2013 Sinquefield Cup (St. Louis, USA)
Four of the world’s top chess players will assemble in what has become a major center for chess development. St. Louis will host the 1st Sinquefield Cup beginning tomorrow in a double-round robin event. Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest-ranked player headlines the event along with the second highest in Levon Aronian and top American players Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky. The first round will begin at 1 p.m. Central Time on September 9th. The players will be competing for a total $170,000 prize fund, with $70,000 going to the winner.
September 9th-15, 2013 (St. Louis, USA) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Rank | Name | FIDE Rating | Country | Age | ||||||||||
| No. 1 | GM Magnus Carlsen | 2862 | Norway | 22 | ||||||||||
| No. 2 | GM Levon Aronian | 2802 | Armenia | 30 | ||||||||||
| No. 7 | GM Hikaru Nakamura | 2774 | USA | 25 | ||||||||||
| No. 17 | GM Gata Kamsky | 2741 | USA | 39 | ||||||||||
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| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Official Site |
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St. Louis Chess Club – Venue of Sinquefield Cup
The venue is the incomparable Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis or merely “St. Louis Chess Club”. Across the street is the World Chess Hall of Fame which will also host a live commentary booth. Lester’s Restaurant will also have live commentary as well. The excitement has been brewing since the initial announcement and to capture the action will be GM Yasser Seirawan, WGM Jennifer Shahade with GM Maurice Ashley adding the color analysis from the telestrator. Should be a thriller!
Main Page: https://www.uschesschamps.com/
PGN Games: https://www.thechessdrum.net/palview6/sinqcup13.pgn
September 9th-15th, 2013 (St. Louis, USA)
Round #1 – Monday, 9 September 2013
What a fantastic round to the inaugural Sinquefield Cup! Two decisive games with tremendous tension. The game of the day had to be Magnus Carlsen’s win over an ambitious Gata Kamsky who drummed up what appeared to be a strong attack. Lev Aronian fought very hard to equalize against Hikaru Nakamura.
Tension was thick on both boards today.
GM Maurice Ashley’s color commentary was ESPN-worthy.
There was so much anticipation of today’s opening round. The Sinquefield Cup spared no expense to make this an unforgettable event. Local television crews were on hand to give media coverage and the event would feature a star-studded commentary team (GM Yasser Seirawan and WGM Jennifer Shahade team with GM Maurice Ashley) to bring the action to thousands of viewers.
In this position, black plays 30…Qb5?? with idea of an easy draw. The Armenian got a rude shock after Nakamura played 30.Qxb5 axb5 31.Nd7! Ouch.
After an eventful day of press-related events, the tournament got off to an exciting start and the first decisive result came in Nakamura-Aronian. During a Closed Ruy Lopez, white seized a slight positional pull, but Aronian had defensive resources.
After tension in the position, Aronian finally arrived at equality with 28.Nd2 Bxb3 29.Nxb3 Qxa4 30.Nxc5 only to blunder with 30…Qb5?? promptly losing the exchange. Nakamura banged out 31.Qxb5 axb5 32.Nd7 and Aronian went down with a whimper resigning at move 41.
There was a lot of attention of Carlsen, the world’s top-rated player. He will be facing Viswanathan Anand in November for the World Championship and many wondered whether he would be hiding preparation. It turns out that he played a normal if not “tepid” opening as characterized by GM Maurice Ashley.
Carlsen worked the rust off in impressive fashion.
Photo by Sabrina Chevannes.
The position certainly had none of the dynamic play expected by two fierce fighters, but then Kamsky unfurled a rather crude plan of storming the white king’s position. Fans and the commentators gasped at Kamsky’s 14…h5!? which GM Nigel Short though was overambitious. We would then be treated to a wonderful lesson is how to repel a pawn storm.
Moves later after 25…f5, black had established a formidable pawn storm and the question became whether black’s attack would arrive before white’s queenside invasion of the c-file. The answers came soon enough. Carlsen then played a star move of 30.f3! which threatens to either close off the kingside or shred black’s pawn mass. Houdini gave +.4 evaluation, but the impact on the position was greater. The momentum had shifted.
