Chessable Houska's Caro

2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 (1)

Thunder and Lightning on the opening day of the 2nd Sinquefield Cup

Fabiano Caruana beat Veselin Topalov in Round 1. Photo ©

Fabiano Caruana beat Veselin Topalov in Round 1. Photo © | http://uschesschamps.com/live

The first day of the 2nd Sinquefield Cup showed all the players came to fight and even though there was only one decisive game there were three very interesting games on show. Outside there was a huge thunder storm that disturbed all the players with additional lightning and hale.

Early on the focus was on Magnus Carlsen playing black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's Scotch. 8.e5 was a sharp move new to praxis but not apparently to most of the players. Carlsen maybe missed a chance to win late on but with time trouble and a confession that "I should have been calmer" Carlsen allowed a draw by perpetual. Levon Aronian was disappointed he couldn't press more against Nakamura's solid Slav. Veselin Topalov played very sharply against Fabiano Caruana in an English but at some point he lost his way and his position collapsed very quickly. Meaning that Caruana leads alone on 1/1 after the first round.

Round 2 2pm local time, 8pm UK time: Nakamura-Carlsen, Caruana-Vachier and Aronian-Topalov

Fabiano Caruana took an early lead in the tournament with a win over Veselin Topalov. At first it seemed like Topalov had a nice advanrage in an English but at some point Topalov went completely astray and his position completely collapsed in only a few moves. "I was a bit surprised myself... suddenly after 23.Nd4 I had a huge advantage." Caruana. Topalov felt that his opponent played "really well" but that he missed the moment when he should start to play for a draw. "Today it was not really a good day, that's true." Topalov.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL for short) played a very sharp Scotch Opening against Magnus Carlsen. His 8.e5 was known to theory but not played because it wasn't supposed to be good. Carlsen played the approved recipe but after 13.Bc4 he fell into deep thought before finding 13...Nb4 after half an hours thought, then MVL thought about the same time. Carlsen got into time pressure and missed a good chance to win with 25...Qd3 instead playing the safer 25...Qd2 ("with all that's going on I felt I should at least threaten mate" Carlsen) after which MVL found the way to give perpetual check.

Already on move 21 Carlsen felt was had avoided a draw and he seemed disappointed he didn't manage to win the game.

Carlsen said afterwards he "thought this line was supposed to be good for me but I didn't check it before the game".

After Nakamura finished he said he had been shown this line with a5 by Kasparov and he presumed that also it was shown to Carlsen, but also Aronian seemed to know it too and said you could only go into it if you knew a lot of the tactics involved. He thought both players started thinking in a position they already knew but maybe didn't recall in precise detail.

Hikaru Nakamura drew with black in a Slav where he played solidly even after having to break his own pawn structure. "I should have posed more problems to my opponent" was Levon Aronian's assessment at the end of his draw against Hiraku Nakamura. Nakamura said he had lost the last few times with black against Aronian so he thought he should try for a solid start to the tournament.

2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 Saint Louis USA (USA), 27 viii-7 ix 2014 cat. XXIII (2802)
1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2801 * * . . . . . . . . 1 . 1
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2805 . . * * ½ . . . . . . . ½ 2787
3. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2787 . . ½ . * * . . . . . . ½ 2805
4. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2877 . . . . . . * * ½ . . . ½ 2768
5. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2768 . . . . . . ½ . * * . . ½ 2877
6. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2772 0 . . . . . . . . . * * 0
Round 1 (August 27, 2014)
Aronian, Levon - Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ 40 D19 Slav Defence
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ 38 C45 Scotch Game
Topalov, Veselin - Caruana, Fabiano 0-1 34 A35 English Symmetrical

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