It’s still very early in the Sinquefield Cup, but so far it’s good news for young Hans Niemann. In both of his games so far his opponents have mixed up or forgotten their prep, giving Niemann a useable advantage. In the first round he was unable to convert it into a full point against Levon Aronian, and for that matter he subsequently went astray against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round 2. It was a crazy position, though, and Mamedyarov erred in turn. From then on, Niemann showed excellent technique, eventually winning in a queen ending.
With the win, he caught up to Magnus Carlsen in first place. Carlsen obtained an easy, uneventful draw against Aronian, while no one other than Niemann managed to build on a round 1 draw with a win in round 2. Fabiano Caruana should have been that player, when Leinier Dominguez played 26…Rf8? (instead, 26…Rad8 kept equality). Caruana missed a first winning idea on move 27 and another on move 31, and Dominguez eked out a draw.
There was only one other winner on the day, and that was the only player to lose in round 1: Ian Nepomniachtchi. He was pressing against Alireza Firouzja throughout the game, and converted a better rook ending with surprising ease. Apparently Firouzja greatly underestimated the dangers facing him, and essentially went down without a fight.
Finally, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tried to win the Berlin ending against Wesley So, but, as is usual in top-level tests of that opening, Black held with relative ease.
Congrats to Niemann so far, who will face his biggest test of the event in today’s round 3: Black vs. co-leader Carlsen. Here are the full pairings:
Mamedyarov (.5) - Vachier-Lagrave (1)
Dominguez (1) - Nepomniachtchi (1)
Firouzja (.5) - Aronian (1)
Carlsen (1.5) - Niemann (1.5)
So (1) - Caruana (1)
Finally, here’s the tournament website, and here are the games (with some comments).