Sinquefeld Cup 2014

cdeb

Officially the strongest tournament by rating of all time. Caruana leads on 3/3, with two wins as black, including this amazing game against Carlsen.

This'll be an interesting tournament to watch over the next week. Live games are on the tournament website. They're at 8pm Irish time each day (Monday is a rest day), except for the last round on 7th September, which is 6pm.

cdeb

Caruana wins again; on 4/4 now.

Have to start thinking this may be one of the greatest tournament performances of all time. Long way to go yet of course, but 4/4 in the strongest tournament ever is quite impressive. Sargissian had a 3021 performance in a tournament in 2007. Yang-Fan Zhou got a 3038 rating performance in an e2e4 tournament in 2011. There's a couple of higher performances in blitz.

But you won't see a performance rating of 3606 that often!! Although others (like the ICU ratings site) cap rating performances at 400 points higher than your opponents for 100% records, which would make a 3201 performance. Still, that's solid enough. On the live ratings, he's within 30 points of Carlsen now, having gained 37 points between the Olympiad and the first four rounds here. That's 3 points a game of a gain, every game.

Twas another interesting game too.

Ciaran

Looks like Nakamura is going to join the list of victims. Amazing performance from Caruana.

cdeb

Wow. 2½ points clear after five rounds! They should just end the tournament now!

Three wins in round 5 (as there were in round 4). Quality tournament overall in fairness.

Valmont

I looked over Caruana's win against Carlsen and it surprised me by how exciting it was. I usually find games between today's top players to be a bit dull (only because I don't understand enough positional chess) but this game had sacrifices and combinations, and it was all very daring. Nice to see a player go for the win too.

Valmont

5 out of 5 now. I wonder will he make it six? Does he have white against Carlsen next round? I suppose he could just play it safe now and draw the rest to win the tournament.

L1m1tless

Good chance for 6/6 now!

cdeb

Wow.

Topalov doesn't look happy at the board at all.

This is incredible.

cdeb

The commentator just went through black's four best replies to 23. Re3, with the help of computer analysis. The chess24.com computer's first pick wasn't among them!

L1m1tless

Amazing play again by Caruana

Ciaran

Yup, another win. Ridiculous!

cdeb

Has he even had to grind out an ending yet? He's just crushing people; fantastic to watch.

Caught up another six points on Carlsen yesterday; 32 points in it now. Compared to a 70-point gap when the tournament started. At that rate, he could conceivably sneak the world number 1 spot by the end of the week (though I doubt it'll happen)

Lucena

Was about to disagree with you cdeb (didn’t seem plausible) about Caruana becoming N°1, but then I did the calculations.

If he wins four more, that’ll be 4 x 7 points (roughly) per win = 28

So that means that Carlsen will have lost a game, so minus 8 (roughly) for him.

So 36 points “gained” for Caruana.

Wouldn’t that be spectacular if it happened!

Lucena

I’ve never really followed modern chess, as I always thought that the games would be too complex for a mere amateur to understand, but I had a look at the game Caruana - Topalov on the way to work this morning.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game; Caruana’s play seemed logical and easy to understand. Obviously I don’t understand it to the same level as a GM, and I wouldn’t have found the moves he did, but most of the moves made sense.

I must look at a few more of his games, if there are more in that style, I might become a fan!

L1m1tless

7/7!

Sparks

And a horribly crushing win to boot. Roughly -12 in a game against a 2768 player?

cdeb

Wouldn't focus on the -12; I think it tells more that white's King was on c3 so early. Mental stuff.

I enjoyed a5 from white late on; offering his Queen for pawns on a7 and b6.

Caruana has won the tournament now I think - with three rounds to go. Is it white against Carlsen next?

Lucena

@cdeb

Yup! Wouldn't mind watching it live, but unfortunately a little thing called 'getting up for work in the morning'
will be an obstacle. Friday night would've been a better night for it!

Ficheall

I want some of whatever Caruana is on.

Lucena

Anyone know what time the rounds start at tonight? I wasn't able to find the info on the Sinquefield site.

Edit: Found info here:

http://www.uschesschamps.com/node/499

L1m1tless

8pm Irish Time

Lucena

Caruana appears to have a nice attacking position (after 19. f x g4) and lots of space. Will be interesting to see how Carlsen defends.

Lucena

Ok, not looking good for Carlsen, I'm off to bed.

Goodnight everyone!

Ficheall

Bah. A draw. Caruana should still be well on track for the highest performance rating, surely...

cdeb

Well at least he has a proper rating performance now (100% is always hard to define). 3247. By a distance the best ever.

Appropriate that it took arguably the greatest player in the world to stop arguably the greatest performance in the world.

mikhail

Ficheall wrote: »

I want some of whatever Caruana is on.

A highly disciplined training regimen? A great run of luck? The way to a huge cash prize?

cdeb

Nakamura has gone wrong in a rook and minor piece ending against Caruana; Fabio picks up a pawn and has a nice position now. 8½/9 maybe?

cdeb

Caruana misses a clear win on move 40. Think he still had five or six minutes left, but he took 15 seconds over his move and missed a nice exchange sac to push a pawn or two home.

Ficheall

Draw. Boo!

Shame he didn't spot that lovely sac. I reckon the pressure is getting to him :P

Ciaran

Aronian 3 pawns down against Carlsen but it's probably a draw I think? Rook and three rook pawns v rook

cdeb

Ends with another draw and a 3098 performance. I know it was a double-rook ending, but they agreed a draw fairly early; think Caruana was (understandably!) happy with his fortnight's work. Didn't quite try to grind it out as he did against Nakamura in the previous round.

Still, a 35 point gain (while Carlsen lost 7), and he's passed out Aronian's highest ever rating to become the third-highest rated player in the history of the game.