The Grand Chess Tour resumes with the third leg in Saint Louis, the so called "Capital of Chess in the United States". From the second to the twelfth of August we will be treated with some high-quality classical chess.
All eyes are on Saint Louis once again
The nine tour participants will be joined by wild-card Peter Svidler in the usual ten player single round-robin. The tournament gathers together 7 of the world's current top 10 and the total prize fund is $300,000 with the winner taking $75,000!
The Starting Rank of The 2017 Sinquefield Cup
| 1. |
Carlsen, Magnus |
2822 |
| 2. |
So, Wesley |
2810 |
| 3. |
Caruana, Fabiano |
2807 |
| 4. |
Aronian, Levon |
2799 |
| 5. |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
2792 |
| 6. |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maximme |
2788 |
| 7. |
Anand, Viswanathan |
2783 |
| 8. |
Karjakin, Sergey |
2773 |
| 9. |
Svidler, Peter |
2751 |
| 10. |
Nepomniatchi, Ian |
2750 |
As this is the fifth edition of the tournament held in the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, let's briefly look down the years:
Sinquefield Cup 2013
The "chosen" four
Carlsen, Nakamura, Aronian and Kamsky battled in a six round (double round-robin) competition. It was the last test for Magnus before the match against Anand that would eventually make him World Champion. He was in a good shape and won by a full point ahead of Nakamura.
Here is his last round win against Aronian where he saved a seemingly hopeless position; he even refused a draw at some point:
Sinquefield Cup 2014
"Fabulous Fabi" absolutely crushed the event
In 2014, the number of participants arose from 4 to 6. The 2802 average elo field consisting of none others than Carlsen, Topalov, MVL, Aronian, Caruana and Nakamura disputed 10 rounds. The competiton was nothing though for Fabiano Caruana who won the first 7 games and drew the remaining 3 to finish with a blazing 3098 rating performace and a 3 point gap from the second place (Magnus Carlsen). An unforgetable tournament! Winning seven consecutive games at this level is just incredible! The chess world went crazy and named this as "The Fabiano Show"!
Let's look at a tremendous game against the world champion:
Aronian confidently took this one
In the third edition, The Sinquefield Cup became part of The Grand Chess Tour, so 10 players (9 tour regulars + 1 wildcard) competed for the prize and for the tour points.
Wesley So was just a wildcard back then
There were a lot of decisive games. In the first round we witnessed 5 decisive games out of 5, including Carlsen losing to Topalov. The unusual time control with no increments until move 40 awarded us with this crazy time scramble:
Sinquefield Cup 2016
Another year, another winner
Magnus Carlsen didn't participate in this one, being busy with the match against Karjakin. Wesley So was at his best and managed to dominate thouroughly:
Wesley So would later be crowned as the winner of the 2016 Tour
A lot of entertainment awaits in the 2017 edition of this awesome tournament! In case of a tie for first, we will have a play-off, so that's what we are hoping for! Nevertheless, the commentary team in Saint Louis will keep us awake with their excitement!
Probably the best commentator
