Sinquefield Cup, Round 9: Five More Draws Means MVL Wins the Tournament

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew his game with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but it wasn't for a lack of effort on Mamedyarov's part! Just kidding: the game barely lasted five minutes and repeated a draw that has been used at least seven times since it first showed up last December. The draw guaranteed that MVL would at worst finish in a tie for first, while it also increased the likelihood that Mamedyarov would finish third in the overall Grand Chess Tour standings, thereby picking up a $25,000 bonus.

If Fabiano Caruana had won his last game (which was also the last game to finish), with Black against Richard Rapport, he would have tied for first with Vachier-Lagrave and would have let him leapfrog Mamedyarov into third in the GCT. He tried hard from the very beginning, and outplayed Rapport to achieve some winning chances in the second time control. Rapport defended well enough, however, and so Caruana came up just short in both his quests. (He did, however, *just* manage to keep his rating at 2800--2799.7, to be exact, which will be rounded up at the end of the month.)

Also coming short in the race for first place in the tournament were Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez. If either player won their head-to-head game they'd join MVL in first, but after a brief but genuine game they split the point. For So, it was the loss of one battle, but he won the war: he took first in the overall GCT race, winning the $100,000 bonus; MVL came in second and made an extra $50k.

In the games that weren't relevant to the race for first, Peter Svidler was winning in the opening against Jeffery Xiong, but repeatedly let the youngster slip away. He didn't seem to have the energy he needed to finish the job. By contrast, I don't think Sam Shankland or Dariusz Swiercz ever had a substantial advantage against each other before the game petered out into a drawn opposite-colored bishop ending.

The last round games, with my comments, are here; these are the final standings:

• 1. Vachier-Lagrave 6 (out of 9)
• 2-4. Caruana, Dominguez, So 5.5
• 5. Rapport 4.5
• 6-8. Xiong, Mamedyarov, Shankland 4
• 9. Svidler 3.5
• 10. Swiercz 2.5

The next events on the calendar both start on September 7. There's Norway Chess, starring both Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi; and there's also a Chess960 event in St. Louis with Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Garry Kasparov and six other players.

Sinquefield Cup, Round 8: MVL Continues to Lead the Tournament; So Clinches GCT Title after Five Draws

There weren't any decisive games, but it wasn't for want of effort from the players - or from a lack of opportunities. Nevertheless, all five games were drawn, and as a result Wesley So has clinched overall victory in the Grand Chess Tour. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave can't catch him, but he is guaranteed second in the tour and continues to lead the Sinquefield Cup with a round to go, half a point of ahead of So, Fabiano Caruana, and Leinier Dominguez.

The game of the round involved the two players who starred in the previous paragraph: MVL and So. Vachier-Lagrave tried an almost brand-new idea for White in the 5.Re1 Anti-Berlin - one chosen against him, interestingly enough, by David Paravyan in last month's World Cup. So could have gone for some very sharp possibilities, but as he is Wesley So and not Shakhriyar Mamedyarov or Richard Rapport, he played it safe, neutralized his opponent's small initiative, and by move 23 it was obvious that the game was headed for a draw. It took until move 50 before they reached bare kings and called it a day, but it was nevertheless the first game to finish, with some games still in the early teens (if not earlier) at that point.

Would Dominguez or Caruana catch up to MVL? Caruana pressed a bit against Peter Svidler, but the 8-time Russian champ played well enough to hold without many problems. Black's counterplay against Caruana's kingside forced a trade of queens, after which the opposite-colored bishops made the draw relatively routine. As for Dominguez, his game with Sam Shankland was equal most of the way, but the game finished in a repetition that alternated between Dominguez blundering and Shankland failing to take advantage of it.

Jeffery Xiong also had good winning chances against Mamedyarov, but a possible inaccuracy and an outright error on move 28 allowed Shakh to escape with a nice tactical shot. A pity for Xiong, who has missed more than one opportunity in the tournament. But hey, he's only 20 - this counts as "experience". He'll be back, scarier than before.

