There is plenty of stress in classical chess, where the slightest misstep can lead to catastrophic loss and a single move can ruin seven hours of hard work.
An action packed day saw five matches decided in the playoffs and one match (Caruana-Xiong) made it all the way to Armageddon, finishing in a dramatic time scramble. After all was said and done, Aronian, Dominguez, Sevian, and Caruana from the Open Field along with Krush, Tokhirjonova, Lee, and Abrahamyan from the Women’s Field advanced to the next stage of the Champions Bracket. | Photos: Austin and Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes
The inaugural American Cup kicked off today with plenty of decisive action as several players drew first blood in their individual matches within the Champions Bracket. Samuel Sevian (pictured) caused the biggest upset: he won with Black against Wesley So. | Photos: Austin and Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club
Today, the first round of the American Cup, a knockout tournament with special rules, will be played. Almost all top players from the US take part in this event, which is organised by the Saint Louis Chess Center. They fight for a prize fund of 300,000 USD, and the three top seeded players are Levon Aronian (2785), Fabiano Caruana (2781) and Wesley So (2778). The first round starts at 13.00 local time. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The final match of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin kicked off with a quick draw. Wesley So had the white pieces, but was content with keeping things under control in a game that only left theory on move 27. Hikaru Nakamura happily followed suit, as he will get a chance to get ahead on the scoreboard when he gets white on Sunday. | Photos: World Chess