2026 Sinquefield Cup and Cairns Cup Round 5: Caruana and Kemmer win as Vacher-Lagrave fails; Tan Yungu Vs. for me

Sinquefield Cup fifth round: Vacher-Lagrave falters; Caruana and Kemer win

A draw came first, followed by (roughly) three decisive matches. So, the tournament leader played out an almost instant draw against Pragnananda in the Four Nights Scotch match. He said the main priority for this was to finish the season in the top four to qualify for the Grand Finals of the Chess Tour. Another draw brings him closer to that goal. He added: “If you’re going to draw a lottery, it’s better to do it in five minutes rather than six hours!”

The only other draw was Sindarov vs. Cevyan, where the Uzbek master was hoping to test his opponent’s memory, which his opponent successfully passed. “Here Black has a lot of moves, and I thought if he didn’t remember, his position would be a bit difficult to play,” Sindarov explained. But he concluded, in the end: “I’m not happy with my performance, maybe it’s not the best choice to open today.”

I’m not happy with my performance and probably not the best choice to open today.

— Javokhir Sindarov

Vachier-Lagrave beat Van Vorst from Kan Sicilian’s black side, and when he reached the winning end, looked as if he would catch So at the top, while suffering his fourth loss to the Dutchman. But, as the Frenchman explained, he was spoiled for choice in the pawn position. He said, “I had a bunch of options, and I think that’s always difficult in chess. Choosing between all the very tempting lines…. I think that happened to me yesterday too with Vincent.”

In hindsight, it is easy to say that 29…Bxc3 (which Vachier-Lagrave saw) would have led to a promising and obvious rook endgame. Later, there was a more complex line with 35…g5! Who won quite cleanly. Finally, Vacher-Lagrave had already given up the win when he played 41…Rxc3?but even there 41…h4 could have won. “This is the very definition of snatching a tie from the jaws of victory,” the GM said. Peter Svidler.

This is the very definition of snatching a tie from the jaws of victory.

—Peter Svidler

“It’s annoying,” Vacher-Lagrave said after the match. “I mean I feel like I’m playing well, but the problem is that to play well you need to collect points.” Regarding his direct confrontation with the championship leader on Sunday, he said: “If I do not win against Wesley, this means eliminating my chances of first place.”

If I don’t beat Wesley, my chances of getting first place are gone.

—Maxime Vacher-Lagrave

Moving on to the deciding matches, Caruana vs. Aronian was an obvious disaster. Aronian mixed up his opening lines in Petrov’s defense, and as a result was losing on the border by move 21, having spent just over a minute of his starting time.

Almost like salt in the wound, Aronian had a fighting chance of 23…Nd7! But he missed it, and Caruana continued to win without giving any other chances.

It is a much-needed return for Caruana, who lost a tough match yesterday to the championship leaders. He said the match was “a series of bad decisions”. But he said after his victory over Aronian: “Any win is great. It is not easy to achieve victories against this level of player.”

The second decisive match and the last match that ended was between Kemer and Jiri. Using the white pieces, the German number one played the English opening and a sort of hedgehog defense with the colors reversed. Jerry 15…B5?! Maybe it’s a step in the wrong direction, but still… June 24!followed by 25.d4!, “He really got caught,” Svidler declared confidently. “It’s not like he’s a little worse.”

The conversion was very shaky in the end, with Vincent nervously playing on the surge at the end of the game, but he got the job done. GM Rafael Leitao Today’s game reviews are below.

After the rest day, the most anticipated match is definitely Vachier-Lagrave vs. The Frenchman sees it as a must-win game to reach the Grand Finals of the Chess Tour.

Round 6 pairing

Cairns Cup, Round 5: Lee misses a chance vs. Tan

Going into the fourth round on Thursday, Li shared the championship lead with Tan. But she lost to Tsolakido and joined three other players, one point behind the leaders in the chasing group. What a turnaround it would have been if Li had ousted Tan immediately after her loss.

She came close, but at the end of the winning game of queen and knight, Li had to find the calm that motivates Zugzhuang 40.Kh2!. She could also repeat the movements once before finding them. But yet 40.Ng8+Kd7 41.a3?Tan found the only way to survive, 41… Question and Answer 6!And she survived it.

All other matches ended in draws, although perhaps we can point to the Muzychuk vs. Yip match as a small missed opportunity. In a slightly better position, Yip accepted the draw by repeating three times – a decision perhaps influenced by the painful memory of his failure to beat Divya in the winning knight’s endgame in the previous round.

There are no easy doubles in this tournament, and Yip is the one with the white pieces against top seed Asaobaeva. On the other hand, Tan will play with White against the struggling Kosteniuk, who has just stopped the bleeding by achieving its first draw after four defeats.

Round 6 pairing

The 2026 Sinquefield Cup is the fifth and final leg of the 2026 Chess Grand Tour. Ten players competed in a classic round-robin tournament with a prize fund of US$475,000 and a calculation to advance to the Grand Chess Tour Finals. This tournament is being held alongside the 2026 Cairns Cup, and is also a 10-player tournament featuring some of the strongest women in the world, with prize money of $250,000.

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