2019 Sinquefield Cup

Saint Louis, MO, August 29, 2019 – This August, 10 of the world’s best chess grandmasters participated in the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and 12 of the top chess grandmasters competed in the Sinquefield Cup at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The tournaments, with a total $475,000 prize pool, were fourth and fifth in the seven-event regular season on the Grand Chess Tour.

SAINT LOUIS, August 1, 2019 – The fifth edition of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT), a series of eight elite chess tournaments held across the globe, will return to America’s Chess Capital at the Saint Louis Chess Club from August 9-29, 2019. Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, held August 9-15, will kick off the festivities with 10 of the world’s best chess players competing for $150,000 in prize money. The Sinquefield Cup will follow the conclusion of Rapid & Blitz, running August 15-29. This classical chess tournament will feature 12 top-ranked international players competing for a total prize fund of $325,000.

For the first time in the Sinquefield Cup history, the winner will be determined in a playoff. With a clutch last round victory, Magnus Carlsen tied for first place with Ding Liren, who only managed to draw his game.

After an exceedingly close tournament, a new face emerges as the sole leader of the tournament.

The tension is rising, as two players have separated themselves from the pack of leaders. Ding Liren defeated his immediate rival Fabiano  Caruana  in  a  well  played  game  and  was  joined  on  top  of  the  leaderboard  by  Ian  Nepomniachtchi,  who  won  against  Wesley  So with the black pieces

After an exciting round 8, there is now a five-way tie for first place in the Sinquefield Cup. Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi joined the leaders with wins over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian respectively, while the rest of the leaders drew their games.

Once again, a round of all draws left the standings unchanged. It was another frustrating day at the office for Viswanathan Anand, who missed a golden opportunity to defeat one of his co-leaders and take the sole lead in the tournament.

The players returned to action today but the rest day did not seem to impact the player standings in the tournament, as all of the round 6 games ended in a draw.

The round before the day off had the highest number of decisive results and a shake up in the leaderboard. There is now a three way tie for first place as Ding Liren joins Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana with a win over Anish Giri.

There was finally a shake up in the standings today, as Fabiano Caruana defeated Levon Aronian. The American joins Viswanathan Anand in the lead as the rest of the games were drawn.