Firouzja Closes In On Sinquefield Cup, Caruana and So Close Behind

With three rounds to go in the 2024 Sinquefield Cup, French GM Alireza Firouzja is inching closer to a big payday in the 2024 Grand Chess Tour. Coming off a victorious Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz last week, Firouzja looks to secure both the $100,000 prize for the Cup and the additional $100,000 first prize for the Tour bonus!

A happy Firouzja (L) in the broadcast studio after another impressive result (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Firouzja has led the event since his first-round victory over GM Fabiano Caruana, and is still in the driver’s seat with a 4/6 score headed into the final third of the event after racking up a second win against a struggling GM Anish Giri in round five.

The context could have been radically different, however, as Firouzja had to defend a worse position in his fourth-round contest against GM Gukesh D, again showing off defensive skill.

After surviving the scare against Gukesh and rebounding nicely against Giri, Firouzja played a relatively uneventful draw against So to keep his lead. Considering that So entered the round in clear second, only a half-point behind Firouzja, the result had to be welcome for Firouzja fans.

An endgame and its aftermath (Photos courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

So’s win came against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in a fourth-round rook-and-pawn endgame that totally flattened any momentum Nepomniachtchi was trying to build after his impressive third-round victory over Giri.

Just like Firouzja, So’s place on the leaderboard was seriously under pressure in his game against a young Indian grandmaster. This time, it was GM Praggnanandhaa R pushing So to the brink, although their fifth-round match-up eventually ended in a draw.

Not only was this the longest game of the round, but the players weren’t done after shaking hands:

Pragg and Wesley analyzed their game for more than 20 minutes after it ended! Cleaners were passing by, arbiters had left the playing hall, and staff were turning off the lights, but nothing could stop them. A couple of times, it seemed like they were done as they put the pieces… pic.twitter.com/gnQoqAIeui
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 24, 2024

Caruana joined GM Wesley So in a tie for second with a 3½/6 score, thanks to a jaw-dropping tactic against Nepomniachtchi that commanded the entire room’s attention.

Fabiano Caruana found a stunning winning move in his game against Ian Nepomniachtchi! Everyone in the playing hall, including his opponent, seemed shocked to see it. #Sinquefieldcup #Grandchesstour #chess #FabianoCaruana #IanNepomniachtchi pic.twitter.com/3lGjECxrmm
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 25, 2024

Out for blood, Caruana surprised Nepomniachtchi with the Sicilian Dragon, and was undeterred by an early sideline from Nepomniachtchi. Instead, Caruana found a thunderbolt of a thematic tactic that nevertheless eluded Neponiachtchi, presumably because of its depth and combination of ideas.

Four players trail the three leaders with an even 3/6 score. Two of them looked to join the tie for second-place, though, during the highly entertaining three-result endgame from Gukesh’s battle with French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Replay the critical sequence below:

With their draw, the players joined Praggnanandhaa and GM Ding Liren in the middle of the pack.

Courtesy GCT/SLCC

Entering the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT), there is also the question of who will earn the GCT bonuses for finishing in the top three of the Tour. The GCT player with the most points earns a $100,000 bonus, with $50,000 for second and $25,000 for third.

Courtesy GCT/SLCC

Firouzja has 30.58 GCT points compared to Caruana’s 26.75. So is in a distant third with 20.83, and Praggnanandhaa is his closest competitor with 17.25. The winner of the Sinquefield Cup earns 13 points for clear first, but second place earns 10 points and third an additional eight (according to the regulations. This means Firouzja will finish first in the Tour unless either Caruana earns at least four more GCT points than Firouzja from the Sinquefield Cup or So earns at least ten more GCT points than Firouzja.

The Frenchman at work (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Considering that Firouzja enters the final three rounds a half-point ahead of Caruana and So, and that he already played Caruana (in a dramatic first-round win) and So (in yesterday’s uneventful draw), it really is Firouzja’s prize to lose at this point. If Caruana won the event outright and Firouzja finished third (or perhaps in a many-way tie for second), this could give him the bonus he needs. So would need to not only win the event but also have Firouzja finish at the bottom.

To overtake Caruana for second place in the Tour, So “only” needs six more points from the Sinquefield Cup than Caruana. This seemed more likely before Caruana’s sixth-round win, when a single additional loss from Caruana might have been enough for So to jump Caruana in the GCT standings. But now that Caruana has caught up to So for second, such a result seems unlikely. The Americans drew their second-round encounter, however, making it harder for either player to directly control their destiny.

Praggnanandhaa (L) meets some fans outside the playing hall (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Praggnanandhaa is tied for fourth with an even score currently, and would need to earn four more points than So to leap him in the standings. This would likely require a massive downswing in So’s results (or perhaps a fury of wins from Praggnanandhaa). Most likely, Pragg will finish just out of the GCT bonus pool, which is still an impressive result for the youngster.

All of this talk of GCT bonuses is on top of the prizes for this event, which boast an additional $100,000 for first, $65,000 for second, $48,000 for third. Unlike GCT bonuses, all players will earn money from the Sinquefield Cup, with a total of $350,000 in prizes including prizes in the range of $10,500 for 10th up to $32,000 for fourth.