Spherical two of the 2026 Sinquefield Cup featured wins on 4 out of 5 boards, with the white items scoring each level. GM Levon Aronian got here again from the useless to beat GM Vincent Keymer, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat GM Sam Sevian in a sophisticated ending, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu outplayed World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov, GM Wesley So left GM Jorden van Foreest with a second consecutive loss. The one draw was GM Anish Giri vs. GM Fabiano Caruana.
The 2026 Cairns Cup featured one other three decisive video games that left two gamers within the lead on an ideal 2/2, GM Tan Zhongyi and IM Alice Lee. Tan beat GM Humpy Koneru, whereas Lee defeated the third co-leader, GM Divya Deshmukh. IM Carissa Yip recovered from yesterday’s loss and gave GM Alexandra Kosteniuk a 0/2 rating. The 2 attracts had been GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and IM Stavroula Tsolakidou vs. GM Anna Muzychuk.
Spherical three of each tournaments is on Wednesday, August 12, beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 19:00 CEST / 10:30 p.m. IST.
Caruana, who began the spherical as the only chief, has been joined by 4 extra gamers. Two rounds in, half the sector is within the lead.
Sinquefield Cup | Spherical 2 Standings
Remarkably, within the Cairns Cup, two gamers already lead by a full level.
Cairns Cup | Spherical 2 Standings
Sinquefield Cup Spherical 2: Practically All Decisive Video games
There was only one draw, and in that sport, too, Giri acquired a small benefit out of the opening. Caruana defended with 99 accuracy, nonetheless, and drew with an remoted d-pawn within the endgame.
One other sport that seemed prefer it was heading to a draw, after blows exchanged within the middlegame, was So vs. Van Foreest. As GM Yasser Seirawan put it on the printed: “Jorden is coming to grips with the horrible realization he’ll lose a rook and pawn endgame that was a draw.” It is a second loss in a row for the Dutchman, who performed each rounds with the black items however has usually been fantastic out of the opening.
The foremost turnaround of the day was Aronian vs. Keymer. In reality, it was Keymer who was successful for a lot of the heavy-piece endgame, which Aronian needed to play with an open king. That Aronian would win was in some unspecified time in the future unthinkable. However as he mentioned after the sport, “I believe whenever you’re rising up with out electrical energy and water, and you reside like that for 4 years, you are not afraid of something anymore.”
GM Rafael Leitao goes over the Sport of the Day beneath. (The annotations will likely be added quickly.)
Praggnanandhaa misplaced twice towards Sindarov in his most vital match of the 12 months, the Candidates. Since then, nonetheless, the Indian grandmaster has crushed the world championship challenger within the 2026 Super Chess Classic Romania and now the Sinquefield Cup. He mentioned of this thrilling, generational matchup: “We barely have attracts… Javokhir is somebody who pushes to the tip and I take pleasure in going for it as effectively.”
The sport began as a Queen’s Gambit Declined however we noticed opposite-sides castling and, ultimately, Praggnanandhaa squeezed out a win in a pawn-up endgame that was defensible for Sindarov. The torture lasted 95 strikes.
Vachier-Lagrave performed a shock on the very first transfer. Relatively than his lifelong 1.e4 opener, he opted for 1.c4 on this sport. He defined within the interview, “e4 has fairly too many direct strains” and that he wished a battle.
MVL on taking part in 1.c4 quite than the “finest by check” 1.e4.
“I simply really feel like on this match I want extra fights, extra items on the board.”
Maurice Ashley: “Is that someway endorsing c4 over e4?”
MVL: “Today, yeah, e4 has fairly too many direct strains.” pic.twitter.com/BZBtRczHcI
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 11, 2026
The French super-GM, who was “completely happy to be exhibiting very respectable chess right now and yesterday,” mentioned, “the place was actually sophisticated from begin to end.” It was, however the decisive second got here when Sevian, taking part in with a pawn for the change, ignored the tactical blow 33.Ra8!. The Frenchman received the b-pawn and ultimately the sport, although defensive possibilities nonetheless existed with White’s open king.
On Wednesday, only one pair of leaders faces off: the All-American Caruana vs. So. With half the sector main, all of the video games may have nice significance.
Spherical 3 Pairings
Cairns Cup Spherical 2: Tan, Lee Lead By Full Level Already
The vast majority of video games had been decisive within the Cairns Cup as effectively with simply two very strong, very correct attracts.
Tan picked up her second win towards Humpy, a disappointing destiny for the Indian grandmaster who was successful in yesterday’s sport however solely managed to attract. In what began as a Colle System, Tan’s 25.b4! was the star transfer of the sport, ripping open the queenside. Simply three strikes later, Black gave up the change for not sufficient counterplay.
Lee, then again, took out her co-leader by—simply as she did in spherical one towards Kosteniuk—outplaying her older opponent in a pawn-up rook endgame that would have been held.
Divya is on 50% after that loss, as is Yip after successful her sport towards Kosteniuk. The previous world champion’s Petroff was met with the energetic 9.h3 and 10.g4, and far later, her solely protection was to commerce queens and go right into a two-pawns-down rook endgame. Lacking that with 34.Qf6? solely allowed Yip to indicate the prevalence of her queen, centralized on e4.
In spherical three, Lee has the white items towards Assaubayeva. Her co-leader, Tan, has the black items towards Muzychuk. The leaders are set to play in spherical 5—however who is aware of what’s going to occur between from time to time.
Spherical 3 Pairings:
The 2026 Sinquefield Cup is the fifth and closing leg of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour. Ten gamers competed in a classical round-robin match with a $475,000 prize fund and counts for qualification into the Grand Chess Tour Finals. It runs alongside the 2026 Cairns Cup, which can also be a 10-player round-robin that includes a number of the strongest girls on the earth, with a prize fund of $250,000.
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