~Carlsen on 27.Rc2! and 30.f3 plan
In just a few moves, it became clear that the black king was the monarch in danger as the menacing double rooks lay in wait on the c-file. Throughout Carlsen appeared calm and it was clear that he had things under control all along. The battering ram along the c-file came into play after 33.Rc7+ Re7 34.Bxf6! Kxf6 35.Rc8! (+6.75 Houdini).
The black king is completely cornered by the heavy pieces as his queen looks on helplessly. It was a textbook example of how to exploit a pawn storm.
The black king scrambled for cover, but white pieces had invaded and the unusual mating attack initiated by 46.Kf3+ Kf6 47.Qg8! The king was cornered. Outstanding performance by Carlsen! He mentioned afterwards that he may have been a bit rusty and perhaps this is a good test before his match with Anand. He seemed to be impressed with the conditions of his first tournament in the U.S.
The venue had many, many visitors and yesterday there was a line snaking around the venue seeking autographs. The Armenians came by donning flags to see their national hero and of course Nakamura was a local favorite. There has not been this level of excitement for quite some time and perhaps America is ready for another chess renaissance not seen since Bobby Fischer.
Hikaru Nakamura 1, Magnus Carlsen 1
Levon Aronian 0, Gata Kamsky 0
September 9th-15th, 2013 (St. Louis, USA)
Round #2 – Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Round #2 of the Sinquefield Cup featured battles that had a bit of bragging rights attached. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian are the top two ranked players in the world while Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky are the top two ranked players in the U.S. Thus, two rivalries were being brought into a highly-competitive environment. It was a recipe for an exciting round and the players did not disappoint.
In Aronian-Carlsen, the Norwegian trotted out the Leningrad Dutch Defense, a rare opening at top level, but one in which Carlsen said was an aggressive try. The two players have played at least 63 games and perhaps it was time to make a change. Carlsen drummed up complications immediately attacking the dark squares with 11…Ng5!? As the game wore on there were some rook gymnastics and Carlsen shuffled his rooks back and forth probing for a break. Unfortunately, the break never came and the two players shook hands.
Commentator Maurice Ashley had proposed an enterprising exchange sacrifice entailing 28…Rxd3 29.Rxd3 Nxc4. There was another exchange sacrifice involving the dark-square bishop as well. In the post-mortem, Carlsen stated that he should have tried to sack the exchange and/or play for …b5, but felt he would be able to push in a less radical way. The computer gave black a slight edge, but with the rigid pawn structures, it was hard to avoid exchanges along the file and a massive blockade.
Yesterday, Carlsen said he intended to “kick Aronian while he was down” after his loss. Well… Carlsen was not able to do this. In fact Aronian is very much alive in this tournament as he will face a beleaguered Gata Kamsky tomorrow.
In Nakamura-Kamsky, both players half-hardheartedly greeted each other showing the rivalry. Nakamura would be playing the white pieces for the second consecutive day and again he would choose 1.e4. What would Kamsky reply with? Berlin? Marshall? Breyer? To the surprise of the commentators, Kamsky played 1…c5! and employed the Paulsen Sicilian after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 b5!?
This theoretical opening had all the makings of a tactical slugfest, but the real tactics occurred in the game’s end.
The game heated up quickly and GM Maurice Ashley excitedly went through the databases after the stunning 11.Nd5! only to find that it had been played at top level. In fact, Nakamura had played the black side of it against Vugar Gashimov (drawn).
Kamsky deviated with a novelty of his own after 11…Bd6 12. Qh5 (diagram on right). Ashley cited Sergei Tiviakov’s game with Manuel Candelario which continued 12…Bxd5 13. exd5 Nf6 14.Qg5 Kf8 15.dxe6 fxe6 16.Qh4 and white won a tactical slugfest. Houdini likes Kamsky’s 12…Ne7!? which appeared to be a novelty.
