Sinquefield Cup video highlights (Part 2)

by ChessBase
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.

Viswanathan Anand is a rare guest in the confession booth, but he decided to pop by in the fourth round to discuss his "very tense

Anand in the confessional

Possibly a first for the fifteenth World Champion

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

Other player interviews
  • 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".

Seirawan and Caruana

Maurice Ashley and Yasser Seirawan had a few questions related to Caruana's World Championship bid

Games of Round 4

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,185,00854%2421---
1.d4959,51055%2434---
1.Nf3286,50356%2441---
1.c4184,83456%2442---
1.g319,89256%2427---
1.b314,60054%2428---
1.f45,95448%2377---
1.Nc33,91150%2384---
1.b41,79148%2379---
1.a31,25054%2406---
1.e31,08149%2409---
1.d396950%2378---
1.g467046%2361---
1.h446654%2382---
1.c343951%2425---
1.h328956%2420---
1.a411860%2461---
1.f310047%2427---
1.Nh39366%2506---
1.Na34762%2476---
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Round 4 recap and ChessBase round-up show

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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.

Nakamura and Mamedyarov

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

Games of Round 5

 
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Replay and check the LiveBook here
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Round 5 recap and ChessBase round-up show

IM Lawrence Trent covered Round 5

Round 6

Caruana won again to take the sole lead in the tournament.

 
Player interviews
  • Grischuk missed a golden opportunity against Carlsen
  • Caruana scored the only win to take the sole lead
  • Vachier-Lagrave drew with Mamedyarov
  • 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.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.cxd5 It barely needs stating that after 8.Qc2 Nc6 and 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...Nxd5 8...exd5 9.Rc1 might 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.Nxd5 exd5 10.a3 Nc6 11.Bd3 Wesley fancies his chances of impersonating Magnus today, and turning the IQP into (say) a bishop pair, and slowly constricting his opponent to death. Bb6 12.0-0 Bg4 12...Qf6 13.b4 Bf5 might seem principled, but actually any exchanges at all favour the side battling the IQP. 14.Bxf5 Qxf5 15.Qb1 13.h3 Bh5 14.Bb1 Clearly, 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!? a6 15.Re1 is the most maximalist way to play the position, with e4 being the response to ...d4. 14...d4 15.Qd3 15.e4 would be the main way to try and claim an advantage, if this were appropriate; however it turns out not to be after Bc7! 16.Bxc7 Qxc7 and only Black can be better. 15...Bg6 15...f5!?= 16.e4 Re8 17.Re1 Qe7 Keeping 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.Qb5 f6?! Black strives a little too hard for control. 18...Bc7 19.Qxb7 Bxf4 20.Qxc6 Rab8 makes considerable sense to me as a pawn sacrifice. 18...Rac8 is the machine suggestion, preparing ...Bc7 yet again. 19.Nh4 19.e5! Bxb1 20.Raxb1 fxe5 21.Bxe5 gives White an advantage based on better co-ordination. 19...Bf7 20.Nf5 Qc5 21.Qe2 Ne5 22.Bxe5 Qxe5 23.Bd3 The 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. Bg6 23...Kh8 24.Rac1 Bb3 25.Qf1 g6 26.f4 Qe6 27.Nh4 Rac8 28.Nf3 Ba5 might be one sequence of moves after which Black begins taking more control of the game 24.Qd2 Bxf5 Indicating contentment with a draw, but quite often playing too hard for a draw has adverse results. 24...Rac8= 25.exf5 Qd5 26.Qc2 26.Re2 26...Kf8 27.Re6 Rxe6 28.fxe6 g6 29.Re1 Re8! 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.Bc4 Having said that, something like 30.h4 Qc5 31.Qe2 'hinting' at h5, was interesting from a practical perspective. 30...d3 31.Qxd3 Qxd3 32.Bxd3 Ke7 33.Bc4 Rd8 34.Re2 Ba5 35.b4 Rd1+ 36.Kh2 Bc7+ 37.g3 Rc1 38.Ba2 Rc3 39.a4 Bd6= 40.b5 Ra3 41.Bd5 b6 Black 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.Ra2 Rxa2 43.Bxa2 f5 44.Kg2 Be5 45.g4 fxg4 46.hxg4 h5 47.gxh5 gxh5 48.Kh3 Bf6 49.Bc4 Kd6 50.Kg3 Ke7 A 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.Kf4 h4 52.Kg4 Kd6 53.f3 Ke7 54.f4 Kd6 55.Kf5 Ke7 56.Bf1 Ba1 57.Bh3 Bf6 58.Bg4 Ba1 59.Ke4 Kd6 60.Bh3 60.Kf5 Ke7 61.Kg5 Bf6+ 62.Kh5 Kd6 The fortress holds firm. 60...Bb2 61.Kd3 Bf6 62.Kc4 Be7 63.Kd4 Bf6+ 64.Kc4 Be7 65.Kd4 Bf6+ 66.Kc4 ½–½
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
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  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
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  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
So,W2780Anand,V2768½–½2018D376th Sinquefield Cup GCT 20186
Mamedyarov,S2801Vachier-Lagrave,M2779½–½2018D856th Sinquefield Cup GCT 20186
Caruana,F2822Karjakin,S27731–02018E206th Sinquefield Cup GCT 20186
Grischuk,A2766Carlsen,M2842½–½2018E606th Sinquefield Cup GCT 20186
Nakamura,H2777Aronian,L2767½–½2018A296th Sinquefield Cup GCT 20186

Round 6 recap and ChessBase round-up show

IM Lawrence Trent on the highlights of the day

Continued in part 3...

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