Sinquefeld Cup

[Hans Jung]

The Sinquefeld Cup is on. The first round turned into a warmup. All games were drawn. Now it gets interesting.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 2 Duda is sick. That means his opponent Rapport gets a break. Can you imagine? - an unforeseen bye and a free afternoon and evening out in St. Louis. Lucky dog.

Dominguez seems the best prepared of all. In round one he was applying pressure to Caruana. In round two he is pressing Nepo.

Who will get the first win?

[Hans Jung]

Peter Svidler and Yasser are especially witty today. Im really enjoying the bantering.

[Alex Ferreira]

Sinquefield Cup coverage has gotten a lot less terrible. This commentary team is the best they've had in my opinion.
But there's still a lot of breaks, random guests, and a ton of cheese. Too little chess, but it's gotten better. Only way to watch it is after the round, fast-forwarding the fluff
Alex F.

[Hans Jung]

I like some of the fluff but I could do without the breaks or at least shorten them.

[Hans Jung]

Dominguez got outplayed in the middlegame (its a shame I thought he had a great position out of the opening) and now he's suffering

[Hans Jung]

Caruana sacrificed the exchange for a dominating position but then something went wrong (a couple of inaccuracies?) End result draw.

[Hans Jung]

Wins are hard to come by so far. Nepo looks headed for an endgame win but it will be a lot of moves, maybe over a hundred.
Nepo-Dominguez ended in a draw.

[Hugh Brodie]

So what's the status of Duda? Is he out completely? Does he forfeit any games he misses? If it's only one game - can it be played on a rest day?

[Hans Jung]

All I could find is that the Duda Rapport game has been postponed to a later date. Duda is unwell. We wish him a speedy recovery. Updates to come but no updates so far.

[Hans Jung]

After rd 2 the tournament is perfect so far. All draws. Who will be the first to win? We should start a betting pool.

[Marc Andre Beaudry]

Fabiano played a great game against Levon but could not convert. It required some very complicated computer tactics and Fabi was not quite up to the task. Fabi has been by far, in my opinion the best player in 2023. He has a good shot at the title of the very absent Ding. Nepo played a great game but he could not convert a difficult ending against Dominguez.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 3 Another perfect round with 4 draws. I thought MVL - Caruana was the most interesting game as White got a bishop and a knight for a rook but couldnt make any progress with the bishop and knight although there were some interesting lines.

[Hans Jung]

Mysterious happenings at Sinquefeld Cup. In pairings rd 4 I noticed Aronian had the bye so I assume he was paired with Duda and Duda is no longer on the crosstable. Withdrawn?
Also Wesley So and Richard Rapport are not paired. Have not seen any further announcements.

[Marc Andre Beaudry]

Duda is sick but they haven't said what he has. He has withdrawn from the tournament.