Nakamura blasted open the position with 17…e5! in order to get at the black king. It was clear that the black king was exposed, but the d7, e6, f7 formation was a hard nut to crack. Kamsky goaded Nakamura to fish for an h7-pawn so he could reorganize his forces. The black king scurried from e8 to c7 before Kamsky played 27…e5!?
This theoretical opening had all the makings of a tactical slugfest, but the real tactics occurred in the game’s end.
It appeared as if black got some space, but then things turned sour after 35.Qc5 as the initiative swung in white’s favor. Despite time pressure, Nakamura played very strong moves meeting 37…Rxf2 with 38.Qxd8! (diagram on left) In the end, black saved his exposed king but would enter a completely lost ending.
Thus, Nakamura sits atop the field with a perfect 2/2 on the eve of facing his nemesis, Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura will be fully motivated as he is winless in 20 encounters with seven losses and zero wins. When Ashley asked Nakamura about the matchup, he was a bit coy in his response, but it is certainly a big game for the American to show that he is still an equal rival and a future championship contender.
Hikaru Nakamura 2
Magnus Carlsen 1½, Levon Aronian ½, Gata Kamsky 0
September 9th-15th, 2013 (St. Louis, USA)
Round #3 – Wednesday, 11 September 2013
In the marquee matchup of the day, Magnus Carlsen faced one of his rival with some fighting words as a preface. Carlsen stated that he considered Levon Aronian his main rival debunking the Carlsen-Nakamura rivalry talk. However, this game was high stakes and certainly the Norwegian knew Nakamura would be gunning for him.
Seeing through a glass darkly 🙂 … Nakamura tried something new and sported dark shades against Carlsen today, but came up short of snaring a full point.
Carlsen played an unconventional setup that has recently come into vogue… the Bf4 salvo against the King’s Indian. GM Nigel Short was a bit critical of this trend and stated that Nakamura had handled it rather well. Carlsen was not surprised at 10…g5!? but 13…b5 was a move that caught him off guard.
Carlsen placed his hopes on a strong pawn at c6, but that pawn was blockaded. When asked why he didn’t pressed for more, Nakamura pointed out he defensive schemes for white and stated he could have even stood worse in some cases. Nevertheless, credible result and the American holds onto first place before the rest day.
Gata Kamsky was in a funk. He had lost his previous two games and stated that against Levon Aronian he was attempting to stop the bleeding by making a draw. The stated that he was not in good form and sought to conserve energy for the next three rounds.
Kamsky tried something new and the shock-value paid off.
Kamsky played a strange move order and soon we saw another Bf4 on the board… 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c3 c6 4. Bf4!? Nh5 5. Be3 g6 6. g3 Bg7 7. Bg2 O-O 8. Qc1 Nd7 9. Bh6 Re8 10. Bxg7 Kxg7. The game took shape but white only dreamt of an advantage as black claimed equality rather easily. In the end, the pieces melted away and Kamsky secured his draw.
Hikaru Nakamura 2½
Magnus Carlsen 2, Levon Aronian 1, Gata Kamsky ½
September 9th-15th, 2013 (St. Louis, USA)
Round #4 – Friday, 13 September 2013
The Sinquefield participants were introduced at Busch Stadium in what granted chess players worldwide positive exposure. Maurice Ashley and Hikaru Nakamura had to be commentators to teach many the rules of baseball, but a great time was had despite the local St. Louis Cardinals loss.
After a relaxing rest day, it was back to work.
Round Four action… let’s get ready to rumble!
Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
Today saw two interesting matchups… Levon Aronian would try to avenge a first-round loss to Hikaru Nakamura. One question was whether Nakamura would wear the sunglasses. In fact, as Nakamura walked into the room to take his seat, Gata Kamsky peered over and said, “No sunglasses?” It brought laughter and relieved some of the tension in the playing hall.
Nakamura (sans sunglasses) speaks about his game against Aronian. The American lost the thread on the position, but was candid in his responses. Tomorrow is another epic matchup against Carlsen. Photo by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.
