So and Tan Lead First Concurrent Sinquefield and Cairns Cups

For the first time, the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC)’s two premier international events are taking place side-by-side. The Grand Chess Tour (GCT)’s Sinquefield Cup began Tuesday, August 11 alongside the Cairns Cup, putting ten of the world’s best players alongside ten of the world’s strongest women.

Sinquefield players — Photos courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller.

Cairns players — Photos courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller.

After five rounds, GM Wesley So leads the Sinquefield Cup with a 3½/5 score and GM Tan Zhongyi leads the Cairns Cup by a full point with a 4/5 score.

This is the sixth year of the Cairns Cup, and Tan is going for her second title in three years. The Sinquefield Cup was first held in 2012, and So is looking to defend his 2025 title to add a third Cup to his collection (along with 2016).

The leaders after the first half of this year's Cups. (Photos courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes and SLCC/Austin Fuller).

Tan — The leaders after the first half of this year's Cups. (Photos courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes and SLCC/Austin Fuller).

Viewers have been treated to a number of thrilling games so far with a high rate of decisive games and a number of draws that could have easily gone another direction. We are pleased to share annotations by GM Luka Budisavljevic on four critical games (along with other moments annotated by your author).

Play resumes with Round 6 today at noon CDT, with the tournament concluding Wednesday, August 19. Follow the games on Chess.comhere and here, and enjoy live commentary from SLCC on Twitch and YouTube.

Sinquefield Cup: So Consistent

Last year, two wins was enough to tie for first in the nine-round tournament. This year, So already has two wins in the first five rounds (compared to zero at the midway point last year).

Just as importantly, So has extended his unbeaten streak in this tournament to almost two years (when he last lost to GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov on August 26, 2024). While three other players — GMs Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu — have also won two games apiece in this year’s competition, they have each also lost a game, putting them in a four-way tie for second alongside GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Standings after Round 5.

GM Fabiano Caruana kicked off the tournament with the only win of the opening round, taking down GM Jorden Van Foreest with impeccable tactical and situational awareness.

Round 2 was an inverse of Monday’s peaceful results with four decisive victories (all for White) and only one draw. The most impactful for the standings turned out to be So adding to Van Foreest’s misfortune late in a rook endgame:

The sharpest win was courtesy of Vachier-Lagrave who outgunned GM Sam Sevian in a tactical middlegame:

But the game of the round (and perhaps the tournament) had to be the roller-coaster ride between GM Levon Aronian and Keymer.

Nobody plays quite like Levon! (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

This is up there with Aronian’s all-time great escapes, and Luka’s annotations really hammer home how tense this game was:

On Wednesday, Caruana came out for blood against So, opting for an old and sharp line against So’s Nimzo-Indian. One strategic error was all it took, however, for So to take over and win with Black against his Olympiad teammate.

Wesley So won a model game as Black against Fabiano Caruana to take over in St. Louis. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

What I love about Luka’s annotations for this game is his focus on the conversion stage. As hard as it is to achieve a winning position as Black against Caruana, bringing it home has to be even harder.

Vincent Keymer enjoys a share of second at the midway point. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Also during Round 3, Keymer roared back from Tuesday’s heartbreaker with a nice win against Praggnanandhaa:

Praggnanandhaa also trails So by a half-point. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Sevian got back to an equal score on Wednesday by taking down GM Anish Giri in a 110-move epic. After missing a killer blow just before the time control, it looked like Giri was going to survive but Sevian never gave up. The path to the draw kept narrowing for Giri and, eventually, he folded.

Round 4 was mostly peaceful except for another Pragg win to put him in the black:

On the final round before Saturday’s rest day, Caruana bounced back with a win against Aronian as White against the Petroff (which used to be Caruana’s old reliable).

On Monday, So is Black against Vachier-Lagrave in an excellent chance for the Frenchman to shake up the standings.

Cairns Cup: Textbook Tan

In the old days, players would aim to win as White and draw as Black. If they were mostly successful, odds are they would win the tournament. But with so many examples of White over-pressing or Black finding a way to take White out of book, this strategy doesn’t feel as relevant today.

And yet Tan has won all three of her games as White, drawing both as Black, to take a full-point lead over the field in her quest to become the first two-time winner of the Cairns Cup.

Tan's ferocious attack against Yip looked to be on the verge of stalling out until... (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Tan began her tournament by getting revenge against last year’s winner, IM Carissa Yip. This was a heartbreaking game for Yip, who managed to claw back to equality before one final error:

Alice Lee rushed out to a 2/2 start to kick off this year's Cairns Cup. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Last year’s runner-up, IM Alice Lee, got off to a better start with a fine endgame win over GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

In Round 2, Lee roared out to a 2/2 start with a win as Black over GM Divya Deshmukh. Lee played very creatively in the opening and, as Budisavljevic highlights, she showed a lot of resilience to bring home the win:

Tan kept pace on Tuesday, however, defeating GM Humpy Koneru with relentless full-board pressure:

Yip’s win against Kosteniuk saw her bounce back quickly from her unfortunate loss:

Carissa Yip has had chances in several games. Will she catch fire like the second half of 2025's tournament? (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

In Round 3, Yip had a chance to reach a plus score in her game against Humpy and came oh-so-close:

With Lee and Tan both drawing on Wednesday, Lee entered Round 4 still in a share of first. But she walked into an absolute chainsaw of an attack from IM Stavroula Tsolakidou in the Greek player’s Cairns Cup debut.

Stavroula Tsolakidou's dazzling attack dispatched Lee in a picturesque miniature on Thursday. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Kosteniuk’s woes continued with a loss to Assaubayeva:

Yip had another opportunity for a win, and Budisavljevic breaks it down for us:

On Friday, Lee had a great chance to catch the leader in her showdown against Tan. One passive move from the former Women’s World Champion was enough to give Lee a major initiative, but she was unable to convert.