Sinquefeld Cup

[Hans Jung]

Rd 4 Wesley So is the first winner over Richard Rapport. Double kudos to Rapport for playing the Kings Indian and then livening up the game with two exchange sacrifices. I think he should win the best losers prize. Maybe we could call it the most dynamic player prize.

[Hans Jung]

I guess what I saw before round 4 was a pairings glitch. So - Rapport was not listed and then ironically they ended up playing and it was the only decisive game.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 5 Aronian wins over Firoujza! Weve got some action! Who else will catch on fire?

[Hans Jung]

Thanks to Firoujza for playing into my first ever tournament opening (51 years ago!) today and coming up with so many new sparkling ideas! This for me is the game of the tournament.
Firoujza - Caruana - Im glued to the screen.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 6 Giri - Dominguez is also very interesting.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 6 and what is going on in Rapport - MVL. It looks like Rapport is just a pawn up with a strong bishop.

So looks to be winning the endgame against Aronian.
Aronian has the thankless job of trying to find play with his knight in a pawn down endgame.

Rapport-MVL draw.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 6 Firoujza - Caruana what a game! - endless attack and defence - Caruana saw further at the end and won.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 6 Giri went astray in the middlegame Kudos to Dominguez who finished with an exchange sacrifice allowing the strong knight and passed pawns to dominate. (Dominguez won)

[Hans Jung]

Very interesting technique by So to win the endgame against Aronian. He gave Aronian two connected passed pawns in order to obtain an advanced passed rook pawn (a critcal weakness of the knight)

Wesley So leads with two wins after six rounds. Caruana and Dominguez each have one win.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 7 Caruana took advantage of So's loose king and desperado tactics to find a knockout combo. The lead changes after one round and this win. Caruana takes the lead.

[Hans Jung]

Nepo and Firoujza draw as well as Aronian and Giri.

[Hans Jung]

Dominguez played 31.Nf7 Looks impressive. I thought Rapport would play castles kingside!?? but he just played the mundane 31...Rf8.

and it took Dominguez only four more moves to notch the win.

[Hans Jung]

Caruana and Dominguez are tied for the lead at +2 after 7. Dynamic chess is happening!

[Hans Jung]

On the crosstable it looks like So is tied for the lead with Caruana and Dominguez but actually he has only one game left to play and the others two games left.

[Hans Jung]

Todays pairings - rd 8 So Nepo, Giri Caruana, Dominguez MVL, Rapport Aronian