fabelhaft wrote:
It must have been a while since a tournament with six players had all participants rated higher than Kramnik.
Sinquefield Cup 2014
Sort:
Probably even longer since a tournament had six players in the top nine of the rating list but none of them were Russian, while four were "western" participants.
I think this tournament might be the highest average rating in history, but barely now that CarJackin declined. Does anyone know the exact average of Zurich 2014, it currently holds the record. It was at 2801 (I think) but I'm unsure if that was rounded. This one was supposed to break the record but that's at risk now.
Edit: I just checked the math & the average rating of Zurich 2014 (the highest avg rating in history) was 2800.83 & the Sinquefield Cup 2014 will be 2801.67. So this tournament will be the highest rated ever & will be Carlsens last event before his Match 2 months later. It starts in 1 month.
Grischuk also declined before CarJackin.
I don't know if the Russian players know something more about the Russian Superfinal and/or the Tal Memorial, but the Superfinal was supposed to be played in September. Now it seems as if it has been moved and it is unclear if there will be any Tal Memorial, so I wonder if these events really could be a reason to decline Sinquefield Cup.
Carlsen's head to head score against the other participants before the tournament:
Carlsen vs Aronian 9-4
Carlsen vs Caruana 5-3
Carlsen vs Topalov 8-3
Carlsen vs Nakamura 10-0
Carlsen vs MVL 2-1
Total: 34-11
Aronian:
Aronian vs Carlsen 4-9
Aronian vs Topalov 3-6
Aronian vs Caruana 4-2
Aronian vs Nakamura 9-4
Aronian vs MVL 3-0
Total: 23-21
Wow !....Monster is 10-0 against HN ?....Ahhh, alrighty then....No wonder HN's seems so weirded out by him.
The_Ghostess_Lola wrote:
Wow !....Monster is 10-0 against HN ?....Ahhh, alrighty then....No wonder HN's seems so weirded out by him.
Yeah, Naka is Shirov to Carlsen's Kasparov. Hopefully (and I don't even like Naka) he can break the voodoo one of these days.
Except for the World top two Nakamura has good scores against the field:
Nakamura vs Caruana 3-0
Nakamura vs MVL 2-0
Nakamura vs Topalov 1-1
Nakamura vs Aronian 4-9
Nakamura vs Carlsen 0-10
Total: 10-20
Topalov:
Topalov vs Carlsen 3-8
Topalov vs Aronian 6-3
Topalov vs Nakamura 1-1
Topalov vs Caruana 1-2
Topalov vs MVL 0-1
Total: 11-15
The only score not given above, MVL vs Caruana 1-0, makes the remaining totals
Caruana: 7-14
MVL: 3-7
Carlsen describing his opponents in Sinquefield Cup, calls Nakamura "incompetent" :-)
5am start time for those of us in Sydney... alarm is set, just working on some late to work excuses...
1. There was a powercut and my alarm didn't go off.
2. The trains were cancelled, and my car is in for repairs.
3. It's the Sinquefield Cup, what did you expect!
tigerprowl5 wrote:
Darn, no Vishy.
,
No. Vishy is too tired from not playing in the Olympiad, to prepare for St Louis.
Am predicting Carlsen to come in first. Figuring after a less-than-stellar Olympiad, he is due to rebound. Magnus' ship never stays out long.
My pick for #2 is Nakamura. Which is a little more daring, I realize. I have no logical arguement for this pick. It is just an old-fashioned hunch.
First round:
Aronian vs Nakamura: Tough game for Nakamura against his second toughest opponent. I hope for a surprise win for Nakamura but predict 1-0.
Topalov vs Caruana: Topalov was in good shape when winning his second first board gold in the Olympiad. I hope he wins here but predict a draw.
MVL vs Carlsen: Interesting to see MVL in this field. Hopefully an exciting game but still feels like a draw.
MVL vs Carlsen starts exciting alright
Indeed, MVL vs Carlsen turned out to be quite exctiting and the game of the round. Topalov played like he does on bad days, unsound attack and falling apart, but very impressive by Caruana of course. Little happened in Aronian vs Naka and that was a good start for the latter.
Today then: Nakamura vs Carlsen is the grudge game, will be nice when Naka finally wins one against Carlsen but this one I think will be drawn. Two black draws in the first rounds would be a decent start for Carlsen.
Aronian vs Topalov is an encounter where Topalov usually has the advantage, but now he is black and played badly in the first round. If Aronian starts with two draws as white it would be somewhat disappointing, but that's what I think will happen when Topalov plays it more safe than in his first game.
Caruana vs MVL is Caruana's chance to get a great start. After a win in the first round white against the most inexperienced player should be a game where he is not content with a draw. I guess this will be the one decisive game today, 1-0.
The field has now been finalized, after Karjakin declined his invitation the last spot went to Topalov, and these are the participants:
Carlsen 2877
Aronian 2805
Caruana 2801
Nakamura 2787
Topalov 2772
Vachier-Lagrave 2768
Average rating 2802, starting August 27th. It must have been a while since a tournament with six players had all participants rated higher than Kramnik.