Sinquefield Cup: Nepo collapses in the opening
A mistake of the dragon
Earlier this year, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi played one of the most dramatic and momentous chess games of the current World Championship cycle. In the final round of the Candidates Tournament, Caruana failed to convert his lead into the victory that would have earned him the right to play a rapid tiebreak against D. Gukesh to determine the winner of the all-important event – the game lasted 109 moves. After the draw was agreed, Nepo said to Caruana: “I am very sorry,” to which the American replied: “My mistake.”
Now, in Round 6 of the Sinquefield Cup, Nepo made a puzzling mistake in a Sicilian Dragon Defense, allowing Caruana to make some nice sacrifices and launch a devastating attack. Nepo couldn’t believe what he had just done, as his gestures show in the clip shared by Olimpiu Di Luppi on X.
Only 7 moves after the blunder, Nepo resigned. It was Caruana’s second win of the tournament. The US star now shares second place with Wesley So, half a point behind the sole leader Alireza Firouzja, who safely brought So to a draw with the black pieces on Sunday.
Much later in the day, Anish Giri and Gukesh continued to try to convert their advantages into victories in their matches against Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively. In the end, both encounters ended in a draw.
There are three rounds left in the tournament, with everyone playing against everyone. Firouzja will play with white in the seventh round on Monday against world champion Ding Liren, who has drawn all his games so far.
Results of the 6th round
Navigating Ruy Lopez Volume 1-3
The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings and is still very popular, from club level to the absolute world elite. In this video series, American super-GM Fabiano Caruana presents a complete repertoire for White in conversation with IM Oliver Reeh.
Wesley So happily poses for photos with chess fans on a beautiful sunny day in Saint Louis | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Nepomniachtchi 0 – 1 Caruana
At this point, Fabiano Caruana had seen through everything – Ian Nepomniachtchi is probably trying to deal with negative emotions before the game inevitably ends with a win for his opponent | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Gukesh ½ – ½ Vachier-Lagrave
Analysis by GM Karsten Müller
Dommaraju Gukesh on the way to the Saint Louis Chess Club next to second Grzegorz Gajewski | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Expert analysis by GM Daniel King
Expert analysis by IM Robert Ris
Math training – improve your game!
A total of 73 examples were selected for “Calculator Training – Improve Your Skills!”, the vast majority of which contain multiple questions, and there are over 160 questions of varying difficulty levels.
