In case you haven’t had enough of the goings-on in St. Louis, there’s still more tomorrow. It will be a 10-player rapid (G/25’) round robin of Chess960 (aka “Fischer Random”), with three rounds per day from Wednesday through Friday. The cast of characters has significant but not complete overlap with the field of the Sinquefield Cup, given below with their URS ratings in parentheses:
Hikaru Nakamura (2809)
Alireza Firouzja (2787)
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2784)
Wesley So (2781)
Fabiano Caruana (2774)
Levon Aronian (2765)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2747)
Lenier Dominguez (2728)
Peter Svidler (2714)
Garry Kasparov (2619)
Kasparov at 2619? Oof.
The games start at 2 p.m. local time (= 3 p.m. ET), and there will be a new random position before every round. Also, tomorrow, there will be their usual “Ultimate Moves” event, which generally takes the form of a tag team event with half the players on Rex Sinquefield’s team and the other half on Rex’s son Randy’s team.
Meanwhile, if you’re hankering for normal chess, the Russian Superfinal (what normal human beings would call the Russian Championship) is underway, and some top players, including Ding Liren, are participating in the Chinese League. No need to go through withdrawal…
Your URS ratings differ slightly from those at the sites to which you link, were the latter changed after you checked? The algorithm is undisclosed but apparently includes punishment for inactivity, which may play a role for Kasparov. While there is more to it, see http://universalrating.com/player.php?PlayerID=157507 : He went from 2630 to 2542 (world #535, Russian #106) - clearly due to a disastrous blitz result (2.5/18) at the Croatia Grand Chess Tour, but what caused his comeback to 2624 two months later?
Surprising news today: the next chess24 Internet event "Julius Baer Generation Cup" starting on Sunday will - as per today - have Carlsen AND Niemann. Only Aronian, who doesn't have to travel in between, plays both events. The tournament name refers to the fact that there are other juniors (Erigaisi, Keymer, Praggnanandhaa, Christopher Yoo) as well as Gelfand and Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk seemed de facto retired, for FIDE he's inactive.
I now wonder whether Carlsen was initially meant to play the chess960 event (they call it "Chess9LX"). And if so, who replaced him after his early departure from Saint Louis? Kasparov or Peter Svidler, present as a commentator in Saint Louis?