6th Sinquefield Cup 2018
Saint Louis, USA
August 16-29, 2018
Final Standings
1-3. Levon Aronian ARM 2767, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2842, Fabiano Caruana USA 2822, 5.5/9
4. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2801, 5.0/9
5-7. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2779, Viswanathan Anand IND 2768, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2766, 4.5/9
8. Wesley So USA 2780, 4.0/9
9-10. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2777, Sergey Karjakin RUS 2773, 3.0/9
Average ELO 2788 Category 22
Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 670 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds time delay before clock starts on every move.
This year’s Sinquefield Cup, the 6th edition, was expected to be a big fight as the current world champion Magnus himself and Fabiano Caruana, his challenger in the World Championship this coming November, would both want to make a statement to the chess world as to who is the stronger between the two.
Also, consider the winners of the previous Cups:
2013: Magnus Carlsen
2014: Fabiano Caruana
2015: Levon Aronian
2016: Wesley So
2017: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
No one has ever won it twice and all 5 previous winners were participating this year, each with the intention of finally scoring a twofer.
Also, the draw rules have been changed — last year the players were allowed to offer and agree draws only after the 30th move. This year’s edition went even further — draw offers were completely outlawed. The players can only claim a draw due to three-fold repetition or the 50 move rules and even then one of the arbiters has to be asked to verify this claim. In a completely drawn position in the endgame, a claim for a draw may be made to the Chief Arbiter. The Chief Arbiter is then empowered to accept or refuse the claim and may seek such advice as he or she considered appropriate.
Whether or not the rule change had any effect is debatable, for out of a total of 45 games only 8 had a decisive result, and out of those eight games 2 were played in the last round when both Aronian and Carlsen were trying hard to overhaul Caruana’s lead.
Aronian’s last round victory over Alexander Grischuk was probably the most exciting of the whole tournament. The two of them had a chance for a tie for 1st place if they win, so they both go for it.
Aronian, Levon (2767) –
Grischuk, Alexander (2766) [A54]
6th Sinquefield Cup Saint Louis (9), 27.08.2018
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.g3 Nbd7 4.Bg2 e5 5.c4 c6 6.Nc3 e4 7.Nh4 d5 8.0–0 Bb4 9.cxd5
Aronian spent 29 minutes on this move. He was probably deciding between the test, 9.Qb3 or 9.f3.
9…cxd5 10.f3
This was the first new move in the game. The other games continued with either 10.Qb3 or 10.Nf5.
10…Bxc3
Strangely enough Grischuk took 42 minutes before deciding on this move. He might have been considering the exchange sacrifice on move 14, but he will miss those minutes later in the game.
11.bxc3 0–0 12.Ba3 Re8 13.Nf5 Nb6 14.Nd6 Nc4!?
Offering up the exchange. After 15.Nxe8 Qxe8 16.Bc1 (it is either this or 16.Qb3 Nd2 and Black gets his exchange back) 16…e3 17.Qb3 b6 Black has a nice bind on the position and is at least equal.
15.Nxc4 dxc4 16.fxe4 Nxe4 17.Qc2 Qd5
Now the mayhem begins.
18.Rxf7!?
In round one Aronian made a remark about risky moves: “As they say in Russia, the one who doesn’t risk doesn’t drink champagne!” Now he references that remark.
Aronian: “I thought that with 18.Rf4 probably the game should be balanced but 18.Rxf7 looked kind of a move that might work, because it completely changes the dynamics of the game, and if you have more time (at this point Aronian had more than half an hour to reach the 40th move while Grischuk had half that time) this can be very unpleasant for your opponent. It’s a very risky decision, but as I already mentioned… the champagne part. I have to do something, because I do like champagne!”
18…Kxf7
Better than 18…Qxf7 19.Bxe4 White gets back a pawn and puts his bishop on a very active square on e4. Not to say that this is an automatic win. GM Robert Hess in the Chess.Com website points out that Black also has his own threats: 19…Bh3 20.Bxh7+? (would you believe this is a mistake? White had to relocate his dark-squared bishop to either e5 or f4 via d6) 20…Kh8 21.Bg6? Qe6! 22.Bxe8 Qe3+ 23.Kh1 Rxe8 there is no stopping mate now.
19.Rf1+ Bf5
[19…Kg8? 20.Bxe4 Black cannot recapture on e4 because of mate in f8, to wit: 20…Qxe4 21.Qxe4 Rxe4 22.Rf8#]
20.g4 g6 21.Qc1 Kg7
Completely understandable that Black wants to get his king out of the f-file. If Grischuk had perhaps an extra half hour thinking time he might realize that 21…Re6! is the toughest defense, forming a perimeter on the 6th rank.
22.gxf5 gxf5 23.Bxe4 fxe4 24.Qf4
White’s threat is 25.Qf6+ Kg8 26.Rf2! followed by Rf2–g2+.
24…h6
[Better than 24…Re6 25.Qf7+ Kh8 26.Rf5 Qc6 27.Be7! followed by Be7–f6+]
25.Qc7+ Kh8?
The move is counter-intuitive, but 25…Kg6! is correct. Now 26.Rf4 Rg8! 27.Kf2 e3+! 28.Kxe3 Rae8+ 29.Kd2 both sides have chances.
26.Bd6!
This is the reason why …Kh8 is bad — the possibility of Be5+ changes everything.
26…Rg8+ 27.Kf2 Rg6 28.Be5+ Kg8 29.Ke3
There is no forced win yet but Black is running out of moves.
29…Rd8?
The only move is 29…Re8 after which the Black queen will retreat to e7 via e6. With the text move Grischuk obviously intends to cut-off White’s queen from the kingside with …Rd7, but …
30.Qe7!
And now 30…Rd7 or 30…Qd7 is impossible because of 31.Rf8+! Grischuk is horrified to realize that all of his major pieces cannot move and he can only hope that Aronian will mess up the finish.
30…b5 31.h4!
Nope, Aronian doesn’t let him off the hook. The h-pawn will simply go to h5 and force Black’s rook to move. If it travels along the 6th rank then he is mated on g7. If it goes down the g-file then White plays Rf6 and mops up.
31…a5 32.h5 Rg5 33.Rf6 Rxe5 34.Rg6+ 1–0
Also in the last round Magnus Carlsen got a 97-move victory over Hikaru Nakamura and it resulted in a triple tie for 1st between Aronian, Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Now, the tie-break rules stipulated:
Results of direct encounter with each other. This didn’t work as all three drew against each other.
Second tie-break is the most number of wins. Tie is not broken either, as all three had the same number of wins, two.
Third tie-break is the most number of wins as Black. Unfortunately, none of the three had a win with Black.
Fourth and last tie-break. Drawing of lots to eliminate one player and the other two will play for the title.
Carlsen objected to the idea of drawing lots as he thought it to be “ridiculous.” Finally, the players and organizers decided all three would be declared co-winners.
After the tournament ended, the FIDE Top 10 September 2018 list for Standard Chess is as follows:
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2839
Fabiano Caruana USA 2827
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2820
Ding Liren CHN 2804
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2780
Levon Aronian ARM 2780
Anish Giri NED 2780
Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2779
Wesley So USA 2776
Viswanathan Anand IND 2771
We will have the world’s no. 1 and 2 player squaring off against each other in Nov. 2018 for the world title. I can’t wait.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently the Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
bobby@cpamd.net
