The $350,000 Sinquefield Cup at St Louis, one of the top three global tournaments, starts today with one name conspicuously absent. Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, is staying away again, and has not competed in America’s chess capital since the day in 2022 when he lost in the third round to 19-year-old Hans Niemann.
Carlsen withdrew from that tournament before the fourth round, and set off a chain reaction that featured cheating allegations, a $100mn lawsuit and mutual hostility between Carlsen and Niemann which has continued to this day. The view now is that the incident involved no cheating, and certainly no anal beads.
An additional factor in Carlsen’s avoidance of St Louis may be that, in contrast to Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee and Norway Chess at Stavanger, where he has been the dominant player over many years, his previous Sinquefield Cup record is comparatively modest. He won there in 2013, was in a triple tie for first in 2018, but had to settle for second place on four other occasions.
The outstanding result in all the Sinquefield Cups has been by Fabiano Caruana, the reigning US champion and world No 3, in 2014. Caruana won his first seven games and drew his last three to finish three points clear of Carlsen. His performance rating was 3098, the highest in chess history at elite level.
A significant moment occurred in the very first round of the 2024 Cup when Ding Liren, China’s reigning world champion, and Gukesh Dommaraju, India’s 18-year-old title challenger, were paired in a curtain raiser for their $2.5m 14-game series starting in Singapore on November 20. The game ended in a lively draw in which Ding sacrificed a rook and a bishop for perpetual check.
The full list for the 2024 Sinquefield Cup is: Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So (US), Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Gukesh Dommaraju (India), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia/Fide), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) and Ding Liren (China). Play starts 7.30pm BST on Monday August 19, and will be screened live on grandchesstour.org.
Hans Niemann scored a clear victory in his five-day match in London last week against the England No 1 and former Russian, Nikita Vitiugov. The now 21-year-old US grandmaster won one game and drew five in the classical section, and had wider margins at rapid and blitz.
Niemann has already beaten the Netherlands No 1 Anish Giri in Utrecht, and this week meets France’s No 3 Étienne Bacrot in Paris. He is likely to advance into the world top 20, a career high, which would be a significant step towards his goal of securing more high-quality tournament invitations.
Another major target for Niemann is the semi-finals of the chess.com speed championship in Paris on September 6, where he and Carlsen will meet over the board for the first time since the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. The other semi-final will be Hikaru Nakamura vs Firouzja.
It will be a grudge match, for sure. Niemann has denounced “the chess establishment which ruined my career”, while Carlsen has said that he would prefer a different opponent, but “if I have a decent day I’ll probably win without too many issues.”
Puzzle 2586
Gary Lane vs Vasily Smyslov, Lloyds Bank 1989. The game continued 1 Qxf7 Qe7 2 Qxe7 Rxe7 with a later draw. Can you do better for White?
Click here for solution
