One last post for the day, announcing the next big thing(s) on the chess calendar. The absolute main event is the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, a Grand Chess Tour event featuring the nine regular members of this year's tour plus a wildcard, which is Leinier Dominguez. This will be followed by the Sinquefield Cup a few days later, but with a different wildcard: Magnus Carlsen. The rapid portion of the first event starts Saturday (August 11) and runs through Monday, and then they'll play blitz on Tuesday and Wednesday. After a couple of days off, the Sinquefield Cup will start on the ensuing Saturday (August 18th).
Perhaps flying slightly under the radar, there will be a four day, four game match between world #4 Ding Liren and former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, held in Wenzhou, China. It should provide useful experience for Ding Liren, and if he can gain three rating points for his troubles he'll become the latest member of the 2800 club. It should be interesting for Topalov as well, an opportunity to prove himself again at the highest level. And it should be a lot of fun for us as spectators, as both players have a propensity for tactical hijinks. We'll see, and if it fizzles from an entertainment standpoint St. Louis should more than pick up the slack.