Sinquefield Cup, Round 8: The Streak Ends, But Caruana Clinches Tournament Victory With Two Rounds To Spare
The dreams of a 10-0 whitewash by Fabiano Caruana are over, sadly, but he "console" himself with the fact that he has clinched clear first in the strongest tournament of all time. That puts a cool $100,000 in his pocket, and he will be #2 in the world at the tournament's end. Moreover, his current rating of 2836.1 puts him at #3 all time, behind only Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov. Pretty incredible company. His TPR of 3247 isn't too shabby either.
In today's game he was close to a win against Carlsen, but 26.0-0 let the foot off the gas and Carlsen scraped his way to a drawish ending, one which Caruana didn't seem too intent to try to win. From the perspective of tournament victory, a draw was sufficient, and for all his strength and ambition even Carlsen cannot hope to make up a three point deficit in the two remaining rounds.
In the game between Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Aronian had a huge advantage on the white side of a Philidor with 5.g4, but let his opponent slip away with a draw. Finally, Veselin Topalov won on the black side of a Berlin endgame against Hikaru Nakamura - convincingly, too.
The rest of the tournament is now something of an anti-climax, but it would still be nice to see Caruana do some more damage and not call off the dogs just yet. The round nine pairings are Caruana (7.5) - Nakamura (2!!), Carlsen (4.5) - Aronian (3) and Vachier-Lagrave (3) - Topalov (4).
Reader Comments (3)
The excitement has abated somewhat, but if Carlsen and Topalov stay within a half point of each other after tomorrow, then their Round 10 game should be fun.
I was glad to see Carlsen try something, rather than play the Berlin or something, but defending that must have been as much fun as a root canal. An interesting game for the spectators. Too bad for Aronian. That should have been a nice win for him.
[DM: Well, who won today? A guy playing the Berlin, and pretty easily too, and this despite being a player who loves the initiative. Play what works!]
9 or 9.5 out of 10?
With first place and the 100K in hand, Caruana can literally afford to play va banque in rounds nine and ten.
With the white pieces versus a demoralized and out of form Nakamura, and a last round game against an ailing and near the bottom Aronian, Caruana can get at least another 1.5 points.
Are 9 or 9.5 points needed for the greatest tournament result (at this level) ever?
[DM: 9/10 probably; 9.5/10 absolutely.]
Btw, thanks for pointing out the hyperbole in my previous comment. With the up and comers and the future GMs who are only five years old now, it's unlikely that Carlsen or Caruana can maintain the #1 rating and/or the World Chess Champion title for the next twenty years.