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All Games Drawn in Round 3 of Sinquefield Cup 2016

At the end of Round 2 of Sinquefield Cup 2016, 5 out of 10 games (50%) were decided. But in Round 3, all games were drawn.

They were not necessarily uncontested draws at all. The game between Wesley So and Levon Aronian is one example where Aronian traded his two minor pieces for a rook and a pawn early on, but just as the game started, the game ended even.[replay]

Wesley So still leads the tournament so far, after applying the tiebreak. See standings below:

Sinquefield Cup 2016 Ranking after Round 3

#NamePtsSB
1So, Wesley2.03.25
Anand, Viswanathan2.02.50
Aronian, Levon2.02.25
Topalov, Veselin2.01.75
5Ding, Liren1.52.50
Caruana, Fabiano1.52.25
Nakamura, Hikaru1.52.00
8Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime1.01.50
Giri, Anish1.01.25
10Svidler, Peter0.50.75

Sinquefield Cup 2016 Round 2 Results

The Sinquefield Cup is the third leg of Grand Chess Tour 2016. Two former world champions, Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov, are participants in this event, although we’re missing the skill sets of another former world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, and the current world champion and number 1 player, Magnus Carlsen, whose currently busy preparing for defending his title come November.

In round 2 of the tournament, we saw some action — so much so, that 3 out of the 5 games were actually decisive:

Sinquefield Cup 2016 Round 2 Results

NameRtgRes.NameRtg
Levon Aronian27841-0Peter Svidler2751
Fabiano Caruana28071/2-1/2Veselin Topalov2761
Hikaru Nakamura27911-0Anish Giri2769
Ding Liren27551/2-1/2Wesley So2771
M. Vachier-Lagrave28190-1Viswanathan Anand2770

Wesley So and Veselin Topalov Win in Round 1 of Sinquefield Cup 2016

Wesley So in Sinquefield Cup 2016

Wesley So in Sinquefield Cup 2016. Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour.

Sinquefield Cup 2016 starts with a bang! Two out of five games were decisive.

Wesley So beats Hikaru Nakamura in their clash ([replay]) in Round 1 of Sinquefield Cup. Apparently, this was So’s first win over Nakamura in a classical time period game.  Meanwhile, Peter Svidler fell victim to Veselin Topalov on the other board. The rest of the games were drawn.

FIDE Ratings Update — August 2016

The FIDE Ratings update for the month of August 2016 is out.

There are a lot of changes in the top 10, including MVL‘s jump from number 4 to number 2 after a 21 ELO rating points boost from 2798 to 2819. Let’s find out if he can keep his momentum in the upcoming Sinquefield Cup.

Ding Liren lost 23 ELO points after his loss in his mini match against Alexander Grischuk, among others, and thus slid down from number 8 to number 13.

Anish Giri and Sergey Karjakin lost ground as well after their dismal performances in Bilbao, and thus enabling Wesley So to gain control of the 7th spot.

You’ll find below the top 20 list:

FIDE Ratings Top 20 - August 2016

RkNameTi.FedRtgGmsB-Year
1Carlsen, MagnusgNOR2857101990
2Vachier-Lagrave, MaximegFRA2819111990
3Kramnik, VladimirgRUS280871975
4Caruana, FabianogUSA280771992
5Aronian, LevongARM279201982
6Nakamura, HikarugUSA2791101987
7So, WesleygUSA2771101993
8Anand, ViswanathangIND277001969
9Giri, AnishgNED2769101994
10Karjakin, SergeygRUS2769101990
11Mamedyarov, ShakhriyargAZE276401985
12Topalov, VeselingBUL276101975
13Ding, LirengCHN2755161992
14Grischuk, AlexandergRUS275441983
15Li, Chao bgCHN275391989
16Harikrishna, P.gIND2752131986
17Rapport, RichardgHUN275201996
18Svidler, PetergRUS275141976
19Gelfand, BorisgISR274361968
20Navara, DavidgCZE274271985
Check out the Top 100 List.

Kramnik Out, Svidler In, in Sinquefield Cup 2016

The third leg of Grand Chess Tour 2016, the Singquefield Cup in Saint Louis, Missouri, in the United States, was scheduled to have Vladimir Kramnik among its list of strong participants. But apparently, he withdrew for health reasons. Chess.com:

Kramnik, who was going to make his debut in St. Louis, told Chess.com: “I have had back problems for quite some time already. Since it is getting worse, I just want to use this month to cure it.”

Signs of aging, eh? Nevertheless, Sinquefield Cup will make do without the World No. 3 (according to the live ratings) and carry on with Peter Svidler in his stead.

Thus, the lineup for the Sinquefield Cup 2016 follows:

Sinquefield Cup 2016 Participants

Sd.NameCountryJuly
Rtg
1Fabiano CaruanaUnited States2810
2Maxime Vachier-LagraveFrance2798
3Levon AronianArmenia2792
4Hikaru NakamuraUnited States2787
5Anish GiriNetherlands2785
6Ding LirenChina2778
7Wesley SoUnited States2770
8Viswanathan AnandIndia2770
9Veselin TopalovBulgaria2761
10Peter SvidlerRussia2759

Alexander Grischuk Beats Ding Liren in a Mini Match

ding-liren-alexander-grischuk

From 19th to 22nd July the Chinese number one Ding Liren, with a rating of 2778 currently number eight in the world, and Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk, with a rating of 2747 currently number 18 in the world, played a four-game match in Wenzhou, China. Grischuk won the first game from a worse position and Ding Liren did not manage to equalise the score in the following three games. Grischuk won the match 2.5-1.5.

— ChessBase

It seems like mini-matches are a thing right now. In May, Ding Liren played Wesley So in a 4-game mini-match as well. Then, more recently, there was the Biel Chess Festival 2016 and Gelfand vs Inarkiev Match 2016.

See the Grischuk vs. Liren match games below: [replay]

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wins Dortmund 2016 with One Round To Go

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) is slated to win the Dortmund’s Sparkassen Chess Meeting after 6 rounds and a round more to go. Chess.com writes:

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave continued to look nigh untouchable in round six of Dortmund’s Sparkassen Chess Meeting. Victory (against Ruslan Ponomariov) moved him to 5.0/6 and clinched first place with a round to go. Clinching first would be a remarkable achievement in any tournament, but it is especially impressive in a seven-round tournament like Dortmund.

This enabled MVL to chart his way up in second place in the current Live Ratings list:

live-ratings-july-17-2016

Standings after round 6 follows: