Leinier Domínguez finished in second place at the Sinquefield Cup

August 27, 2021

The debut of Grandmaster Leinier Domínguez in the Sinquefield Cup, the strongest event of the Grand Chess Tour, was excellent.

The Cuban-American finished in second place, undefeated, with 5.5 points out of 9 possible, tied with Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana. Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the tournament, with 6 points.

In the final round, Leinier and So were tied, but the Filipino-American was already the winner of the Grand Chess Tour, so, on the board, in the game between them, there was peace. Accepted Queen's Gambit, a quick queen trade, skirmishes precisely on the queenside, until they reached an endgame of bishops, with four pawns for each. Draw, in 35 moves.

The other four games of the ninth and final round also ended in draws, as had happened a day before. Vachier-Lagrave was the first to finish, drawing quickly against Mamedyarov, in 25 moves of a Grünfeld Defense. Fabiano Caruana tried hard against Richard Rapport, but the game ended in a draw, in 64 moves. Sam Shankland split the point with Dariusz Swiercz, in 43 moves of a Barcza System and Peter Svidler did the same against Jeffery Xiong.

After Vachier-Lagrave, who received a prize of $90,000, came Leinier, So and Caruana, with 5.5 points and $45,000 for each. Hungarian Rapport finished in fifth place, with 4.5 points; while Xiong, Mamedyarov and Shankland occupied places 6 through 8, all with 4 points. Svidler finished in 9th place, with 3.5 points and Swiercz closed it out, with just 2.5.

Wesley So won the Grand Chess Tour—by having the best results in the series of four events—and obtained the grand prize, of $100,000.

According to the specialized site 2700 Live Chess Rating, Leinier Domínguez added 7.8 points to his ELO, which allowed him to recover from the setback at the FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Now, with 2760, he is in 12th place in the world ranking.