Finally, Dariusz Swiercz was better throughout his game with Richard Rapport. Rapport took chances throughout the game, with plenty of justification: his opponent is the lowest-rated player in the event, is in last place, always gets into time trouble (in this game, too), and his tournament situation demanded it. To his credit, he never pushed the risk too far, and the eventual draw was a reasonable result after a well-played game by both contestants.

The games are here, and these are the pairings for tomorrow's final round:

• Mamedyarov (3.5) - Vachier-Lagrave (5.5)
• Svidler (3) - Xiong (3.5)
• Rapport (4) - Caruana (5)
• Shankland (3.5) - Swiercz (2)
• So (5) - Dominguez (5)

Sinquefield Cup, Round 7: MVL Leads, Three Players Half a Point Behind

Entering the round, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Leinier Dominguez, and Wesley So were tied for first, with Fabiano Caruana half a point behind. By the end of the round, for the first time in the tournament, there was a single leader: Vachier-Lagrave. He defeated Jeffery Xiong, while Dominguez and So drew their games to fall into a second place tie with Caruana, who defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

For MVL, it was his fourth win of the event, and he was somewhat fortunate. Xiong was doing fine on the black side of the Berlin endgame until he blundered with 18...hxg4??, blind to the danger on the h-file. Had he played 18...g6 he would have been better, especially against Vachier-Lagrave's intended continuation. If, if, if.

So could do a bit of what-iffing as well. He had a big advantage against Sam Shankland, of a sort one would normally expect him to convert to a win. Very uncharacteristically, he quickly let it slip away, and the game soon ended in a repetition.

Dominguez had nothing to feel bad about in his game, except his opponent's high-quality prep and play. Dominguez found a fascinating gambit idea as Black against the Queen's Gambit sideline chosen by Richard Rapport. He did everything right...but so did his opponent, who had apparently researched the idea as well. The result was a well-played draw.

Caruana's game with Mamedyarov was a very complicated affair, with both sides playing - justifiably! - for a win. Mamedyarov probably had the better chances, at least practically, with much more time on the clock and the option of a safe pawn-up ending for the taking (even if it was objectively drawn if Caruana reacted correctly). Instead, he used most of his time choosing an incredibly risky option, and when Caruana made the obvious rejoinder used half his remaining time and chose a very poor move. Mamedyarov fought a while longer, but even though Caruana's clock went down to three seconds at one point (scary, but not nearly as much as it would be were it not for the 30-second increment) he was unable to save the game.

Finally, the only game without first-place implications was the battle between the tailenders. Dariusz Swiercz got greedy on the black side of an Anti-Marshall against Peter Svidler, and paid the price.

With two rounds to go, there is still everything to play for, both for the tournament and the overall Grand Chess Tour standings. If MVL takes clear first in the tournament and So finishes no higher than fifth, the Frenchman will take the overall title and the $100,000 bonus. And since they play tomorrow, with Vachier-Lagrave having the white pieces, it's far from impossible that he could push So back into 4th - which would be a tie for fourth-fifth if Rapport wins his game. And there's still one more round after that, too, which will see So face off against Dominguez. And while neither Mamedyarov nor Caruana could take first or second in the GCT, they are battling for third. Mamedyarov had a big lead coming into the event, but now he's tied for 6th-8th while Caruana is in the running for first. Anything is possible in that race, too.

Anyway, here are the games, with my comments, and here are the pairings for both round 8 and round 9. It has been quite the tournament.

Round 8:

• Xiong (3) - Mamedyarov (3)
• Caruana (4.5) - Svidler (2.5)
• Swiercz (1.5) - Rapport (3.5)
• Vachier-Lagrave (5) - So (4.5)
• Dominguez (4.5) - Shankland (3)

Round 9:

• Mamedyarov - Vachier-Lagrave
• Svidler - Xiong
• Rapport - Caruana
• Shankland - Swiercz
• So - Dominguez

Sinquefield Cup, Round 6: Five Draws

All the games were drawn today, but all five games had at least some fight. More: in all five games there was at least one moment where one of the players had a very real chance to play for a win. Even in the game between Dariusz Swiercz and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, which was clearly heading for a draw well before the time control, there was a moment when Swiercz had an opportunity for an advantage. Richard Rapport had chances against Sam Shankland on multiple occasions, and Jeffery Xiong had his chances against Wesley So as well.

