Magnus Carlsen is a wildcard for the Sinquefield Cup that starts today
The final event of the Grand Chess Tour 2022 is the Sinquefield Cup which takes place on September 2-12 in St. Louis. The tournament features eight all-star players with the World Champion being the wildcard!
The Sinquefield Cup starts today in St. Louis with the players having the last opportunity to earn points and win the Grand Chess Tour. After four tournaments of the tour, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is leading with 26½ points. but Alireza Firouzja stands close behind, with 25½ points.
In Round 1 the wildcard Magnus Carlsen will face the 2021-2022 Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, while Firouzja-Caruana has all of our attention as Firouzja impressively won the last tournament of the series, the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, to cross 2900 in blitz rating, and become became the youngest player to win a Grand Chess Tour event! The other pairings are Mamedyarov-So, Dominguez-MVL and Niemann-Aronian.
The World Champion couldn’t find a better tournament to fight for his 2900 goal, with he 19-year-old Hans Niemann (2688) dragging down the rating average. Niemann replaced Richard Rapport, who was unable to travel to the US due to COVID regulations, hoping that he won’t relive the 7 mini-matches loses at the Crypto Cup in Miami.
Just before the opening ceremony of the tournament, the players each conducted a 5-board clock simul against juniors and special guests, signing boards and having fun.
