GM Leinier Domínguez played against Fabiano Caruana, number two in the world ranking

August 20, 2021

The Cuban-American Leinier Domínguez drew with the number two in the world, Italian-American Fabiano Caruana, and is part of the group leading the prestigious Sinquefield Cup Chess Tournament, which will be played until August 26 in Saint Louis, Missouri.

With the white pieces, Domínguez (ELO 2758) played the Italian Opening—instead of the expected Ruy López—and by move 26 had achieved a certain advantage that he was unable to materialize against an opponent who exceeds 2800 rating points (2806).

By the way, it was the ninth draw in classical games between these rivals, each of whom has accumulated a pair of wins over the other.

The round was marked by draws, and only American Wesley So (2772) managed to tip the scales against Dariusz Swiercz (2655), born in Poland and also living in the northern nation.

In the other matches the point was divided. Namely, Peter Svidler (Russia-2714) did so versus Shaq Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan-2782), Richard Rapport (Hungary-2763) with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France-2751), and Samuel Shankland (USA-2709) ended in a draw against Jeffery Xiong (USA-2710).

In the next round, the master from Guines plays with the black pieces against Xiong, and the rest of the menu consisted of the matches Mamedyarov-Rapport, So-Svidler, Vachier-Lagrave-Shankland and Caruana-Swiercz.

At 20 years old, the talented Xiong has a favorable score (1.5-0.5) against Domínguez, who leads the tournament with the same points as Caruana, So and Vachier-Lagrave.

The schedule includes five consecutive competitive rounds, followed by a rest day that will precede the four final rounds. The prize pool will be $325,000, and the matches will be played at 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 for the rest of the game, with a half-minute increment from the first move.

This tournament constitutes the fifth and final leg of the 2021 Chess Grand Prix, in which previous segment (rapid and blitz) Domínguez participated and finished in sixth place.