Sinquefield 10: Draws end magnificent event

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.

Round Ten

Martin Habbestad and Kaja Marie Snare from Norwegian TV2. Not only were they some of the hardest working people in the tournament, they were also some of the nicest!

A star-struck fan right before the games start

Harry Benson (left), a Scottish photographer whose pictures have appeared in publications including Life, Vanity Fair, People and The New Yorker. Benson was assigned to travel with The Beatles on their inaugural American tour in 1964. His work following Fischer in his preparation for and during the match with Spassky is currently in exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame. Here he is posing with Jeanne Sinquefield.

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
MVL's Najdorf seemed to completely neutralize Nakamura's attempt to play for a win. The locked position of the board was not favorable for the bishops, but in every variation it seemed that if White abandoned his central blockade the bishops would become too powerful!

MVL's performance was acceptable and the experience he gained invaluable

Eventually, after many trades, the game simply ended in a draw in a queen endgame.

Nakamura reminisces about a tournament that he will learn from and forget about as soon as possible

Topalov, Veselin ½-½ Carlsen, Magnus
Topalov's preparation went awry somewhere, and both Carlsen and Topalov thought that if White pushed further in the final position instead of taking the repetition. A good opening choice by Carlsen, even if the early draw was disappointing for the spectators.

The prize difference between the draw that occured and a win for Topalov was $25,000

Aronian, Levon ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
White's interesting set-up in the opening was not terribly successful. Aronian blamed his problems on the pawn push h4 and h5, but his position was never truly dangerous. Caruana was happy with tradin off some pieces and going for a drawn double-rook endgame.

Aronian had many difficulties this tournament, and he dropped solidly down to third place

An excited crowd awaited the players hoping to get an autograph...

or a selfie!

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Commentary provided by GM Ben Finegold 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.