Aronian played the unusual 5.h3!? and Nakamura employed a Benko-like after 5…O-O 6. Bg5 c5 7. d5 a6 8. Bd3 b5!? However, GM Alejandro Ramirez, a Benko connesseiur and author of two ChessBase DVDs on the Benko, stated that perhaps Nakamura didn’t have a true feel for such positions. In fact, white was able to stifle queenside play and then attack on the kingside with 20.h4 c4 21.h5.
Ultimately, the pressure became too great and Nakamura decided to sacrifice a piece for a couple of pawns. However, he promptly lost one back and Aronian began to tighten the screws on the position after 45.g3 fxg3 46.f4 Bxh5 47.Kg2. Nakamura was still fighting, but like a pack of hyenas on its prey, Aronian maintained his stifling grip. Despite a couple of inaccuracies by white, black had a few of his own and soon ran out of moves. The suffering was over.
Gata Kamsky has been in a bad way the entire tournament and would try to break out of his bad form with a win. However, he tried one of the most insipid openings to accomplish this gargantuan feat. An Exchange Ruy was on the board and Kamsky soon showed that he did not understand its intricacies and dithered a bit with the positioning of his pieces. At this level, it is hard to bring many surprises. The game was theory for the first ten moves, but white’s pieces got tangled after the pawn grab 12. Nfxe5 Be2 13. Re3 Bxc4 14. Nxc4 Ng4! White’s pieces became a huddled mess.
Carlsen has grabbed the tournament lead going into his epic matchup with Nakamura. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
The pressure became unbearable, Kamsky decided to donate a pawn to free his position and actually had some chances to hold after Carlsen decided on a bishop ending instead of a rook ending. After further mistakes, Carlsen created passed pawns on both sides of the board and white could no longer resist. In the postgame interview, Carlsen was not pleased with his play and left quickly after being interviewed by Maurice Ashley. Imagine how Kamsky must have felt.
Tomorrow is a new day and the St. Louis Chess Club will be an absolute madhouse with the Nakamura-Carlsen matchup and first place at stake. Look for Nakamura to bring his fighting spirit into an Ali-Frazier epic bout.
Magnus Carlsen 3
Hikaru Nakamura 2½, Levon Aronian 2, Gata Kamsky ½
September 9th-15th, 2013 (St. Louis, USA)
Round #5 – Saturday, 14 September 2013
Today was a highly-anticipated round with the marquee matchup being Hikaru Nakamura playing white against Magnus Carlsen. The two players are locked into the top positions of the tournament with Levon Aronian lurking in the wings. Gata Kamsky would only fight for respectability.
There has been a lot of talk about the rivalry of Nakamura and Carlsen ever since they played the legendary 30-game blitz match. Since that time, Carlsen has slowly pulled away both in rating and in head-to-head battles. Going into this game, Carlsen had not lost against Nakamura winning seven games and drawing the rest in 21 encounters. They drew a contentious game in the “shadegate” game where Nakamura donned sunglasses.
In great anticipation…
There was a crush of a crowd waiting on the players. Nakamura was actually the first player in but was not wearing the sunglasses. Minutes later, Carlsen entered the room and there was a shake of hands. Only when the players settled in their chairs did Nakamura pull out his sunglasses and put them on! Aronian and Kamsky entered consecutively without much fanfare. Everyone knew where the attention would lie that day.
Nakamura arrives!
Carlsen arrives with Evian orange juice!
Glasses on!
The often cherubic Aronian is now getting into game mode.
Guest Arbiter Francisco Guadaloupe makes the ceremonial move.
In Nakamura-Carlsen, we would see yet another Ruy Lopez Berlin which had posed Carlsen some problems previously. A very unusual “knight tour” occurred when Nakamura played 9.Nc3 Ne8 10.Nd5 Bd6 11.Re1 c6 12.Ne3 Bc7 13.Nf5 d5 14.Ne7+ Kh8 15.Nxc8. All of that to eliminate the bishop on c8?? Well… there is deep positional point that the Bf1 will exert pressure on the h3-c8 diagonal.
