Second Sinquefield Cup Adds Players, Money, Prestige
Last year's inaugural Sinquefield Cup was the strongest tournament ever held in the U.S. -- the average FIDE rating was above 2790. The organizers in St. Louis don't seem to know when to stop.
This year's lineup is almost complete, and the list of names has only become more impressive. The field grows from four to six players, and includes the world number 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9th players!
The 10-game double round robin will be hosted by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and will take place from August 27 - September 7, 2014.
World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen will attempt to defend his title. Also returning is world number 2 GM Levon Aronian, who nearly stole the cup before collapsing in a last-round heartbreaker in 2013. New world number 3 (according to the live ratings) GM Fabiano Caruana, an American citizen, will play for the first time. World number 5 and official U.S. number 1 GM Hikaru Nakamura will once again attend.
World number 9 and fast-improving GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave rounds out the confirmed field. It doesn't hurt that he is St. Louis resident GM Ben Finegold's favorite player!
World number 4 GM Alexander Grischuk was reportedly contacted, but instead the club's site lists world number 6 GM Sergey Karjakin as having an invitation pending. If he accepts, and using the live ratings as of the time of this posting, that would make the tournament average an astounding and record-breaking 2803!
No category-23 event has ever been held in the U.S., and only one has ever taken place in the world. The 2014 Zurich Chess Challenge topped out at 2801.
As you might expect, the prize fund has also increased dramatically. The purse nearly doubles -- from $170,000 to $315,000 -- and first place goes from $70,000 to $100,000.
"The Sinquefield Cup promises to be the strongest tournament ever held," said CCSCSL Executive Director Tony Rich. "The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is committed to providing a wonderful event to our sponsors, players and spectators from around the world."
The tournament will have only one rest day, but players will have nearly two full weeks of rest after the 2014 Chess Olympiad. If history repeats, this may again be Carlsen's last warmup event before a November World Championship Match with GM Viswanathan Anand.
The Sinquefield Cup is named in honor of Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, founders of the chess club. Rex Sinquefield is also running for FIDE treasurer on the presidential ticket of Garry Kasparov.
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
