Sinquefield Cup Round 6: Dominguez, So, MVL Maintain Lead

Round six of the 2021 Sinquefield Cup saw all five games drawn. GM Peter Svidler missed a big chance to score his first win of the tournament against GM Leinier Dominguez, who stays on top of the standings alongside GMs Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at 4/6. GM Fabiano Caruana is half a point behind the leaders with 3.5/6.

Sinquefield Cup | Round 6 Standings

"When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging" - and that's exactly what GM Dariusz Swiercz did today. A solid draw with GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was a good start to the second half of the tournament.

All eyes were on GM Jeffery Xiong, as he went after another big upset. His opponent, Wesley So, had to defend a worse position right out of the opening. For a while, it seemed Jeffery was going to nail another major hide to his barn door, but at the critical moment his determination abandoned him, and the game petered out to a draw.

The big game of the day was the battle between Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave. Maxime did not abandon his Najdorf, despite a previous loss to Dominguez, and it was Fabiano's decision to deviate from that game.

Svidler remains the only player yet to taste a victory at the Sinquefield Cup this year. He had his chance today and missed it in a rather uncharacteristic fashion. This came as a big relief for Leinier Dominguez, who managed to keep his position among the leaders. Without further ado, here is my game of the day:

The last game for me to cover was GM Sam Shankland versus GM Richard Rapport. Sam started off with the Scotch and issued the modern line 5.Nb3. Both sides castled long, but there were no fireworks in the middlegame. It was Richard who had chances, but Sam found an escape hatch into a drawn rook ending.

As we can see round six did not upset the equilibrium, but there are still three more to go. I think we haven't seen the last surprises of this edition of the Sinquefield Cup.

All Games Round 6

The 2021 Sinquefield Cup tournament is the last stop of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour. Games started on August 17 with 10 of the best chess players in the world competing for a piece of the $325,000 prize fund.