Firouzja Wins Sinquefield Cup & The Grand Chess Tour

After nine eventful rounds of play and lots of surrounding tumult, the 2022 Sinquefield Cup came to a conclusion on Sunday in Saint Louis.

After four draws in the regulation games of round nine, a play-off, consisting of two rapid games, between GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja decided the winner of this year's Sinquefield Cup. After a draw in the first game where Nepomniacthchi was pressing throughout, he blundered right after the opening in the second game, losing a piece. The Candidates winner carried on a while longer, but the result was never in doubt, securing the double win for Firouzja in both the Sinquefield Cup and the Grand Chess Tour.

What a day! It started with fizzles with three draws, then had some drizzles of excitement when Nepomniachtchi seemed to be winning his regulation game. But once the tiebreaking playoff started, the evening truly sizzled.

Vachier-Lagrave-Firouzja

Ahead of the Sinquefield Cup, the two French players were leading the Grand Chess Tour. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had accumulated 26.5 points, while Firouzja had tallied 25.5 points, more than half of which came from winning the Rapid & Blitz event that preceded the present tournament.

Thanks to (and here we will be generous) an underwhelming performance in the Sinquefield Cup, Vachier-Lagrave was no longer in contention for winning the tour, while his young countryman with the come-from-behind victory against GM Wesley So in round eight had put himself in the position to take home both crowns. The question, however, was how much Vachier-Lagrave would be willing to be the spanner in the proverbial works, ruining everything, or if he would, musketeer-style, take one for the team.

It turned out to be something in between. At record speed, the moves flew over the board, and before your correspondent had a chance to fill his coffee mug, ready for an afternoon of exciting chess, the game had concluded in a draw.

In fact, what happened was that they repeated the first 24 moves from the preceding blitz event where they had then agreed to a draw, but here, due to the regulations, they had to carry on until they had constructed a repetition mechanism.

The draw secured the overall win in the Grand Chess Tour for Firouzja but left the tournament win in limbo. 

Nepomniachtchi-Niemann

More than anybody, two people's tournaments were impacted by the departure of the world champion. Nepomniachtchi who had lost to GM Magnus Carlsen all of a sudden was back in contention with +1 on the table. GM Hans Niemann, on the other hand, had a full point taken away and ended up on the receiving end of all sorts of hatred and allegations—from people in the know, those who should have known better, and those who just wanted to be heard but neither knew nor had any measurable understanding of the situation.

Ahead of round eight, the arbiters cleared Niemann of all allegations in connection with the games in the Sinquefield Cup, but the psychological impact, pressure, nerves, sleep, etc, cannot be denied. Niemann didn't win another game after the Carlsen game, and he had been close to losing in more games than the ones he eventually lost.

For Niemann, the last round constituted an opportunity to redeem himself a bit, while Nepomniachtchi was playing for the king's coin and honor by picking up a nice paycheck and possibly winning one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year. As far as winning the overall tour, that ship had sailed a long time ago.

The game between the two ended up in a fascinating ending where Niemann had numerous pawn weaknesses in his camp, but enough compensation for it through his active pieces. Despite Nepomniachtchi having multiple chances for more, the game eventually ended in a draw.

We have picked Nepomniachtchi-Niemann from round nine as our Game of the Day. 

The draw in this game meant that Nepomniachtchi only managed to match the score of Firouzja and thus they would have to enter a play-off to decide the winner of the tournament.

So-Dominguez

There are no two ways about it, the loss against Firouzja in round eight was a heartbreaker for So. He had conducted a perfect tournament, was leading half a point ahead of the pursuers, and had a near-winning position after just 15 moves. But then it all went wrong and tumbled down on him. He lost the victory in the game, tournament lead, and possibly the win of the entire Grand Chess Tour. Could he recover? That was indeed the question.

