Sinquefield Cup

Sinquefield Cup 2015 - Playing Hall

The Sinquefield Cup is an annual, invite-only chess tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, honoring Rex Sinquefield and his wife Jeanne, the founders of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

Sinquefield Cup 2013

The first edition (working title: 2013 Saint Louis International) was held from 9 to 15 September 2013 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The four grandmasters played the classic time control (40 moves in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment as of move one, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game) in double round-robin tournament. Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky faced each other. The total prize fund was $170,000, with $70,000 going to the winner, $50,000 to runner-up, $30,000 to third place and $20,000 to fourth place. The average FIDE rating for the field was 2797, the highest in chess history at this point in time. The opening ceremony took place on 8 September 2013, and round 1 began on 9 September 2013 at 13:00 CDT (20:00 CEST). This was the last tournament for Magnus Carlsen before his World Chess Championship 2013 match with Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, India.

	Player	FIDE rating	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	Points
1	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)	2862	X	½	½	1	X	½	1	1	4.5
2	Hikaru Nakamura (United States)	2772	½	X	1	1	½	X	0	½	3.5
3	Levon Aronian (Armenia)	2813	½	0	X	½	0	1	X	½	2.5
4	Gata Kamsky (United States)	2741	0	0	½	X	0	½	½	X	1.5

Sinquefield Cup 2014

The second edition was held from August 27 to September 7, again at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The event in 2013 was the strongest chess tournament ever held in the U.S. up until that time. The 2014 edition, however, is (numerically) the strongest in the total history of chess, as measured by actual average Elo ratings of 2802 for the six opponents, all in the top ten of FIDE's Elo rating list.

The six grandmasters again played the modernized classic time control of 40 moves in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment for every move, followed by an additional 30 minutes plus the per-move-increment for the rest of the game, in a double round-robin tournament. With the six players present (Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave), the tournament consisted of ten rounds with 10 games to play for every participant. According to the FIDE rating, the players were the nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9 in the world.

The total prize fund was increased to $315,000.

Place	Prize
1st	$100,000
2nd	$75,000
3rd	$50,000
4th	$40,000
5th	$30,000
6th	$20,000
Total	$315,000

The final results were the following:

	Player	FIDE rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Points (Score)	Wins	SB
1	Fabiano Caruana (Italy)	2801	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	½	½	½	8.5	7	36.75
2	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)	2877	½	½	0	½	1	½	1	½	½	½	5.5	2	23.75
3	Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)	2772	0	0	1	½	1	0	½	1	½	½	5.0	3	19.5
4	Levon Aronian (Armenia)	2804	½	1	0	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	4.0	1	19.5
5	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)	2768	½	0	1	½	0	½	0	½	½	½	4.0	1	17
6	Hikaru Nakamura (United States)	2787	½	½	0	½	0	½	0	0	½	½	3.0	0	15

After round 7, Caruana had achieved a score of 7-0, which was described as an "historical achievement" by Levon Aronian. Caruana finally finished the tournament with 8.5/10, with the highest ever performance rating in a single tournament, beating out Magnus Carlsen in the 2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament and Anatoly Karpov in the 1994 Linares chess tournament. It was widely compared to Bobby Fischer's 20 game winning streak in 1970-71.

Sinquefield Cup 2015

The third edition was held from August 22 to September 3, at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis as the second leg in the 2015 Grand Chess Tour. The tournament featured the seven top players in the world, a feat only surpassed by the AVRO 1938 chess tournament. The Sinquefield Cup is also the strongest tournament featured in the 2015 Grand Chess Tour with an average FIDE Rating of 2795.

The 2015 Sinquefield Cup was a nine game, single round-robin tournament. The time control for each round was of 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by the rest of the game in 1 hour with a 30-second increment from move 41. Wesley So was selected as the tournament invite and joined the nine other players already participating in the Grand Chess Tour.

	Player	FIDE rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Points	Wins	SB	Tour Points
1	Levon Aronian (Armenia)	2765	X	½	1	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	6	3	25.25	13
2	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)	2853	½	X	½	1	½	0	0	1	½	1	5	3	21.25	10
3	Hikaru Nakamura (United States)	2814	0	½	X	½	½	1	0	½	1	1	5	3	20.25	8
4	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)	2731	½	0	½	X	½	½	1	½	½	1	5	2	21.25	7
5	Anish Giri (Netherlands)	2793	½	½	½	½	X	½	1	½	½	½	5	1	22.25	6
6	Alexander Grischuk (Russia)	2771	½	1	0	½	0	X	½	1	1	0	4.5	3	19.75	5
7	Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)	2816	½	1	1	0	½	½	X	0	½	½	4.5	2	21	4
8	Fabiano Caruana (United States)	2808	0	0	½	½	½	0	1	X	½	½	3.5	1	15.25	3
9	Viswanathan Anand (India)	2816	½	½	0	½	½	0	½	½	X	½	3.5	0	16	2
10	Wesley So (United States)	2779	0	0	0	0	½	1	½	½	½	X	3	1	12.75	1