Sinquefield Cup

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David Sedgwick
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Sinquefield Cup

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:50 am

The Sinquefield Cup, the fourth and final leg of the 2018 Grand Chess Tour before the Tour Finals in London, takes place from Saturday 18th August until Monday 27th August, with playoffs on Tuesday 28th August if required.

Play starts each day at 1900 London time, except that Thursday 23rd August is a rest day.

Pairings: http://chess-results.com/tnr371468.aspx?lan=1&art=2. Magnus Carlsen has White against Fabiano Caruana on Saturday 25th August.

Live Games will be on Chess24 as usual.

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:53 am

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:50 am
Play starts each day at 1900 London time, except that Thursday 23rd August is a rest day.
One of the big plusses for me, as a viewer, has been the 1900 UK start time.

I didn't watch any of Paris and Leuven because I was out and doing things. However, I was able to watch the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, because the session lengths were about 4 hours, so I could reasonably dip in and out of it through the evening and sleep at a sensible time.

The same is likely to be true of the Sinquefield Cup, although with the longer playing session, there are no guarantees that the games will end at a sensible time.

I wonder, is there a difference in UK (or maybe European) viewing figures for the 1900 start time, than the 1300 start time we have when these things are in Europe?

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Aug 16, 2018 12:04 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:
Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:53 am
David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:50 am
Play starts each day at 1900 London time, except that Thursday 23rd August is a rest day.
One of the big plusses for me, as a viewer, has been the 1900 UK start time.

I didn't watch any of Paris and Leuven because I was out and doing things. However, I was able to watch the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, because the session lengths were about 4 hours, so I could reasonably dip in and out of it through the evening and sleep at a sensible time.

The same is likely to be true of the Sinquefield Cup, although with the longer playing session, there are no guarantees that the games will end at a sensible time.

I wonder, is there a difference in UK (or maybe European) viewing figures for the 1900 start time, than the 1300 start time we have when these things are in Europe?
I can't comment on the viewing figures.

1900 in the UK is fine. 2000 in Europe is perhaps not so good.

My contract requires me to be contactable during playing hours and I'm glad that we don't use European time.

The detailed arrangements for the London Chess Classic (Grand Chess Tour Finals) have still to be decided, but I don't thing we will be starting before 1200 on any of the days. The commentary team in St Louis find an 0600 start quite early enough.

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Aug 16, 2018 12:10 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Aug 16, 2018 12:04 pm
1900 in the UK is fine. 2000 in Europe is perhaps not so good.
Perhaps, although I wonder if continental Europeans are increasingly used to that. I'm thinking of Champions League football matches which would hitherto start at 20:45 in Europe (and maybe even later in Eastern Europe), and will start at 21:00 this season. Even something like Premier League Darts, at its meetings in Rotterdam and Berlin, still run from about 19:00 - 22:30 UK time just as the UK & Ireland meetings do.

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Tim Harding » Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:12 pm

Presumably TV contracts are calling the shots in European sport, but not for chess or Norwegian TV would have got an earlier start for Magnus in Saint Louis.
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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by LawrenceCooper » Sun Aug 19, 2018 6:58 am

First rounds wins for Aronian (against Karjakin) and Mamedyarov (against So) and draws in MVL-Carlsen, Nakamura-Anand and Caruana-Grischuk.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:53 am

That puts Mamedyarov at number 2 on the live ratings.

Aronian won with White in a Berlin. Wonder what Caruana and Carlsen have prepared in that opening? We won't see any top-secret preparation in their game, but Carlsen is White against Caruana in round 7 (on Saturday 25 August).

Carlsen then has Black against Mamedyarov the following round. Those 2 games may be critical to whether Carlsen can retain his number 1 ranking before his world title defence in November, but all the games are really tough ones - there are no 'weaker' players in this tournament (can anyone say how it ranks in terms of the strongest tournaments of all time? I think it is the world top 14 minus Ding Liren, Kramnik and Giri).

Looking at some reports, the players were all in the top 15 at the start, with an average rating of 2787. That makes it Category 22. I can't find a definitive list of Category 22 and Category 23 tournaments, but this tournament must be up there among them.

(There have been at least 2 Category 23 tournaments: Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 [six players, 2801 average]; Sinquefield Cup 2014 [six players, 2802 average]. Following that is Norway Chess 2017 [ten players, 2797 average] and London Chess Classic 2016 [ten players, 2785 average]).

I think the London Chess Classic 2016 was the strongest tournament not to feature Carlsen. The high ELO average there was helped by the high ratings of Caruana, Kramnik, MVL and So.

