Sinquefield Cup, Saint Louis

[Tim Harding]

The Sinquefield Cup starts tonight in Saint Louis at 7pm BST.

Round 1 pairings:

Giri v MVL
Anand-Caruana
So-Nakamura
Ding Liren-Aronian
Topalov-Svidler

[Mick Norris]

TWIC round 1 report

So, Wesley - Nakamura, Hikaru 1-0 38 E06 Catalan
Topalov, Veselin - Svidler, Peter 1-0 28 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Giri, Anish - Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ 47 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Anand, Viswanathan - Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ 45 C15 French Winawer
Ding, Liren - Aronian, Levon ½-½ 31 D37 QGD 5.Bf4

Seems amazing that MVL drops 0.7 rating points drawing with black with Giri - will be a good test of his new rating level

[Leonard Barden]

Bad news for Mick. MVL is losing in round two as White against Anand, curiously (since it is the subject of another thread) with three weak French pawns for a powerful Indian bishop. Nakamura is winning against Giri after mutual blunders,while Caruana v Topalov and Ding v So have drawn and Aronian v Svidler is level.
This is likely to leave Anand, So and Topalov as joint leaders on 1.5/2.
Without Carlsen, it seems that the intensity of the tournament drops.
Update: Aronian beat Svidler, so he is also on 1.5.

[MJMcCready]

Bad news for Mick. MVL is losing in round two as White against Anand, curiously (since it is the subject of another thread) with three weak French pawns for a powerful Indian bishop. Nakamura is winning against Giri after mutual blunders,while Caruana v Topalov and Ding v So have drawn and Aronian v Svidler is level.
This is likely to leave Anand, So and Topalov as joint leaders on 1.5/2.
Without Carlsen, it seems that the intensity of the tournament drops.
Update: Aronian beat Svidler, so he is also on 1.5.

What is the name of that line in the Caro-Kann? It seems like a strange way to play for white.

[LawrenceCooper]

Bad news for Mick. MVL is losing in round two as White against Anand, curiously (since it is the subject of another thread) with three weak French pawns for a powerful Indian bishop. Nakamura is winning against Giri after mutual blunders,while Caruana v Topalov and Ding v So have drawn and Aronian v Svidler is level.
This is likely to leave Anand, So and Topalov as joint leaders on 1.5/2.
Without Carlsen, it seems that the intensity of the tournament drops.
Update: Aronian beat Svidler, so he is also on 1.5.

What is the name of that line in the Caro-Kann? It seems like a strange way to play for white.

I don't know of any name other than the Two Knights but it was played in N Pert-Batchelor at the British & Grischuk-Ding earlier this year. In both those games black played 10....Nf7 whereas Anand played 10...Ne4. At first glance it leaves the black king looking rather vulnerable.

[MJMcCready]

I saw it in the N.Pert game but the Caro-Kann is a bit placid. White can do better than that Surely. All looks very odd but the computers said Anand was okay.

[LawrenceCooper]

I saw it in the N.Pert game but the Caro-Kann is a bit placid. White can do better than that Surely. All looks very odd but the computers said Anand was okay.

White had a big advantage in the game according to Anand afterwards who said he was hanging on and very fortunate. Na6 was the move cited as the one that got him into trouble but I don't think he'll be in a hurry to repeat the line.

[MJMcCready]

It's a line I've never seen before let alone studied ...f6 does look weakening but then white looks so under-developed at the time... .

[Mick Norris]

Bad news for Mick. MVL is losing in round two as White against Anand, curiously (since it is the subject of another thread) with three weak French pawns for a powerful Indian bishop.

Not sure about bad news for Mick, more bad news for MVL I would have thought

He has lost 8.1 rating points so far, which shows how hard it is to maintain a high rating, but he is still over 2810

MVL went 67 games unbeaten in classical chess (lost to Giri 25 Sept 2015 at the World Cup)

[MJMcCready]

Just saw the So - Topalov game. Very passive play by Topalov. Strange indeed.

[MJMcCready]

For a supposed tournament leader that is.

[LawrenceCooper]

Just saw the So - Topalov game. Very passive play by Topalov. Strange indeed.

The crucial moment seemed to be when he declined to play Qxc5 which looked absolutely fine preferring to leave white with a connected passed pawn. Aronian's pawn sacrifices were also very strange, in both cases the players will have had good reasons but presumably missed something in calculating variations way over my head.

[MJMcCready]

Yes, perhaps we expect too much from them and forget they are human. Regarding Topalov Qa8 came at some point. For him to try and hold such a passive position just seemed too much. Maybe that So fellow is better than what we thought.

[Mick Norris]

Just saw the So - Topalov game. Very passive play by Topalov. Strange indeed.

The crucial moment seemed to be when he declined to play Qxc5 which looked absolutely fine preferring to leave white with a connected passed pawn. Aronian's pawn sacrifices were also very strange, in both cases the players will have had good reasons but presumably missed something in calculating variations way over my head.

Qxc5 is the mistake according to ChessMind report

Analysis of MVL-Aronian in the chess.com report

[MJMcCready]

ok, well I would argue that Topalov was already too passive but I'm not a super GM so what do I know.