English Chess Forum

The St Louis Rapid & Blitz, the third leg of the 2018 Grand Chess Tour, takes place from Saturday 11th August until Wednesday 15th August.

As with the two earlier events, three days of Rapid will be followed by two days of Blitz.

Play starts each day at 1900 London time.

Pairings: http://chess-results.com/tnr371143.aspx?lan=1&art=2 and http://chess-results.com/tnr371147.aspx?lan=1&art=2.

Live Games: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2018/1/1/1.

Video of Opening Ceremony: https://grandchesstour.org/2018-grand-c ... g-ceremony. (You may wish to skip the first ten minutes of the video.)

The St Louis Rapid & Blitz will be followed by the Sinquefield Cup, a Classic event, which starts on Saturday 18th August. Magnus Carlsen will be playing therein.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:49 am

The St Louis Rapid & Blitz will be followed by the Sinquefield Cup, a Classic event, which starts on Saturday 18th August. Magnus Carlsen will be playing therein.

The blitz and rapid events looks mouth-watering as always. Lots of incredible chess and drama hopefully.

Will the Sinquefield Cup be the final meeting between Carlsen and Caruana before their match in November? And when was Carlsen confirmed as the Sinquefield Cup wildcard? Back in June, I made a post in this thread on the Altibox Norway event, quoting Pete Doggers who gave what he thought was the schedule of both players. No hint there that Carlsen was planning to play at the Sinquefield Cup. Caruana is playing in the Olympiad (bit surprising that, really), and Carlsen not playing.

Could Caruana be contracted to play in the olympiad to pay off his dowry?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:10 pm

When was Carlsen confirmed as the Sinquefield Cup wildcard?

The Press Release was issued on 25th June. You can read it at https://grandchesstour.org/news-press-r ... uez-accept.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:10 pm

Will the Sinquefield Cup be the final meeting between Carlsen and Caruana before their match in November?

Probably. It is conceivable, but unlikely, that both might play in the European Club Cup, or that Carlsen might join Caruana at the Chess.com Isle of Man International.

Report on Day 1 of the Rapid and a great day for Caruana with a perfect 3/3.

Report on Day 2 of the Rapid. Caruana still leads by a couple of points.

Report on Day 3. The last day of the rapids saw Caruana pushed off the top and its Nakamura and Mamedyarov who now lead. As we head into the blitz part everyone now expects Naka to win this event comfortably. Clearly what we have also seen is further evidence, despite a great start, that Caruana has little chance against Carlsen if it goes to tie-breaks in the World Ch match.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:23 am

Report on Day 3. The last day of the rapids saw Caruana pushed off the top and its Nakamura and Mamedyarov who now lead. As we head into the blitz part everyone now expects Naka to win this event comfortably. Clearly what we have also seen is further evidence, despite a great start, that Caruana has little chance against Carlsen if it goes to tie-breaks in the World Ch match.

The alleged favourite has lost in the first round so it may not be all plain sailing.

Nakamura regains the lead from Mamedyarov after a cheapo in a losing position in their round 8 encounter.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:58 pm

Nakamura regains the lead from Mamedyarov after a cheapo in a losing position in their round 8 encounter.

But the two end the day 1st= on 17/27.

Nakamura has won with a round to spare after beating Mamedyarov in the penultimate round.

Final standings: https://grandchesstour.org/2018-grand-c ... apid-blitz

Updated GCT leader board: https://grandchesstour.org/2018-grand-c ... -standings

So Nakamura qualifies for London and MVL, Karjakin & So in the other qualifying places with one tournament to go. Aronian & Mamedyarov the only two with any realistic hopes to gatecrash the top four places.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:00 am

So Nakamura qualifies for London and MVL, Karjakin & So in the other qualifying places with one tournament to go. Aronian & Mamedyarov the only two with any realistic hopes to gatecrash the top four places.

I would not be anything like so categorical.

Have you taken account of there being more Grand Chess Tour points available in the Sinquefield Cup than in the Rapid and Blitz events, namely 20/18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1?

https://grandchesstour.org/sites/defaul ... ations.pdf

For the four players below Nakamura to leap-frog him in the Sinquefield Cup in the most Naka-unfriendly way possible we'd have: Aronian winning with 20 points; So second with 15 points; Karjakin third with 12 points and MVL fourth with 10 points

Their standings would then be...Aronian 39, So 38, Karjakin 36 and MVL 35. Naka is currently on 33 and would need to score 2 points to qualify for London above MVL, by virtue of his two GCT wins. As such, Naka is in for London unless he comes dead last in the Sinquefield Cup or the four behind him fail to secure their positions in the most Naka-unfriendly order. He's guaranteed at least 1 point more.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:55 am

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:00 am

So Nakamura qualifies for London and MVL, Karjakin & So in the other qualifying places with one tournament to go. Aronian & Mamedyarov the only two with any realistic hopes to gatecrash the top four places.

I would not be anything like so categorical.

Have you taken account of there being more Grand Chess Tour points available in the Sinquefield Cup than in the Rapid and Blitz events, namely 20/18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1?

https://grandchesstour.org/sites/defaul ... ations.pdf

Thanks for alerting me to that, for those not in the know it's rather hard to make sense of all the different formats and scoring systems. Individually though the blitz and rapid have been very entertaining, hopefully the standard will have its moments too.