Caruana beats Rapport, wins Sinquefield Cup for a third time

“I was so nervous during this game”

Despite having collected success after success during an illustrious, lengthy chess career, Fabiano Caruana confessed that he was very nervous during his final-round Sinquefield Cup game against RIchard Rapport. The 30-year-old scored a convincing win to claim his third victory in this event. In the Sinquefield Cup, he had previously stunned the chess world by winning seven games in a row in 2014 and tied for first with Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian in 2018.

Caruana is having a great year, with classical wins at the Superbet tournament in Romania and at the U.S. Championship, not to mention his strong showing at the FIDE World Cup, where he secured third place to get a spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament.

The string of good results allowed the Italo-American grandmaster to again cross the 2800 mark in the ratings list, as he now stands in the clear second spot ‘only’ 26 points behind the virtually unreachable Carlsen — notably, though, Hikaru Nakamura now stands 16 points behind Caruana, while world champion Ding Liren stands 8 points further back.

The tournament winner noted that this was his last classical tournament of the year. Caruana will not participate in the 2024 edition of the Tata Steel Masters, but will make his way to the Weissenhaus Resort in Germany to face Carlsen & co. at the recently announced Freestyle Challenge, a chess960 tournament set to take place in February.

Caruana’s strong showing in the 2023 Grand Chess Tour gained him US$ 310,000 in prize money, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So — placed second and third respectively — obtaining less than half that amount for their (still strong) performances.

Check out Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic show with Fabiano Caruana!

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

In sole second place finished Leinier Dominguez, who was undefeated throughout the event and grabbed wins over Anish Giri and Richard Rapport. The Cuban-born grandmaster gained 11.2 rating points in Saint Louis, which allowed him to climb to seventh place in the live ratings list (overtaking an out-of-form Alireza Firouzja).

Dominguez thus found himself unexpectedly in the fight to reach the Candidates by rating. However, he is still 1 point behind So, and is forced to play one more tournament in December to become eligible in the rating race.

Moreover, the GM now representing the United States needs to play outside the U.S. after FIDE published a clarification regarding the World Championship cycle regulations. The last-minute announcement was harshly criticized by former Women’s World Champion Susan Polgar.

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

Nonetheless, a level-headed Dominguez told Anastasiya Karlovich after drawing Levon Aronian in the final round that he will look for ways to make the most of this unexpected opportunity as “it’s not every day that you get a chance to fight for a place in the Candidates”.

Leinier Dominguez | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Caruana 1 - 0 Rapport

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.7 - 9

Let Toptrainer Sokolov show you the ins and outs of middlegames. This course is about the catalan structures vs. semi-slav/triangle setups

Fabiano Caurana and Richard Rapport | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Final standings

All games

Links

• Grand Chess Tour website
• Race for the Candidates: Four Two places still up for grabs
• Alireza Firouzja conquers Saint Louis! (2022)