakamura vs Aronian and Carlsen vs Grischuk
After a great start, followed by two unexpected losses, Topalov came into today’s game against Giri with very little fighting spirit. It is hard to blame the Bulgarian, who was now forced to reassess his tournament and expectations - always a difficult position to be in psychologically. Playing it safe he chose an old line of the anti-Grunfeld, but it led to nothing for either side. A very dry endgame arose and it was swiftly drawn.
Giri revealed his secret to dressing well: his wife shops while he stays home!
Caruana decided to use yet another Bb5+ Sicilian in this tournament, and the game quickly turned into a Spanish type of position. The usual strategical concepts of the closed Spanish were seen, including pressure on both sides of the board and the slight space advantage in the center being relatively important. But, as in the Spanish, Black’s position was simply too solid. Caruana was unable to create any danger for his opponent and when all of the major pieces were swapped, the draw was agreed.
MVL was too solid for Caruana today
Anand saw himself in problems early in the opening against So. The Indian player mentioned that he must have done "something stupid" in the opening to get such a position, but was unable to pinpoint exactly what went awry. He was rather resourceful later on though, sacrificing a queen for a rook and a bishop after he had lost a pawn to obtain a situation in which Black’s king was somewhat uncomfortable, So’s pawns were weak and unable to advance. Anand took advantage of this to create a nice fortress, securing a draw.
So couldn't break Anand's fortress
Something went wrong for Anand in the opening
Aronian must have been rather pleased with Nakamura’s strange preparation. Somewhat reminiscent of yesterday’s game which Nakamura won, the white player came in and played quickly only to land in a somewhat dubious position. Vachier-Lagrave even commented at some point that he was baffled why anyone would willingly go into this line with White. Aronian displayed excellent judgment on where to put his pieces, while Nakamura didn’t so much. A decisive mistake on move 40 gave the Armenian a perfect opportunity to break through.
A point ahead of the field! Levon Aronian with Rex Sinquefield. The Armenian has unwittingly
been the bane of the American players, having defeated all three to take the lead.
Lastly, Carlsen’s game was rather strange. He didn’t like his position from the opening, but at some point it seemed clear that the game would end in a draw. An endgame with equal pawns and opposite colored bishops seemed to seal the deal. However, the World Champion was rather careless and lost a pawn. Grischuk tortured Carlsen for a long time, until eventually Carlsen, in the bitter end, blundered.
Other games are interesting too! Grischuk won after almost six hours and a half...
Carlsen was ground down in a long endgame
The World Champion could hardly bear to look at the scoresheets as he signed them. It was
a very disappointing day as he saw his chances of completing his comeback hamstrung. On a
curious note, four of the five 2800 players are in the bottom half of the crosstable, and none lead.
Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games
Photos by Lennart Ootes
Round One
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Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
1-0
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
So, Wesley | 2779 |
0-1
|
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
1-0
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
0-1
|
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
1-0
|
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
Round Two
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Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
1-0
|
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
1-0
|
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
½-½
|
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
½-½
|
So, Wesley | 2779 |
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
0-1
|
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
Round Three
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Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
So, Wesley | 2779 |
1-0
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
½-½
|
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
1-0
|
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
½-½
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
½-½
|
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
Round Four
|
||||
Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
½-½
|
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
½-½
|
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
½-½
|
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
½-½
|
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
So, Wesley | 2779 |
0-1
|
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
Round Five
|
||||
Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
½-½
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
1-0
|
So, Wesley | 2779 |
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
½-½
|
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
½-½
|
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
0-1
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
Round Six
|
||||
Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
1-0
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
1-0
|
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
½-½
|
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
So, Wesley | 2779 |
0-1
|
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
½-½
|
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
Round Seven
|
||||
Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 |
0-1
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 |
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
0-1
|
Aronian, Levon | 2765 |
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 |
½-½
|
So, Wesley | 2779 |
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 |
½-½
|
Giri, Anish | 2793 |
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 |
½-½
|
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 |
Round Eight
|
||||
Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 | Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 | |
Giri, Anish | 2793 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 | |
So, Wesley | 2779 | Topalov, Veselin | 2816 | |
Aronian, Levon | 2765 | Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 | |
Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 |
Round Nine
|
||||
Name
|
Rtg
|
Res.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Nakamura, Hikaru | 2814 | Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 | |
Anand, Viswanathan | 2816 | Carlsen, Magnus | 2853 | |
Topalov, Veselin | 2816 | Aronian, Levon | 2765 | |
Caruana, Fabiano | 2808 | So, Wesley | 2779 | |
Vachier-Lagr, Maxime | 2731 | Giri, Anish | 2793 |
Games start at 1 p.m. local time (20:00h CEST, 22:00h Moscow, Thursday 12:30 New Delhi, 03:00h Tokyo, 04:00 Canberra – check your location here).
Playoffs, if necessary, will be on the 2nd at 1pm.
The games will be broadcast live on Playchess, with expert analysis (see schedule below).
Day | Date | Time | Event | German |
English
|
Sunday | Aug. 23 | 1 PM | Round 1 | Thomas Luther |
Mihail Marin
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Monday | Aug. 24 | 1 PM | Round 2 | Calrstedt/Pähtz |
Mihail Marin
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Tuesday | Aug. 25 | 1 PM | Round 3 | S. Siebrecht |
Simon Williams
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Wednesday | Aug. 26 | 1 PM | Round 4 | S. Siebrecht |
Simon Williams
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Thursday | Aug. 27 | 1 PM | Round 5 | S. Siebrecht |
Simon Williams
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Friday | Aug. 28 | Rest Day | |||
Saturday | Aug. 29 | 1 PM | Round 6 | Reeh/Breutigam |
Y. Pelletier
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Sunday | Aug. 30 | 1 PM | Round 7 | Reeh/Breutigam |
Y. Pelletier
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Monday | Aug. 31 | 1 PM | Round 8 | S. Siebrecht |
Daniel King
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Tuesday | Sept. 1 | 1 PM | Round 9 | Y. Pelletier |
Daniel King
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Wednesday | Sept. 2 | 1 PM | Playoffs |
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LinksThe 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. |
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