English Chess Forum

The Sinquefield Cup 2019 takes place in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, from Saturday 17th August until Thursday 29th August.

Round 1 17th August; Rest Day 22nd August; Round 11 28th August; Tiebreaks if required 29th August.

Play starts each day (except 22nd August) at 1900 BST.

Time Limit: All moves in 130 minutes with 30 seconds delay throughout.

Players: Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

The pairings are attached.

First round starts tonight, coverage on Chess24 as per.
This year it's an 11 round, 12 player round Robin, with a $325,000 prize fund. Rd 1 Pairings:

Carlsen 2882 - Giri 2779
Nakamura 2743 - Caruana 2818
Ding 2805 - So 2776
Aronian 2765 - Vachier-Lagr. 2778
Nepomniachtc. 2774 - Anand 2756
Karjakin 2750 - Mamedyarov 2764

All games look like they were going to be drawn then suddenly it was tragedy for Nepo on move 77, when he mistakenly thought an en passant would save him.

Nepomniachtchi, Ian - Anand, Viswanathan, Grand Chess Tour Sinquefield Cup 2019 round 01
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Nd5 Be7 4. Nf3 d6 5. d4 Nf6 6. Nc3 exd4 7. Nxd4 d5 8. Bf4 O-O 9. e3 a6 10. Nf3 c6 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd5 13. Qxd5 cxd5 14. O-O-O Nc6 15. Bg5 f6 16. Bf4 Be6 17. Kb1 Rac8 18. a3 Rfd8 19. Bd3 Bc5 20. Rhe1 Kf7 21. Bg3 Bb6 22. Bc2 h5 23. h3 Ne7 24. Bb3 g5 25. h4 g4 26. Nd4 Bxd4 27. Rxd4 Nc6 28. Rf4 d4 29. Bxe6+ Kxe6 30. exd4+ Kf7 31. f3 gxf3 32. Rxf3 Nxd4 33. Rf4 Ne6 34. Rf3 Nd4 35. Rf4 Nb3 36. Bf2 Rc4 37. Rxc4 Nd2+ 38. Kc2 Nxc4 39. Re2 Ne5 40. Be1 Ke6 41. a4 Rd6 42. g3 Kf5 43. Rf2+ Kg4 44. Rf4+ Kh3 45. Rf1 Rc6+ 46. Kb1 Re6 47. Rf5 Ng6 48. Bf2 Kg4 49. Rd5 Ne5 50. Rd4+ Kh3 51. Rd5 Re7 52. Kc2 Ng4 53. Bb6 Rh7 54. Rd3 Ne5 55. Rb3 Rd7 56. Be3 Nf3 57. Rb6 Kxg3 58. Rxf6 Nxh4 59. b4 Ng2 60. Ba7 h4 61. Kc3 h3 62. Bb8+ Kg4 63. Rg6+ Kh5 64. Rg8 Ne3 65. Rg3 Nd5+ 66. Kb3 Kh4 67. Rg8 Nf6 68. Rg6 Ng4 69. Rg8 Rh7 70. Kc4 h2 71. Bxh2 Nxh2 72. b5 Ng4 73. Ra8 axb5+ 74. Kxb5 Nf6 75. a5 Nd5 76. Ra7 Kg5 77. Kc4?? b5+ 0-1

Sort of thing you often see the moment you take your hand off the piece.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 9:05 am

Sort of thing you often see the moment you take your hand off the piece.

True, but maybe not on this occasion. The video suggests to me that Nepomniachtchi only realised when Anand played 77 … b5.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 12:33 pm

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 9:05 am

Sort of thing you often see the moment you take your hand off the piece.

True, but maybe not on this occasion. The video suggests to me that Nepomniachtchi only realised when Anand played 77 … b5.

There's a suggestion on Twitter that he'd seen 77... b5, but overlooked that 78. axb6 Nxb6 was check.

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:00 pm

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 12:33 pm

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 9:05 am

Sort of thing you often see the moment you take your hand off the piece.

True, but maybe not on this occasion. The video suggests to me that Nepomniachtchi only realised when Anand played 77 … b5.

There's a suggestion on Twitter that he'd seen 77... b5, but overlooked that 78. axb6 Nxb6 was check.

Had he played Kc5 then b6 could safely be met with axb6 as there is no knight check.

Round 2 pairings kicking off at 7pm UK time:

Karjakin (½) 2750 - Ding (½) 2805
Mamedyarov (½) 2764 - Nakamura (½) 2743
Caruana (½) 2818 - Nepomniachtc. (0) 2774
Anand (1) 2756 - Carlsen, M. (½) 2882
Giri (½) 2779 - Aronian (½) 2765
Vachier-Lagr. (½) 2778 - So (½) 2776

What's the time limit? People seem to have a lot of time on their clocks.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:35 pm

What's the time limit? People seem to have a lot of time on their clocks.

I found it in the Event Regs. All moves in 130 mins with a 30 second delay from move 1.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:35 pm

What's the time limit?

All moves in 130 minutes with 30 seconds delay throughout.

Thanks. 130 minutes feels like a clumsy figure for some reason.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:52 pm

Thanks. 130 minutes feels like a clumsy figure for some reason.

If you treat delay as increment it adds up to 2 1/2 hours for forty moves, just like the old days.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:49 pm

All moves in 130 minutes with 30 seconds delay throughout.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:52 pm

Thanks. 130 minutes feels like a clumsy figure for some reason.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 8:16 pm

If you treat delay as increment it adds up to 2 1/2 hours for forty moves, just like the old days.

So it does, but that wasn't the reason.

The players were consulted about reducing the session length a little. They said that they would be comfortable with the Olympiad time limit, 40/90 + G/30 + 30 secs increment throughout, or something akin to it.

When the GCT Advisory Board decided that they would like to do away with the intermediate time control, I said that G/120 plus 30 secs increment would be fine, but that if they wanted delay, I would like an additional 10 minutes to compensate for the difference between delay and increment.

My view prevailed on this occasion.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 5:50 pm

Round 2 pairings kicking off at 7pm UK time:

Karjakin (½) 2750 - Ding (½) 2805
Mamedyarov (½) 2764 - Nakamura (½) 2743
Caruana (½) 2818 - Nepomniachtc. (0) 2774
Anand (1) 2756 - Carlsen, M. (½) 2882
Giri (½) 2779 - Aronian (½) 2765
Vachier-Lagr. (½) 2778 - So (½) 2776

All draws today.