St. Louis Rapid & Blitz Ends; The Sinquefield Cup Begins
Firouzja destroys the field in the first, but can he best Carlsen in the new event?
I’m not yet officially “back” - it will be a few more days - but with a little free time at the moment and another big tournament about to start, it’s a good moment to sneak in some blogging.
There’s not too much to be said about the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, which ended a couple of days ago, except in praise of Alireza Firouzja’s performance. He finished the rapid portion tied with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with a healthy score of 11/18, and then went on a rampage in the blitz. On the first day of the blitz he scored a terrific 7/9, which increased his lead over the field. True, Hikaru Nakamura went half a point better, but his performance in the rapid still left him three and a half points going into the final day. For one round there was an ounce of drama, as Nakamura began day two with with a win while Firouzja drew his first game. Then the drama came to an end, as Firouzja won six games in a row, including his head-to-head game with Nakamura. Firouzja drew in round 8 and won the last game as well to close with a brilliant 8/9 for the last day and 15/18 in the blitz, winning the tournament five points ahead of Nakamura, who was in turn two points ahead of Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. It’s good to see Firouzja looking like his pre-Candidates self again.
Many of the same players are continuing on to the Sinquefield Cup, which starts today, with one especially noteworthy substitution: Magnus Carlsen. The tournament is extremely strong (Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja, Caruana, etc.), with only one player who is not a member of the world’s absolute elite. Here are the pairings for round 1, which begins at 1 p.m. local time/2 p.m. ET:
Mamedyarov - So
Dominguez - Vachier-Lagrave
Firouzja - Caruana
Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi
Niemann - Aronian
In case you’re wondering, Firouzja will play Carlsen in round 5, and he’ll have the white pieces.
Tournament predictions?