Intensity picks up as game wears on.
Black played 17…f5 stunting Nakamura’s bishop and obtained a optimal position with a knight coming on g5 to harass the light squares. The game would actually end on the light squares as the two players would repeat moves without taking undue risk. After the game a mob scene assembled to get autographs and interviews of Carlsen. It was like nothing ever seen since a certain player from Brooklyn captivated the world.
Draw!
In the Aronian-Kamsky game, Kamsky was still looking for his first win and essayed the Dutch Defense, an opening that Aronian bungled against Carlsen. There was the weird Bf4 move again but came up with an improvement from the Carlsen game. Kamsky was not deterred and played an aggressive stance with 15…g5!? 16. b5 g4 gaining space of the kingside… at the expense of his own king safety.
GMs Varuzhan Akobian and Ian Rogers (standing) gave the commentary at the World Chess Hall of Fame.
Aronian ate what was apparently a poisoned pawn with 28.Nxh5?! and after 28. Nxh5 Qh6 29. Nf4 Rd7 30. Nd5 Rh7 black was suddenly barreling through on the h-file. However, white hunkered down and was able to get the queens off in a slightly worse endgame. Then the rooks came off with only opposite-colored bishops remaining. The players entered a truce after 44 moves.
This was a momentous day in American chess. There was an excitement not seen in a very long time and it was an atmosphere that was reminiscent of a fantasyland for chess. Players come from far and wide to see the spectacle. A large crowd assembled outside of the club and there were screens everywhere. In fact, rumor has it that the tournament was being shown throughout the St. Louis area in various sports bars around town!
You could catch the live commentary at Lester’s Bar and Grill next door. Dan Lucas, editor of Chess Life, takes in the action.
Hikaru Nakamura in a post game press conference.
Carlsen was the subject of a mob scene on Saturday.
Norwegian media were on-hand for interviews and there were countless autograph seekers.
This is who they came to see.
Hikaru Nakamura also mentioned in the press conference that he was recognized on the street by random people who had seen him on television. The Sinquefield Cup will expand next year and if the inaugural event is a sign of things to come, then there is quite a bit of hope for the growth of chess popularity in the U.S.
Jarrett Gaymon flew in from New York to promote “chessboxing”.
Two buddies… Varuzhan Akobian and Levon Aronian share a light moment. Is that Shiva on the left? He’s everywhere!
It was a great day and a celebration of chess.
Photos by Daaim Shabazz.
Magnus Carlsen 3½
Hikaru Nakamura 3, Levon Aronian 2½, Gata Kamsky 1
September 9th-15th, 2013 (St. Louis, USA)
Round #6 – Sunday, 15 September 2013
In the finale’ of this historic tournament, there was still uncertainty of the winner until the last game. It was an appropriate ending to what was a wonderful tournament that raised the barrier for tournaments in the U.S. It was a general consensus that the tournament was a rousing success and organizer Rex Sinquefield announced a repeat for next year.
So… the stage was set. Magnus Carlsen was a mere 1/2-point ahead of the field facing a tough battle with Levon Aronian while Hikaru Nakamura faced his national nemesis in Gata Kamsky. So again we have battle of 1s and 2s. The point of all this was that there was a possibility of a three-way tie if Aronian won and Nakamura scored a draw. In fact, it seemed as if the tournament would end this way.
Magnus Carlsen prepares for the ultimate battle against world’s #2.
There was a crush of people witnessing history being made.
In the words of Morpheus… “Here we go!”
In Kamsky-Nakamura, the two would enter an exciting Najdorf variation. The game was highly theoretical and in fact both players were very familiar with the intricacies having played games this year in the line. However, instead of 7.Bc1 Kamsky played 7.Bg5. The game begin to pick up momentum after white chose 14.O-O instead of 14.Qe2. White then sacrificed a pawn 14…g4 15. hxg4 Bxg4 16. Qd2 Nd7 17. Nd5 Bxb2 18.Rab1 with good play.
