Sinquefield 04: American Disaster

The Sinquefield Cup is taking place from September 9th to September 15th at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The tournament brings together the top two players in the world as well as the top two Americans in a double round robin. The time control is the standard FIDE 90 minutes for 40 moves plus thirty minutes at move 40 with 30 second increment throughout. Sofia rules apply, which means none of the games can be drawn before move 30 - with certain exceptions.

Round four

The Americans quickly got in trouble in very different ways. First, Kamsky was unsure on which opening to play and ended up with an Exchange Spanish that he clearly was not very familiar with. Carlsen used a known move to try to keep the game going and after a couple of inaccuracies by Kamsky it was clear that the Norwegian's kingside pressure was something quite serious. Kamsky shed a pawn to keep himself alive.

Kamsky was as usual the first person in the playing hall, with a big smile on his face and even cracking a joke before the games started

Carlsen came immediately after him and started adjusting his pieces and focusing immediately

Kamsky thought for some time after 3... a6, it's unusual that he didn't go for the
main lines of the Spanish as it is one of his main openings with both sides

Carlsen was actually the one that shocked his opponent with 14... Ng4

Carlsen putting the finishing touches on Kamsky

In the other game, Nakamura strangely allowed Aronian to weaken his lightsquares in an King's Indian that more resembled a declined Benko Gambit. Black's maneouvers seemed alright until it was clear that the kingside did not have enough defenders. Being the resourceful player that he is Nakamura did not sit and wait patiently for White to unfold his attack, instead sacrificing a piece for two pawns to diffuse the threats and hope for holding in an endgame. Furthermore he sacrificed even another pawn after that to try to create a fortress with the remaining pawns.

Nakamura made it with less than a minute to go, and one of the fans was very unhappy about having to wait for him

Aronian was certainly going out for blood in this game, as he was unable to win a single game in the first half of the tournament

Aronian plays 5.h3 and 6.Bg5, not what Nakamura was expecting

The American #1 is not the type of player that subtly hides his emotions, such as surprise, during the game

Nakamura blamed the bad result on his opening. He insisted that playing the main theoretical line instead of going for this b5-c4 idea would've been much better, but that at least he should have played something better than 18...Bb7, after which the h4 idea gained too much strength. Nakamura also mentioned that Aronian's decision to allow the queen trade after the piece sacrifice desperado made his life harder, but that he wasn't surprised that the Armenian made that decision as he tends to make his life harder when converting positions.

With these results Carlsen jumps to first place while Nakamura retains second, only half a point ahead of Levon Aronian. Kamsky will look to recover as he desperately needs a win to make this tournament acceptable.

Round four photos by Alejandro Ramirez

Andrew Martin brings as a recap of what he considers to be the game of the day:

Standings

Schedule

The games start at 20:00h European time, 22:00h Moscow, 2 p.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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.