GM Leinier Dominguez Perez, by contrast, has had a frustrating event. Two winning positions were not won. Had he picked up those wins, he would have been in shared first ahead of the last round. Admittedly, he struggled a couple of times too, but the sympathetic Cuban-born American managed those positions as well. Now, the two combatants were playing for the spoils, and perhaps the honor of finishing as the best American player—provided one of them would win and pass GM Fabiano Caruana in the final standings.

The game opened with a Queen's Gambit Accepted, where So chose the dxc5 line similar to what GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had used against Vachier-Lagrave in an earlier round. 

It quickly became clear that White had nothing. However, So gave it an unsuccessful try for more, before he and Dominguez found a way to exchange a bunch of pieces, along with a repetition.

Mamedyarov-Aronian

Aside from Vachier-Lagrave, two players who will want to forget about their tournament as soon as humanly possible are GMs Levon Aronian and Mamedyarov. Particularly the latter had a disastrous tournament, on par with the very first tournament of the Grand Chess Tour earlier this year, where he finished last at the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest. Ahead of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament, Aronian was even in contention for the overall win of the tour, but a mediocre event there followed by a decidedly sub-par one here saw those dreams thoroughly flow away in the muddy waves of the Missouri River. 

Thus, their draw in the final round came to the surprise of absolutely no one, but the amount of action along the way did surprise quite a bit.

Due to Carlsen's withdrawal, Caruana had a bye for the last round.

The Play-Off

After a reasonably lengthy break, the players returned to the playing hall, dressing noticeably more casually than during the regulation round. The play-off would consist of two rapid games.

Game 1

Having won a draw, Nepominachtchi chose to play White in the first game. In a main line Catalan, Firouzja equalized and maybe even started to press a little. However, after the logical but ultimately faulty 26...c5?, he got in trouble. Nepomniachtchi's 27.d5! sent Firouzja in the tank where he spent half of his remaining time. After the play-off, Firouzja admitted that he had completely missed this move. However, with precise play, the French grandmaster held the balance and eventually forced the play into a drawn rook ending.

Game 2

In the second game, Firouzja returned to the English Opening that had served him throughout the Rapid & Blitz event that he had won so convincingly. It turned out to be the perfect move as he got an opportunity to play an idea he had prepared for the tournament but had forgotten in the game against Mamedyarov! Here, Nepomniachtchi responded poorly and played a bad seventh move. He did get a chance later to equalize, but when that too was missed, Black was in trouble.

However, it went from bad to worse when he blundered a piece in the early middlegame. After that, there was no coming back.

It was a very happy Firouzja that joined the broadcast team in the studio. He expressed he was surprised to even be in the tie-breaking play-off, because "Ian was completely winning against Hans." He was already looking forward to the next event, the Fischer 960 chess, where he would be facing his idol, former world champion GM Garry Kasparov.  

All Games Day 9

Final Standings After Round 9

Play-off

Firouzja won $87,500 for first place, Nepomniachtchi made $77,500 for second, $40,000 went to Caruana and So who tied in third, Dominguez collected $26,000 for finishing fifth, Aronian and Niemann earned $19,750 in a tie for sixth; while Mamedyarov and Vachier-Lagrave each went home with $14,500 tied for eighth.

The 2022 Sinquefield Cup is the fifth and final leg of the 2022 Grand Chess Tour. The 10 players compete in an all-play-all round-robin.

Final Standings in the Grand Chess Tour

Total Grand Chess Tour Earnings

Coverage of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup

• Sleepless in St. Louis
• 8 Handshakes, No Winners In Round 7
• Knife Fight Alongside Positional Squeezes As Wesley So Takes Charge
• Dominguez Squeezes Niemann But No Winners
• Wesley So Leads Sinquefield Cup After Carlsen Withdraws
• Magnus Carlsen Withdraws From Sinquefield Cup
• Niemann Outplays Carlsen, Claims Lead, Crosses 2700
• King Hans Lets Chess Speak For Itself
• Machine-like Efficiency By Carlsen To Beat Nepomniachtchi
• 2022 Sinquefield Cup: All The Information