Kamsky pressed for the attack throughout, but Nakamura defended well.
However, Nakamura held the position together tactically in this slugfest. Both players really gave it everything they had. Kamsky mentioned that he wanted to apply pressure and go for the win. Of course, this would have meant taking an undue risk of another heart-breaking loss. Kamsky had a very professional attitude and was in relatively good spirits despite being winless.
There were all types of ways to follow the action…
…in Lester’s Sports Bar with a snack…
… in Lester’s analysis room…
… in the World Chess Hall of Fame…
… in the St. Louis Chess Club…
… and of course the games monitors positioned throughout. A true smorgasbord of chess activity.
In the last game to finish, Carlsen-Aronian was a game of ebb and flows with the game moving dynamically from one evaluation to another. One thing that was agreed upon was that Aronian had totally outplayed Carlsen in the opening. In the post-tournament press conference, Carlsen admitted as much.
Carlsen played the Anti-Marshall, but got his pieces jumbled the same way Kamsky’s pieces were jumbled in their game in round four. Despite the queenside pressure, Aronian dithered with king moves and Carlsen began to untangle his pieces. Aronian attempted an exchange sacrifice after 30…Rd4!? but it was declined by the astute 31.Ne1! setting a trap of 31…Rxe4?? 32.Nd3! Rb5 33.c4! In actuality, it was Aronian’s knights that were clumsily tripping over each other.
Intensity is rising!
Seeing the advantage slip away, Aronian offered a three-fold repetition, but Carlsen decided to keep playing. Draw offer denied. Many lauded his courage since a draw would have clinched the tournament. At the point that the draw offer was declined, Aronian began to play strange moves and all of a sudden his position collapsed. “Losing that position is embarrassing,” he said afterwards. On the other hand, Carlsen pressed on as if he was toughening himself for his pending match.
After Aronian conceded defeat, Carlsen was grateful for the tournament, thanked the organizers and felt that this was good training for his upcoming World Championship match against Viswanathan Anand. It certainly was a joy to watch four gladiators battle and there was no need for the “Sophia Rules”. Each of the twelves games were relatively hard fought with a variety of openings played. This tournament will certainly become the subject of a book or DVD.
Journalists Row (L-R): Cathy Rogers, Daaim Shabazz, Mike Klein, Janis Nisii, Sabrina Chevannes
Even the journalists have fans! Ken Marshall (left) stated he was a self-professed fan of chess journalists and had followed the work of many. He is posing here with Italian journalist Janis Nisii who was covering the event for “64” magazine, a Russian chess publication and England’s “Chess”. Ken also has followed The Chess Drum. 🙂
GM Maurice Ashley and Dr. Daaim Shabazz… longtime comrades.
Photos by Daaim Shabazz.
This tournament was historic in a number of ways and the good news is it will be bigger and better. Such a legacy will cement St. Louis as one of the premier chess cities in the world. An improbable chess Mecca, it is now a place of unparalleled sophistication and professionalism. Millions of viewers watched the action and certainly the success of this event will be a boon to popularity in U.S. chess.
Magnus Carlsen 4½
Hikaru Nakamura 3½, Levon Aronian 2½, Gata Kamsky 1½
https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2013/09/17/drum-interviews-at-13-sinquefield-cup/
Nice Pics, Daaim saw them on facebook, didnt see the 30 games of blitz though , strange i missed them is that official? You mentioned “knight tour” when naka started moving his knight around, is that new? Im just curious is all, im in the Buffalo Pub. Library, right now, IN REAL LIFE.
This was a few years back. They actually played 40 games after a tournament. Carlsen won by several games.
Video by Macauley Petersen.
oh , ultrathanks, i recall now, didnt know who won though, yeah chess can be tough on some American players when ya practice the traditional stuff, not too surprising really, i recall studyin benjis chess in the 90s when he went over there to play, same stuff, right?