The Week in Chess

1. St Louis Fall Chess Classic 2019 - Games and Results

   The St Louis Fall Chess Classic consists of two 10 player Round Robin events. In the A Group the players are: Dariusz Swiercz, Hrant Melkumyan, Aleksandr Lenderman, Alexander Ipatov, Vasif Durarbayli, Jorden Van Foreest, Varuzhan Akobian, Ilia Smirin, Olexandr Bortnyk and Ray Robson.

2. Skolkovo Women's FIDE Grand Prix 2019 - Games and Results

   The Skolkovo Women's FIDE Grand Prix takes place Tue 10th Sep to Mon 23rd Sep 2019 in Skolkovo in Moscow. It is the first of four Women's Grand Prix events. 16 players compete in the series. 12 players compete in each of the four round robin events. Players: Dronavalli Harika, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Pia Cramling, Humpy Koneru, Valentina Gunina, Kateryna Lagno, Elisabeth Paehtz, Wenjun Ju, Antoaneta Stefanova, Alina Kashlinskaya, Marie Sebag, Anna Muzychuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Nana Dzagnidze and Xue Zhao.

3. FIDE World Cup 2019 - Games and Results

   The FIDE World Cup takes place Mon 9th Sep to Wed 2nd Oct 2019 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. 128 player Knockout event. Players: Ding, Giri, Vachier-Lagrave, So, Nepomniachtchi, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Dominguez Perez, Grischuk, Radjabov, Artemiev, Yu, Karjakin, Nakamura, Andreikin, Wojtaszek, Harikrishna, Duda, Svidler, Vitiugov, Wei, Le, Navara, Bu, Wang, Shankland, Matlakov, Tomashevsky, Vidit, Jakovenko, Xiong, Firouzja, Dubov, Amin, Jones, Grandelius, Adams, Gelfand, Cori, Rodshtein, Inarkiev, McShane, Korobov, Anton Guijarro, Naiditsch, Ponomariov, Nabaty, Fedoseev, Alekseenko, Berkes, Nisipeanu, Sevian, Adhiban, Cheparinov, Sjugirov, Saric, Piorun, Kasimdzhanov, Maghsoodloo, Sarana, Demchenko, Kovalenko, Gledura, Movsesian, Oparin, Najer, Lupulescu, Hovhannisyan, Predke, Chigaev, Bareev, Abasov, Bok, Mareco, Adly, Iturrizaga Bonelli, Tari, Parligras, Jumabayev, Nguyen, Ganguly, Sethuraman, Esipenko, Huschenbeth, Narayanan, Gupta, Delgado Ramirez, Karthikeyan, Bartel, Nihal, Lu, Aravindh, Rakhmanov, Flores, Tabatabaei, Cordova, Pashikian, Lysyj, Martinez Alcantara, Pichot, Petrov, Abdusattorov, Safarli, Pridorozhni, Xu, Yuffa, Aleksandrov, Santos Ruiz, Urkedal, Albornoz Cabrera, Henriquez Villagra, Gonzalez Vidal, Christiansen, Mekhitarian, Bellahcene, Megaranto, Ghaem Maghami, Iljiushenok, Ziska, Pultinevicius, Escobar Forero, Rakotomaharo, El Gindy, Gan-Erdene, Duran Vega, Anwuli, Mohammad Fahad and Press.

4. Champions Showdown 9LX 2019 - Games and Results

   The Champions Showdown 9LX took place in Saint Louis 2nd to 5th September 2019. Four matches using a version of the Chess 960 variant with both rapid and blitz games. Fabiano Caruana defeated Garry Kasparov 19-7, Hikaru Nakamura beat Levon Aronian 14.5-11.5, Wesley So beat Veselin Topalov 18-8 and Peter Svider beat Leinier Dominguez Perez 15.5-10.5. I don't have software that can display these games on my website but I do have the games split into files of rapid and blitz.

   Kasparov bit off a little more than he could chew against world number 2 Fabiano Caruana but it would be a great shame if he took that as a sign to stop playing altogether. I'm sure he'd be fine against players even a little further down the rating list and his loss in game two of the rapid when he played very powerfully up to a point was particularly unfortunate. There's a traditional place in tournament chess for the older former World Champions and Kasparov is certainly capable of fulfilling such a role, players such as Lasker, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky, Tal and Karpov come to mind. I might even call such a role an important one.

5. 7th Sinquefield Cup 2019 - Games and Results

   The 7th Sinquefield Cup took place 17th to 30th August 2019. Players: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viswanathan Anand, Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura. Ding Liren beat Magnus Carlsen 3-1 in a tie-break to win the tournament after they tied on 6.5/11 - two rapid games were drawn, Ding won both blitz games. Ding thus ended a long run of tie-break victories for Magnus Carlsen going back to Aronian's win against him in the Candidates of 2007.

6. Chinese League 2019 - Games and Results

   The Chinese League takes place in Daqing, 19th to 27th June 2019.

7. 72nd ch-RUS 2019 - Games and Results

   The 72nd Russian Chess Championship took place 10th to 22nd August 2019.

   Players: Championship: Artemiev, Vitiugov< Matlakov, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko, Inarkiev, Fedoseev, Alekseenko, Motylev, Dreev, Sarana and Predke

   Women's: Goryachkina, Kosteniuk, Gunina, Kashlinskaya, Girya, Pogonina, Bodnaruk, Shuvalova, Tomilova, Charochkina, Potapova and Shafigullina.,

   Evgeny Tomashevsky won the championship for a second time with an undefeated score of 7/11 half a point clear of Vitiguov, Matlakov and Inarkiev. The women's event saw Olga Girya and Natalija Pogonina finish in the lead on 8/11. A rapid tie-break was drawn with one win each, a final decisive Armageddon game was won by Girya to take the title.

8. Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2019 - Games and Results

   The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament took place 10th to 15th August 2019. Players: Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Leinier Dominguez, Yu Yangyi and Richard Rapport. Levon Aronian took clear first place ahead of Yu Yangyi, Ding Liren and MVL who tied for second. Sergey Karjakin was 5th and Magnus Carlsen - recording one of his worst speed results - finished 6th. Richard Rapport was 7th, Fabiano Caruana 8th, Leinier Dominguez 9th and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 10th.