2016 Cup Chronicle Issue 1

The third leg of the Grand Chess Tour, the fourth annual Sinquefield Cup, started off with fireworks. The first round promised to be an exciting one as the two leaders of the tour, Americans Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, were paired up. Last year, in the Sinquefield cup, Nakamura defeated So in fashion, delivering checkmate on the board. A year late, So got his revenge and took the sole read of the tour. The third American, Fabiano Caruana, had a solid draw against five-time world champion Vishy Anand.
The two wild cards of the event, Peter Svidler and Ding Liren, did not seem very confident today, as the former blundered and the latter admitted to feeling shaken up after several bad results. The newest #2 player in the world, Vachier-Lagrave, who has gained almost 100 rating points in the past year, managed to escape with a draw in a much worse position.