Sinquefield 09: Aronian wins tournament

2015 Sinquefield Cup This 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.

Round Nine

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 9

All eyes were on only one game today, as if Aronian didn't lose this game the tournament would simply be over; no matter what happened in the other games, the tournament would be claimed by the Armenian superstar. That being said, the players themselves were fighting for those valuable Grand Chess Tour points and higher position in the standings. Don't forget, after all, there is a big pay difference between second and fifth!

The first result of round nine was, for many, rather predictable. Levon Aronian is known to be a magnificent defender and one that is sure to prepare his black sides to a dead equal position. He didn’t quite do that today, but he was very well-versed in the dubious variation of the Ragozin that Topalov employed, trying to catch him off-guard. Aronian even enjoyed a slightly better position but allowed his opponent to execute a perpetual check to end the game.

Topalov and Aronian played a game, but it was the Armenian calling the shots

2015 Sinquefield Cup winner Levon Aronian with Maurice Ashley

In the game between Anand and Carlsen, and much like their World Championship matches, the Norwegian decided to stick to his Berlin defense. Both players played rather slowly, perhaps unfamiliar with the variation. Anand mentioned looking at this variation in the past but could not recall the specifics. Carlsen was able to trade into an opposite-colored bishop position and draw the game.

Carlsen could have pressured Aronian had he not
lost to Grischuk, or blown his game against Nakamura!

Anand started slow and could not really recover

Vachier-Lagrave had perhaps a slight advantage against Giri after sacrificing a pawn, or at least that is what most grandmasters thought. The Dutch player himself thought that it was Black playing for the advantage! After a couple of careless moves from MVL, it was indeed Giri who was slightly better; unfortunately it was never anything special. The game dissolved into a drawn rook endgame.

Giri is just a bit too solid: eight draws!

Caruana had a crushing position against So basically from the opening. The engines were screaming that Black was basically lost, but Caruana kept giving So opportunities to get back into the game. At the end of the day, enough mistakes allowed So to solidify his position and hold onto a draw. 

The final game of the tournament was the duel between Nakamura and Grischuk. The American won more out of sheer willpower than anything else. Grischuk’s mistakes in the second time trouble gave Nakamura a winning attack. Even though he did not play the most precise moves, Nakamura was still able to take the point home.

Nakamura ground down Grischuk in a long game. He regains #2 in the World in the live ratings!

The festivities are not over yet in Saint Louis. Tomorrow is the closing ceremony, and in the final day we will have Ultimate Moves with Team Randy and Team Rex!

The two captains drafting their teams

Standings

Round nine games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos by Lennart Ootes

Pairings

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).

Broadcast Schedule