Sinquefield Cup R8: Alireza Firouzja wins Grand Chess Tour 2024 with a round to spare
All five games of the penultimate round at Grand Chess Tour Sinquefield Cup 2024 ended in draws. Thus Alireza Firouzja (FRA) won the 2024 season of Grand Chess Tour with a round to spare. He still has a full point lead 5.5/8, going into the final round. Only Fabiano Caruana (USA) has a mathematical chance of catching him. Firouzja had the longest draw of the round when three out of the five games were drawn in 28 moves or less. Firouzja will face Praggnanandhaa in the last round. Caruana will be up against Anish Giri (NED). Round 9 starts today at 11 a.m. local time, 9:30 p.m. IST. Graphic: Grand Chess Tour
Five draws
The standings remain unchanged after Round 8. Alireza Firouzja (FRA) is the sole leader 5.5/8, followed by Fabiano Caruana (USA) at 4.5/8. They are followed by five players at 50% score 4/8 - Wesley So (USA), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA), R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh.
Alireza Firouzja on winning the tour: "It's very tough to win a tour. Any tour is tough to win, but this is the strongest tour in the world. Very happy, but it's very tiring and feeling exhausted but, I'm very happy."
Garry Kasparov congratulated Alireza Firouzja for winning Grand Chess Tour 2024
Replay live stream
Schedule and Format
Sinquefield Cup will have one round per day from 19th to 28th August. Rest day is on Saturday 24th August. Each round starts at 1 p.m. local time, 11:30 p.m. IST, except the last round on 28th August. It will start at 11 am. local time, 9:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event.
Prize
The total prize fund is US$ 350000.
Replay Round 8 games
Round 8 results
Standings after Round 8
Round 9 pairings
| Table | White | Score | Fed. | Rating | Black | Score | Fed. | Rating | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Caruana, Fabiano | 4.5 | USA | 2793 | GM Giri, Anish | 3.0 | NED | 2746 | |
| 2 | GM Firouzja, Alireza | 5.5 | FRA | 2751 | GM Praggnanandhaa R | 4.0 | IND | 2749 | |
| 3 | GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 4.0 | UZB | 2762 | GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 3.5 | FID | 2767 | |
| 4 | GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 4.0 | FRA | 2721 | GM Ding, Liren | 3.5 | CHN | 2745 | |
| 5 | GM Gukesh D | 4.0 | IND | 2766 | GM So, Wesley | 4.0 | USA | 2751 |
