9/5/2018 – (Continued from Part 1) One of the chief draws of any Grand Chess Tour event is the extensive and high-quality coverage on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube Channel. We've pulled out a number of the interviews and bonus material you may have missed from the Sinquefield Cup. So, break out the popcorn and kick back!
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Bonus material and interviews
Below you can browse a number of embedded clips or link directly to others. All content is from the Saint Louis Chess Club's extensive and expanding channel on YouTube, indexed here for convenient review.
Round 4
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave discussed the consequence of his devotion to the Najdorf against Grischuk.
Maurice Question to Players: Why do you think we have not seen a repeat winner at the Sinquefield Cup?
Caruana: "For a long time Magnus was dominating at the top, but he's not winning every tournament, and recently he hasn't been winning as much as before."
Nakamura, So, Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Dominguez, Caruana, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave and Anand weigh in
Karjakin, who started with two losses with the black pieces
Carlsen: "I felt I should take this one chance to get active"
Caruana scored a win over Nakamura, after an interesting queenside castling novelty, to move to the top of the table: "He played logical moves, but I just don't think the best ones".
Caruana fielded a couple of questions about the upcoming World Championship match. "I'm not really feeling pressure right now. When the match actually comes around, then I'll feel the pressure. But right now I'm just happy that I made it there".
Maurice Ashley and Yasser Seirawan had a few questions related to Caruana's World Championship bid
Caruana on the Russian commentary (in English) — Long-castles is "an interesting practical try" but Black will find multiple good options.
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GM Daniel King on the highlights of the round
Round 5
The webcast for this round of the Sinquefield Cup got a boost from being a top trending video on YouTube, which garnered the show over 250,000 views, and to-date has 290,000 views which is over 100k more than the next highest round of the tournament.
Maurice Question to Players: Would Levon be a Super Hero or a Super Villain?
Keyser Söze or the Joker? "The goodie-goods are not that attractive", is Aronian's own verdict.
Showing the lighter side of Nakamura, Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Grischuk, Anand, So and Caruana
What about Magnus Carlsen? (from Round 8)
Zoro or James Bond? Hero seems to be the verdict here. But Caruana goes with Bain from Batman, and that's just fine with Magnus!
Aronian, So, Anand, Vachier-Lagrave, Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Grischuk, Nakamura, Caruana and Carlsen
Other player interviews
Anand after his fifth draw — "Periodically my seconds would jog my memory" as to which queen move is the important improvement. In a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined, Anand says 16...Qf6 "kills this particular line"
Aronian also weighed in — "I decided to play this opening in the morning...I didn't analyse Qf6"
Aronian vs Anand, Round 5
Position after 16...Qf6
Caruana drew with Vachier-Lagrave — "I thought I was under some slight, but annoying, pressure"
Vachier-Lagrave — "I liked my position. I think if you manage to refute the Petroff, you deserve more than a win. I felt this was an OK try"
Grischuk — "I think there is just a different meaning of the word 'friend' in Russian and in English...I can say we are comrades, but I cannot say we are friends in the Russian sense". "Friend" in English is like for Facebook and Grischuk doesn't have an account. Karjakin then added his insight on the subject.
Mamedyarov explained his big reaction after a draw with Nakamura, and also his veritable addition to playing dominoes. He's played in the national championship of Azerbaijan.
Both players were shaking their heads and upset with their fifth round draw
Carlsen — "I was really puzzled when he went Qe7 because I have some really interesting options there", but ultimately he could only give credit to Wesley So: "Well done, good defence".
Romana Gracanin, President of CCSCSL Young Professionals Board
How important is physical fitness?
So, Karjakin, Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, Aronian, and Anand on their workout routines and staying fresh
Aronian sacrificed a rook against Nakamura after an oversight, but Nakamura, bungled the conversion and the game ended drawn
Caruana interviewed after taking the lead
Games of Round 6 (annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez)
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1.e4
1,182,453
54%
2421
---
1.d4
957,826
55%
2434
---
1.Nf3
285,853
56%
2441
---
1.c4
184,465
56%
2443
---
1.g3
19,863
56%
2427
---
1.b3
14,579
54%
2428
---
1.f4
5,949
48%
2377
---
1.Nc3
3,899
50%
2383
---
1.b4
1,790
48%
2378
---
1.a3
1,249
54%
2406
---
1.e3
1,080
49%
2409
---
1.d3
967
50%
2378
---
1.g4
670
46%
2361
---
1.h4
466
54%
2382
---
1.c3
439
51%
2425
---
1.h3
289
56%
2420
---
1.a4
118
60%
2461
---
1.f3
100
47%
2427
---
1.Nh3
92
67%
2511
---
1.Na3
47
62%
2476
---
Please, wait...
