Sinquefield Cup, Round 9 (Last Round), Updated
Firouzja first, Caruana second, MVL, Abdusattorov Tie for third.
Entering the last round of the 2024 Sinquefield Cup some players had important motivation to spur them on, and others were looking to be done with the event. Fortunately for the former and unfortunately for the latter, they were paired; the results were predictable.
First things first: Alireza Firouzja needed only a draw to clinch clear first in the tournament - he had already clinched first place in the Grand Chess Tour as a whole after round 8 - and he got it. Having White against Praggnanandhaa R. he was satisfied to keep things under control, and Pragg’s slight pressure was insufficient to cause Firouzja any serious difficulties. The game went 47 moves, but never looked like trouble for the young Frenchman.
It has been a great tournament and a great year for Firouzja since the Candidates. He won the Tour for the second time in three years, and in this tournament he gained 16 points (rounding up) and is now #5 in the world. Well done!
In second place, both in the tournament and the Tour, is Fabiano Caruana. He was able to take advantage of a dispirited Anish Giri, who wound up alone in last, losing three games and winning none (and losing 22 points in the process). Giri played poorly by his standards, and wound up losing the game twice. Definitely a tournament he’ll want to forget as soon as possible.
Wesley So entered the day in third place in the overall Tour standings, and if he maintained his place in the tournament - and thus the Tour - he would guarantee his automatic invitation to next year’s Tour. He managed a comfortable draw with Black against Gukesh D. (who drew all nine(!) of his games in the tournament), but if Maxime Vachier-Lagrave could beat Ding Liren it would be Vachier-Lagrave who would take third (in the Tour) and receive automatic qualification.
Happily for MVL and unfortunately for So, Ding was his usual listless self. Vachier-Lagrave, like Firouzja a couple of rounds ago, went for a slow maneuvering game, avoiding exchanges to keep the tension, and Ding cracked. For a while Ding seemed like his old self in the tournament, but by the end he was looking vulnerable once again.
MVL thus took third in the Tour, and tied for third in the tournament. It would have been solo third but Nodirbek Abdusattorov won his second game of the event to keep pace with him. Abdusattorov’s victim was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who like Ding and Giri started to collapse at the end of the tournament.
This wasn’t the greatest Sinquefield Cup ever, to put it mildly, but we can hope that it was a good warmup for the players as they get ready for the Olympiad, which starts in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, here are the games, with my comments, and I’ve also updated the game files for the earlier rounds (one game from round 1, and all the games from round 5) for your instruction and entertainment.
Update: I made several fixes in the game file (new link given above) and realized that I forgot to provide the final standings - argh! Here they are:
(1) Firouzja 6 (out of 9)
(2) Caruana 5.5
(3)-(4) Vachier-Lagrave, Abdusattorov 5
(5)-(7) Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, So 4.5
(8)-(9) Ding, Nepomniachtchi 3.5
(10) Giri 3