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.

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

Grand Chess Tour 2016 Standings — after Paris and Leuven

Carlsen Wins Grand Chess Tour Leuven

After winning the rapid rounds with an impressive 4/4 performance on Day 2 of the tournament, World Champion Magnus Carlsen even cemented his dominance with an 11/18 performance in the blitz rounds.

leuven-blitz-2016-final-crosstable

Thus, making him the runaway winner of the combined rapid and blitz games that comprise the whole of the Grand Chess Tour 2016 — Your Next Move — Leuven, Belgium. Final combined results follow:

combined-results-leuven-2016-final

Wesley So makes it to the 2nd place at the conclusion of this Leuven leg. He is followed, this time closely behind, by Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand, by half a point each.

Wesley So in great shape so far in Grand Chess Tour 2016

Wesley So finished the first half of the blitz rounds of Your Next Move — Grand Chess Tour 2016 at second place with 5 points out of 9, although, tied with Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, and Hikaru Nakamura. Levon Aronian is slightly ahead at 5.5 points.

Crosstable after nine rounds of blitz games:

gct-your-next-move-2016-blitz-cross

With three-quarters through the tournament, Carlsen is still ahead in the combined score (rapid scores are multiplied by two):