The biggest opportunity belonged to Peter Svidler, but finding 33...b5!! and all the complex, beautiful variations that ensue would have been a real achievement.

Chances are that if you watched the round live, however, you took little notice of the four aforementioned games, and were riveted to the Najdorf battle between Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The players both in their prep for a very long time - probably until at least White's 30th move. MVL had only engaged in a couple of moderate thinks up to that point, while Caruana had more time on his clock than he started with. This state of affairs soon changed. MVL started burning more time at that point, while Caruana thought more than 50 minutes on his 34th move. (When he reached the time control on move 40, he did so with only a minute to spare.) Ironically, Caruana had some chances to play for a win, but the lines were so subtle that he needed more time to find them! (94 minutes for 10 moves - plus five more minutes from the increments - wasn't enough.)

The games, with some notes to four of them, are here. These are the pairings for round 7:

• Rapport (3) - Dominguez (4)
• So (4) - Shankland (2.5)
• Mamedyarov (3) - Caruana (3.5)
• Svidler (1.5) - Swiercz (1.5)
• Vachier-Lagrave (4) - Xiong (3)

Sinquefield Cup, Rounds 1-3 (All Caught Up)

It took a little while, but this post has us caught up in the goings-on in the chess world, at least or especially with respect to the 2021 Sinquefield Cup. Round 6 will be later today, rounds 4 and 5 have already been covered, so what remains is to present the games from the first three rounds. They are here, with comments to all (and only) the decisive games. Enjoy.

Sinquefield Cup, Round 5: A Slightly Calmer Round

The crazy, super-aggressive play of rounds 3 and 4 wasn't seen in round 5. There were two short draws, and the third draw fizzled out pretty quickly as well, even if it took a while longer before the draw could be made official. But the other two games were decisive, interesting, and consequential - in one game the winner joined the tie for first, and in the other the loser left the tie.

The first game to finish was Wesley So vs. Richard Rapport, ending in a draw by repetition that has been seen in many previous games. An apologetic So said afterward that he had slept very poorly the night before due to too much coffee too late in the day, so it was better safe than sorry.

Peter Svidler and Sam Shankland also drew quickly: Svidler was more or less forced to repeat, while Shankland was mistaken in thinking that he was similarly forced. That said, his other option, while playable, did not provide him with an advantage, so it wouldn't have been a bad choice even if he had assessed it as Svidler and the engines did.

The third draw was between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Leinier Dominguez. Mamedyarov played a very interesting pawn sac in a Queen's Gambit Accepted, and enjoyed a sustained initiative and a lead in development. Dominguez played very well, however, and in the end Mamedyarov found nothing better than a combination that ultimately regained the pawn at the cost of mass liquidation, and the draw was inevitable.

The first decisive game to finish was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's impressive victory over Dariusz Swiercz. Swiercz blitzed out his first 17 moves with Black in a sharp Italian line, all prep he had been looking at with his coach, commentator Alejandro Ramirez, just before the game. As it turned out, MVL's coach had also examined the line at some point, but Vachier-Lagrave clearly hadn't looked at it as recently as Swiercz did. So he had to take his time from early on, trying to recall/reconstruct/figure out what to do. After his 18th move he was almost 50 minutes behind Swiercz on the clock, but he had avoided any grave dangers and found a promising plan that made his position easier to play. Now it was Swiercz's turn to start thinking, and he didn't cope with his challenges as well as his opponent did. A trail of inaccuracies left him in trouble, and after 28...c4? he was simply lost. Vachier-Lagrave finished him off with confident, powerful play, and rejoined the tie for first. It was a very nice way to bounce back after his loss to Dominguez in round 4.

