Firouzja Stomps The Competition, Wins 2024 Sinquefield Cup, GCT Tour Bonus

In the past week, French GM Alireza Firouzja has won the 2024 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz (ahead of the likes of GM Hikaru Nakamura), the 2024 Sinquefield Cup (ahead of the likes of GM Fabiano Caruana and current world champion GM Ding Liren), and the overall 2024 Grand Chess Tour (GCT).

Alireza Firouzja with the Sinquefield Cup outside the World Chess Hall of Fame (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

While most of us don’t get into chess for the money, it is worth noting that this puts Firouzja’s earnings since landing in St. Louis earlier this month up to $240,000 and his overall 2024 GCT earnings to $323,750.

Alireza Firouzja on winning #GrandChessTour: "It's very tough to win a tour. Any tour is tough to win, but this is the strongest tour in the world! Very happy but it's very tiring and feeling exhausted but I'm very happy." #SinquefieldCup #AlirezaFirouzja pic.twitter.com/Zs9tKKpCKO
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 27, 2024

It’s also worth noting that, while the Sinquefield Cup did not end until Wednesday, August 28, Firouzja actually clinched the overall GCT title and $100,000 bonus with a round to spare. Then, all he needed was a draw on Wednesday to earn his first outright Sinquefield Cup and another $100,000 (alongside the $40,000 he won last week). Scary, right?

Sometimes I scare myself pic.twitter.com/ket5iC9Sev
— Alireza Firouzja (@AlirezaFirouzja) August 28, 2024

The result should be a welcome déjà vu for the Frenchman, as he also won both the Rapid & Blitz and the Sinquefield Cup along the way to his 2022 GCT victory. But while he tied for first in the 2022 edition with countryman GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on a 5/9 score, this year Firouzja ran away from the field with an undefeated 6/9 result.

Courtesy SLCC/GCT

Headed into the final three rounds, Firouzja held a half-point lead over Caruana and GM Wesley So. But in a fateful seventh round, So was upset by tail-ender GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, effectively taking the American out of contention.

Meanwhile, Firouzja managed to extend his lead by defeating the defending world champion in a tense battle.

Firouzja's pressure proved to be too much to handle for the world champion (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

The game was something of a disappointment for Ding fans, as the Chinese player had previously seemed to be in good form, even earning a small edge against Caruana earlier in the event. But, against Firouzja, he was unable to properly navigate the tension.

After five draws in the penultimate round, Firouzja entered the final day with a full-point lead over Caruana. This meant that a draw against GM Praggnanandhaa R. would be sufficient for Firouzja to clinch outright first, whereas Caruana would need both a win and a Firouzja loss to claim a share of the cup.

After a fateful first-round loss to Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana rebounded nicely to finish in clear second, winning three of his remaining eight games (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Caruana lived up to his end of the deal, forcing a hapless GM Anish Giri into a difficult defensive position. From there, Caruana’s calculation was flawless and the conversion was textbook:

Unfortunately for Caruana, Firouzja drew with relative ease, leaving Caruana a half-point behind and in clear second with 5½/9. Caruana still earned $65,000 for his second-place finish, on top of his $50,000 bonus for finishing second in the Tour.

Courtesy SLCC/GCT

The third and final GCT bonus prize was still in contention entering Wednesday’s last round, especially since the $25,000 prize also comes with an automatic invitation to next year’s GCT. So entered the event with a one-point lead in the GCT over Vachier-Lagrave, and seemed to be a lock early on to finish ahead of “MVL” in the Sinquefield Cup and, accordingly, in the overall standings.

After six draws to start the event (including several promising positions), Ding collapsed in the final leg of the event, losing in round seven to Firouzja and in round nine (above) to Vachier-Lagrave (Photo SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

After 25 consecutive draws in classical chess, MVL broke through against Ding in the final round to claim a share of third place with a 5/9 score.

After his loss to Abdusattorov, So would also need to win in round nine to claim a share of third place in the event and overall third in the GCT standings. But a draw against GM Gukesh D. was enough to allow MVL to leapfrog the American for the third spot on the GCT tour.

By winning against Ding Liren, MVL secured third place in the Grand Chess Tour standings, guaranteeing his spot in next year's tour! He also ended his draw streak after 25 consecutive peaceful games!#SinquefieldCup #grandchesstour pic.twitter.com/AQs0XNuD4h
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 28, 2024

MVL’s win also left open the possibility of claiming outright third. Instead, a resurgent Abdusattorov had something to say about that, defeating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi to rebound nicely and finish alongside MVL in a tie for third.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov lost early in the event to Caruana, but rebounded nicely with a pair of wins over So and Nepomniachtchi in the final leg of the event to earn a share of third (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

To appreciate the dominance of Firouzja’s performance, recall that, in 2022, he tied for first with MVL when both players finished with 5/9 scores. This year, MVL’s identical score was good enough only for a share of third, a full point behind Firouzja!

All games from this year's Sinquefield Cup can be viewed on Chess.com. All annotated games from the event can be viewed here.