The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana finished the Sinquefield Cup with 8.5/10 after a quiet draw with Levon Aronian in the final round. With his seven wins in a row and missed chances in rounds 8 and 9 he could only spoil things with a final loss and he duely ended his tournament with a draw offer on move 30, the earliest he could according to the rules of the competition. It's very tiring to maintain such a run and Caruana showed fatigue towards the end and seemed to be glad to finish the event undefeated. Kasparov pointed out that after his start in Wijk aan Zee he crashed to a loss in round 8 where he couldn't remember anything.

Only hindsight will say if Caruana's tremendous victory by 3 points over World Champion Magnus Carlsen will have historical significance but his seven wins in a row in such a strong event will surely be the benchmark against which future runs will be measured. Caruana tried to keep a lid on future expectations but if he "keeps his level" then his realistic future targets are to win the World Championship and become world number one.

Magnus Carlsen has a big decision on the 7th September (later today as I write) as to whether he will travel to Sochi to defend his world title against Viswanathan Anand. It's clear that the international situation over Russia and the Ukraine has an impact on his decision, that the announcement of the venue was made by Vladimir Putin politicises playing there. Also it seems, not for the first time, concerns over the contract, the level on money (although being world champion is worth a lot on its own) and the feeling that the short bidding deadlines grossly undervalued the match. Nevertheless just surrendering the title is a very serious decision. It seems to me that the Carlsen camp have decided not to play and only a last minute change of heart will take him to Sochi in November.

Carlsen said he wasn't in the best shape to play today and he chose the solid Berlin aa black against Veselin Topalov. When Topalov didn't find the best an early repetition which could hardly be avoided by either player (both fighters under normal circumstances) could hardly be avoided.

Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew the final game to finish.

Final Standings: Caruana 8.5, Carlsen 5.5, Topalov 5, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave 4, Nakamura 3.

The event isn't over with Ultimate Moves on Monday. This is 8 two-man teams event with GM and one amateur playing alternate moves (no consulatation) g15+2spm, double-round knockout bracket, and an Ultimate chess960 match on Tuesday between Aronian and Nakamura.