Are there any other tournaments with high ELO averages that come between the Sinquefield Cup 2018 [ten players, 2787 average] and Norway Chess 2017 [ten players, 2797 average]? OK, Norway Chess 2018 [ten players, average 2791], though Ding Liren's withdrawal affected the number of players, if not the average (his rating was 2791).

Added to the above would be: Sinquefield Cup 2013 (four players, double round robin, average 2797); Sinquefield Cup 2015 (ten players, average 2795); Sinquefield Cup 2017 (ten players, average 2788).

So the order appears to be:

Sinquefield Cup 2014 (2802)
Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 (2801)
Sinquefield Cup 2013 (2797)
Norway Chess 2017 (2797)
Sinquefield Cup 2015 (2795)
Norway Chess 2018 (2791)
Sinquefield Cup 2017 (2788)
Sinquefield Cup 2018 (2787)
London Chess Classic 2016 (2785)
London Chess Classic 2015 (2784)

Any takers for the tournament to complete the line-up for the strongest ten tournaments where it is possible to calculate an ELO average? Maybe restrict to the past ten years to avoid the need to adjust for historical comparisons? (EDIT: I added in the London Chess Classic 2015 [ten players, average 2784. There may well be other tournaments with an average above 2785 that have not been included in this listing yet.)

No-one has yet won the Sinquefield Cup twice. All previous winners are playing this year.
Last edited by Christopher Kreuzer on Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:47 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:31 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:53 am
I think it is the world top 14 minus Ding Liren, Kramnik and Giri
That leaves eleven...
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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by LawrenceCooper » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:37 am

JustinHorton wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:31 am
Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:53 am
I think it is the world top 14 minus Ding Liren, Kramnik and Giri
That leaves eleven...
Nepomniachtchi.

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Chris Rice » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:40 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:53 am
Aronian won with White in a Berlin. Wonder what Caruana and Carlsen have prepared in that opening? We won't see any top-secret preparation in their game, but Carlsen is White against Caruana in round 7 (on Saturday 25 August).
Just picking up on this point, from Mike Klein's report on Chess.com:

Aronian played 1. e4 exclusively in the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, and he trotted it back out again to open the Sinquefield Cup.

"My year so far is pretty dreadful," Aronian said. "It can't get any worse. I might as well try something new to get myself hyped up."

The public may sometimes balk at the Berlin Wall, but it seems other top players are very interested. The devil-may-care attitude also had a pragmatic reason. Since he sometimes uses the Berlin as Black, playing against it as White may shine a mirror on some improvements he could glean.

"If you want to try to understand certain positions, you have to try to fight with them with the opposite color," he said, adding that he'd be struggling with understanding but today he showed "glimpses of hope."
Last edited by Chris Rice on Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:40 am

JustinHorton wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:31 am
Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:53 am
I think it is the world top 14 minus Ding Liren, Kramnik and Giri
That leaves eleven...
Yeah, I can't count! :lol: I can't find a source giving the live ranking just before the tournament started. Maybe I should look at the FIDE rating list in use at the start of the tournament.

OK, it was the world top 14 minus Ding Liren (#4), Giri (#5), Kramnik (#7) and Nepomniachtchi (#11).

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:54 am

Chris Rice wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:40 am
Just picking up on this point, from Mike Klein's report on Chess.com:
Another point, about Mamedyarov this time:

"He has two other factoids going for him. No repeat winners have come from the five years of the Sinquefield Cup, and every one of the five distinct winners have won the opening round."

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:48 am

Mike Klein wrote:The public may sometimes balk at the Berlin Wall, but it seems other top players are very interested. The devil-may-care attitude also had a pragmatic reason. Since he sometimes uses the Berlin as Black, playing against it as White may shine a mirror on some improvements he could glean.
Shine a light (or shed some light) surely?
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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Chris Rice » Sun Aug 19, 2018 12:50 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:48 am
Mike Klein wrote:The public may sometimes balk at the Berlin Wall, but it seems other top players are very interested. The devil-may-care attitude also had a pragmatic reason. Since he sometimes uses the Berlin as Black, playing against it as White may shine a mirror on some improvements he could glean.
Shine a light (or shed some light) surely?
In the context he's written it, ie Aronian playing the Berlin from the opposite side to normal so that White's strategy against the Berlin became a little clearer, I took "shine a mirror" to mean "polish a mirror" but I agree its open to interpretation.

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Re: Sinquefield Cup

Post by Paul Cooksey » Sun Aug 19, 2018 2:24 pm

A good game from Shak in my opinion, although not the surprise it would have been a year ago when So was #2. I think it might make him favourite. His own form seems good, and MVL-Carlsen would be consistent with Magnus hiding his WC prep.

I like the 7pm start although the commentary not to my taste. Is this just me?

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