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 2802, 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. |
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Round Seven
Round 07 - September 03, 2014 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
1-0 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
0-1 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
½-½ |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
The comparisons have stopped. Caruana's performance is the best streak of wins ever recorded in chess history in a single tournament. Kortschnoj's Wijk Aan Zee start with 8-0 was also good, but the caliber of opponent's was not in the same league.
Carlsen, Magnus 1-0 Nakamura, Hikaru
The American star has not had the best tournament; it seems he has had an unfortunate series of decisions and he has been doubting his own calculation. Today he must have confused the opening as his plan of playing Na6 is well known in that position, but he chose the absolute worst time to play it. Carlsen snagged a pawn, basically asking Nakamura to show him what he had planned.

Carlsen looks back at Caruana's lead. He is three points behind still...
After sinking into a 20+ minute think it was clear that the American did not have a good answer. He succumbed in the endgame eventually but Carlsen's win was completely effortless.

This is Nakamura's eleventh loss to Carlsen, with no victories and many draws.
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 0-1 Caruana, Fabiano
A very strange game. MVL didn't obtain much from the opening, and chances were about equal. However a very hard to understand 14.Qa4? started to leave him in a bad position. His king was somewhat exposed and the way he followed up left it stranded in the center. The continuation Kd2-c3 was not ideal either, and Caruana punished his opponent quickly and severely. MVL simply played as if he had been hypnotized or something.

It's not clear what MVL was thinking at some points of this game
Kasparov asked on Twitter what MVL was hoping to achieve with his moves... and he got a reply!

Ben Finegold explains below why that is not such a dangerous plan.

Caruana has played very sensible chess, something which his opponent's have failed to do

With +35 rating points in this event people are no longer wondering if he is
number two in the world, but how soon he will challenge to be number one...
Topalov, Veselin ½-½ Aronian, Levon
Aronian's choice of opening was quite good. He neutralized Topalov's Catalan initiative quite well and the resulting endgame was clearly equal. Topalov refused a repetition, but in doing so he ended up slightly worse. It is possible that Aronian could have tried to push the issue further with more precise play, but between the way that he is playing here and his health problems it is very likely that he was more than content with a draw.

Topalov pushed just a little too hard and found himself in a worse position

But Aronian wasn't in any mood to try to milk the position

Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Bf4 Nf6 5.e3 0-0 6.Rc1 Nbd7 7.c5 Ne4 8.Bd3 f5 9.Nf3 c6 10.Ne5 Nxe5 11.Bxe5 Bf6 12.Bxf6 Qxf6 13.Ne2 e5 14.Qa4? Qh4 14...Qg6! 15.0-0 f4! 16.exf4 exf4 17.f3 Nxc5! 18.dxc5 Qxd3 19.Nd4 15.g3? 15.0-0 Nf6 16.Bc2 e4 17.Qa5 15...Qg4 16.Rf1 16.Qd1! Qf3 16...exd4 17.exd4 17.Rf1 Qg2 17...f4? 18.gxf4 exf4 19.Nxf4 Rxf4 20.exf4 Qxf4 21.Bxe4 Bh3 22.Bd3 Re8+ 23.Be2± 18.dxe5 Qxh2 19.Nd4 16...Ng5 17.Kd2? 17.Ng1 f4! 17...Nf3+ 18.Kc3 Nxh2 19.Rh1 Nf3 20.Qa5 Qg5 21.dxe5 Qe7 22.Nd4 Nxe5 23.b3? b6! 24.cxb6 c5 25.Nb5 Bb7 26.bxa7 d4+ 27.exd4 Nxd3 28.Kxd3 Bxh1 29.Rxc5 Qe4+ 30.Kc4 Qe2+ 31.Kb4 Qd2+ 32.Rc3 Bc6 33.a4 Bxb5 34.Kxb5 Qxd4 35.Rc7 Rfd8 35...Rfb8+ 36.axb8Q+ Rxb8+ 37.Kc6 Qf6+ 38.Kd5 38.Kd7 Rd8# 38...Rd8+ 39.Kc5 Qe5+ 40.Kb6 40.Kb4 Qe1+ 41.Rc3 41.Kb5 Rd5+ 41...Rd4+ 42.Kc5 Qe5+ 43.Kb6 Rd6+ 40...Rd6+ 41.Rc6 Rxc6+ 42.Kxc6 Qxa5 36.Qb6 Rd5+ 37.Ka6 Rd6 38.a5 Qd3+ 39.Kb7 Qd5+ 0–1
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Vachier Lagrave,M | 2768 | Caruana,F | 2801 | 0–1 | 2014 | D31 | 2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 | 7 |
Carlsen,M | 2877 | Nakamura,H | 2787 | 1–0 | 2014 | D10 | 2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 | 7 |
Topalov,V | 2772 | Aronian,L | 2805 | ½–½ | 2014 | D37 | 2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 | 7 |
Please, wait...
Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games
Annotations provided by GM Ben Finegold thanks to the Saint Louis Chess Club.
Standings

Photos by Lennart Ootes and Kevin Duggin
Pairings
Round 01 - August 27, 2014 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
½-½ |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
0-1 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
½-½ |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
Round 02 - August 28, 2014 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
½-½ |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
1-0 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
1-0 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
Round 03 - August 29, 2014 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
1-0 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
1-0 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
0-1 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
Round 04 - August 30, 2014 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
½-½ |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
½-½ |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
1-0 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
Round 05 - August 31, 2014 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
0-1 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
0-1 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
1-0 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
Round 06 - September 02, 2014 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
½-½ |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
1-0 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
½-½ |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
Round 07 - September 03, 2014 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
1-0 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
0-1 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
½-½ |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
Round 08 - September 04, 2014 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
|
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
|
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
|
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
Round 09 - September 05, 2014 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
|
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
|
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
|
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
Round 10 - September 06, 2014 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2787 |
|
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
2768 |
Topalov, Veselin |
2772 |
|
Carlsen, Magnus |
2877 |
Aronian, Levon |
2805 |
|
Caruana, Fabiano |
2801 |
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
Day |
Date |
Time |
Event |
Playchess commentary |
Wednesday |
Aug. 27 |
2 PM |
Round 1 |
Simon Williams |
Thursday |
Aug. 28 |
2 PM |
Round 2 |
Simon Williams |
Friday |
Aug. 29 |
2 PM |
Round 3 |
Simon Williams |
Saturday |
Aug. 30 |
2 PM |
Round 4 |
Simon Williams |
Sunday |
Aug. 31 |
2 PM |
Round 5 |
Simon Williams |
Monday |
Sept. 1 |
Rest Day |
Tuesday |
Sept. 2 |
2 PM |
Round 6 |
Daniel King |
Wednesday |
Sept. 3 |
2 PM |
Round 7 |
Simon Williams |
Thursday |
Sept. 4 |
2 PM |
Round 8 |
Daniel King |
Friday |
Sept. 5 |
2 PM |
Round 9 |
Simon Williams |
Saturday |
Sept. 6 |
2 PM |
Round 10 |
Chris Ward |
Sunday |
Sept. 7 |
12 PM |
Playoffs |
|