Finally, Jeffery Xiong also showed his resilience, bouncing back from his loss to Swiercz in round 4 by defeating none other than world #2 Fabiano Caruana in the present round. (Now world #3, falling below Ding Liren on the live rating list. How long has it been since he was out of the #2 spot? It's not official yet, so he may yet finish the event back in his "rightful" spot. But for now, he's #3 in the world and #4 in the tournament, out of the tie for first.) Early on things were going very smoothly for Caruana, who enjoyed a significant opening edge with Black. But at some point everything went completely off the rails, and the four-move sequence from moves 22-25 may have been the worst of Caruana's career as a grandmaster. Xiong didn't always find the best moves either, and Caruana could have saved the game. The last key moment came after Xiong's 34.Ra6. Caruana spent almost all his time trying to solve the position, but didn't manage it, and lost on time making his 36th move in an already hopeless position.

Today - Sunday - is a rest day. The round 5 games can be replayed here, with my comments, and I'm hoping to post the games for the first three rounds later today. And here's what we have to look forward to tomorrow, in round 6:

• Caruana (3) - Vachier-Lagrave (3.5)
• Dominguez (3.5) - Svidler (1)
• Xiong (2.5) - So (3.5)
• Shankland (2) - Rapport (2.5)
• Swiercz (1) - Mamedyarov (2.5)

Sinquefield Cup, Round 4: Four Winners In Another Bloodthirsty Round

I'll catch up with rounds 1-3 either tomorrow or on Sunday, the rest day. For now, round 4:

The 2021 Sinquefield Cup has seen one exciting round after another. Not only has there been a shockingly high percentage of decisive results (12 out of 20!), but the games have been lively, tactical slugfests with brilliant turns that have even impressed the commentators and the players themselves.

Round 4 was no exception, with four decisive games out of five. The only draw was in the marquee matchup between two of the co-leaders, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So, and even this game could have finished with a winner. So was in serious trouble, but Caruana's 32.b4 turned out to be a mistake, allowing Black enough counterplay to achieve a draw thanks to the rook's access to c4.

The best game of the day, and probably the most important game from a theoretical perspective, was Leinier Dominguez's victory in a Delayed Poisoned Pawn against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Dominguez's novelty, 21.Bd3, doesn't promise anything against a sufficiently prepared player, but even a player of MVL's caliber was unable to solve the problems at the board. Dominguez played perfectly, it seems, with 24.h5, 28.Rd2, 31.Qe1, and 32.Rh6 all being especially incisive. It was a great game by Dominguez, and it let him join Caruana and So in a tie for first with 3/4.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won a spectacular game of his own in round 3 and came out of the opening in good shape against Sam Shankland. Had he won, he would have joined the leaders at +2, but in the battle of his two bishops and inferior structure against Shankland's two knights (with rooks on the board as well), the knights reigned supreme. Shankland kept the static features of the position in the forefront, and the bishops never had the chance to show their dynamic potential.

Richard Rapport was Mamedyarov's victim in round 3, though it would be better to say that Rapport's ambition was his undoing in that game. Today he bounced back in good style against Peter Svidler, building a kingside attack that proved unstoppable after 25...g3 (Svidler had to try 25...Be7 26.Nxg4 Kg7). It has been a tough tournament for Svidler, who is currently in last place with just half a point out of the four rounds. He came to St. Louis expecting to do commentary for the Rapid & Blitz tournament and the Sinquefield Cup. But because Alexander Grischuk couldn't make it (ironically, he's doing commentary on the event for Chess24), he wound up playing. He's a great player, but it's hard to play in such a field without proper preparation.

Finally, the previous cellar dweller and (by a significant margin) bottom seed, Dariusz Swiercz, avoided "Audi rings" (four zeros) by defeating Jeffery Xiong. Swiercz was quickly winning on the white side of a Delayed Poisoned Pawn, and although he gave himself far more work than necessary, he did eventually manage to grind out the victory.

The games (with my comments to three of them) are here, and these are the pairings for Saturday's round 5:

• Svidler (.5) - Shankland (1.5)
• Vachier-Lagrave (2.5) - Swiercz (1)
• Mamedyarov (2) - Dominguez (3)
• Xiong (1.5) - Caruana (3)
• So (3) - Rapport (2)