Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi Lead 2024 Sinquefield Cup After Three Rounds

The first third of the 2024 Sinquefield Cup is in the books in St. Louis, with Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and French GM Alireza Firouzja atop the standings with 2/3 scores.

Courtesy SLCC/GCT

The final event of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour picked up right where last week’s Rapid & Blitz event left off: with a win for Firouzja!

The tactical speedster was in his element against Caruana, playing the majority of the game in time trouble yet still out-playing the defending Sinquefield Cup champion (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

With the black pieces against reigning Sinquefield Cup champion GM Fabiano Caruana, Firouzja indeed appeared to be on the back foot (if only slightly) for much of the game. But as the players shadow-boxed for a couple-dozen moves in the middlegame, a bit of a drift from Caruana was all it took for the tactical Frenchman to claim the win.

A quirk of this event is that the games are played at a time control of 120 minutes for the game, with a 30-second increment from the first move, and no bonus time on move 40. This means that, if you see players down to five minutes on move 35, that might mean (as it did in the above game) they might have to survive another 40 moves of living on the increment.

Two faces you'll see a lot this winter (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

The most hyped encounter of the first round was the “preview” of the 2024 FIDE World Championship, with Chinese GM Ding Liren and Indian GM Gukesh D squaring off in the first round. But, predictably, the players were both eager to hide their preparation, and the result was a relatively uneventful draw.

After a peaceful second round saw five draws, Wednesday’s third round saw a couple shakeups with two dazzling displays of attacking chess.

Giri found himself the victim of one of Nepomniachtchi's quick attacks in round three (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Nepomniachtchi was out for blood from the opening moves of his Samisch/Rubinstein variation against GM Anish Giri’s Nimzo-Indian Defense. By the end, Giri was not up to the defensive task:

With so many draws, a single win was all Caruana needed to get back into the thick of the race, and his play against Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov showed it.

Caruana might have taken some inspiration from Nepo's play in round three! (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Like Nepo, Caruana was willing to make some kingside concessions in order to keep up the pressure, and like Giri, Abdusattorov was unable to answer all of White’s questions.

Round four is just underway now, and round five will be at the same time (1pm Central) tomorrow. The players will take a rest day on Friday, August 23, before resuming on Saturday for round six.