1.d4Nf62.c4e63.Nf3d54.Nc3Be75.Bf40-06.e3c57.dxc5Bxc58.cxd5It barely needs stating that after8.Qc2Nc6and either a3 or Rd1,
we enter a theoretical battlefield in which I have annotated many games on
this site, many of which featured either Anand or Nakamura.8...Nxd58...exd59.Rc1might be a marginally better version than the game for White,
because the c3-knight often has chances to annoy the Black dark-squared bishop.
9.Nxd5exd510.a3Nc611.Bd3Wesley fancies his chances of
impersonating Magnus today, and turning the IQP into (say) a bishop pair, and
slowly constricting his opponent to death.Bb612.0-0Bg412...Qf613.b4Bf5might seem principled, but actually any exchanges at all favour the side
battling the IQP.14.Bxf5Qxf515.Qb113.h3Bh514.Bb1Clearly,
Wesley would like the option to force the d-pawn forward with Ba2, but this
may not be one that he actually wants. The position is now totally equal,
because when Black ventures ...d4 there will be mass liquidations.14.b4!?a615.Re1is the most maximalist way to play the position, with e4 being the
response to ...d4.14...d415.Qd315.e4would be the main way to try
and claim an advantage, if this were appropriate; however it turns out not to
be afterBc7!16.Bxc7Qxc7and only Black can be better.15...Bg615...f5!?=16.e4Re817.Re1Qe7Keeping the f3-knight and b1-bishop
at home while preparing ...Rad8. As ...Bc7 is firmly within Black's territory,
White will find himself unable to stop it in the long run.17...Bc7=18.Qb5f6?!Black strives a little too hard for control.18...Bc719.Qxb7Bxf420.Qxc6Rab8makes considerable sense to me as a pawn sacrifice.18...Rac8is the machine suggestion, preparing ...Bc7 yet again.19.Nh419.e5!Bxb120.Raxb1fxe521.Bxe5gives White an advantage based on
better co-ordination.19...Bf720.Nf5Qc521.Qe2Ne522.Bxe5Qxe523.Bd3The position is now level again, but as is often the way with the bishop pair,
if Black can avoid making big concessions in the next 10 moves he has good
chances of being better.Bg623...Kh824.Rac1Bb325.Qf1g626.f4Qe627.Nh4Rac828.Nf3Ba5might be one sequence of moves after which Black begins
taking more control of the game24.Qd2Bxf5Indicating contentment with a
draw, but quite often playing too hard for a draw has adverse results.24...Rac8=25.exf5Qd526.Qc226.Re226...Kf827.Re6Rxe628.fxe6g629.Re1Re8!The situation is back under control, and even though Black
needs to sacrifice a pawn to get the queens off on the next move, there isn't
such a big risk of losing anymore.30.Bc4Having said that, something like
30.h4Qc531.Qe2'hinting' at h5, was interesting from a practical
perspective.30...d331.Qxd3Qxd332.Bxd3Ke733.Bc4Rd834.Re2Ba535.b4Rd1+36.Kh2Bc7+37.g3Rc138.Ba2Rc339.a4Bd6=40.b5Ra341.Bd5b6Black is active enough that if the rooks stay on, all three results might
occur. Therefore White bailed out, but played on, as is the way with such
things:42.Ra2Rxa243.Bxa2f544.Kg2Be545.g4fxg446.hxg4h547.gxh5gxh548.Kh3Bf649.Bc4Kd650.Kg3Ke7A interesting choice, but not a
mistake. Black can defend actively, which is preferable to allowing a raid by
White's king.50...Ke5!51.f4+Kf5=and neither of White's pieces
has any prospects at all.51.Kf4h452.Kg4Kd653.f3Ke754.f4Kd655.Kf5Ke756.Bf1Ba157.Bh3Bf658.Bg4Ba159.Ke4Kd660.Bh360.Kf5Ke761.Kg5Bf6+62.Kh5Kd6The fortress holds firm.60...Bb261.Kd3Bf662.Kc4Be763.Kd4Bf6+64.Kc4Be765.Kd4Bf6+66.Kc4½–½
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