The Sinquefield Cup in St Louis ended last week in victory for Fabiano Caruana, who thereby took first place in the 2023 Grand Chess Tour, extending his impressive run of form this year. Caruana’s victory pushes his rating back over the 2800 mark, securing his place just behind Carlsen in the rating list.
The event saw an early disappointment as Jan-Krzysztof Duda withdrew due to illness after drawing his first round game against Anish Giri. As is the custom, that result was removed from the standings, and in the first four rounds of the tournament just one decisive game was played. Three cheers for the internet wordsmith who coined the ingenious palindrome ‘Duda’s draw not in. It onwards a dud!’ Despite its brevity, that game ended with a pretty flourish.
Anish Giri-Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Sinquefield Cup, November 2023
Despite the choice of discovered checks, White must be careful, since the Rd1 is attacked and Rh8xh3-h1 mate is in the air, e.g. 24 Red7+ Kg8 25 Rd8+ Kh7 26 Rxa8 Rxa8 27 Rd3 axb3 28 axb3 Ra1+ 29 Kh2 Rh1+ 30 Kg3 Rxh3+ and the endgame favours Black. Giri found a neat way to put the draw beyond doubt. 24 Rd8+! Rxd8 25 Rd7+ Ke8 25…Kg8 26 Rxd8+ Kh7 27 Rxh8+ Kxh8 28 hxg4 is a simple draw, thanks to the opposing bishops. 26 Re7+ Kf8 27 Rd7+ Ke8 28 Re7+ Kf8 29 Rd7+ Draw agreed
The second half of the event did bring more action, including this fine miniature.
Fabiano Caruana-Wesley So
Sinquefield Cup, November 2023 (See diagram above left)
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 c5 5 Ne2 d5 6 a3 Ba5 7 dxc5 dxc4 8 Bd2 Nbd7 9 Ng3 b6 9…Nxc5 10 Bxc4 Bc7 looks safer. 10 Qf3 Rb8 11 c6 Ne5 12 Qf4 Bxc3 13 Bxc3 Nxc6 14 Rd1 Qe7 15 Bxc4 b5 Black’s problem is that the natural 15…O-O runs into 16 Bb5 Bb7 17 Bxc6 Bxc6 18 Bb4! winning rook for bishop.
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