GMs Levon Aronian and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu started with wins in the 2025 Sinquefield Cup to take the early lead. Aronian beat GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov with the black pieces in our Game of the Day, while Praggnanandhaa won a surprisingly easy-looking game against World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
GM Sam Sevian was winning at one point against GM Wesley So, but that game ended in a draw, and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also let an equally big chance slip against GM Alireza Firouzja. GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda was the most even-keeled draw.
Round two is on Tuesday, August 19, starting at 1:10 p.m. ET / 19:10 CEST / 10:40 p.m. IST.3
Standings After Round 1
The Sinquefield Cup is the last leg of the Grand Chess Tour. It’s the final opportunity for players to squeeze into the top four by tour points, with those four qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour Finals held in Sao Paulo at the end of September. Here are the standings so far, after the recently concluded 2025 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz:
The tournament is, as usual, a 10-player round-robin with a classical time control of 90+30 with an additional 30 minutes added after move 40. Besides tour points, players compete for a slice of the generous prize fund, with $100,000 going to the winner. Firouzja is the defending champion of this tournament and of the Grand Chess Tour overall.
Abdusattorov 0-1 Aronian
Coming off his win in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz, Aronian said of his first classical game, “I think I was playing very dubiously today.” Dubious or not, the 42-year-old Armenian American keeps on winning.
In a Nimzo-Indian Defense, Abdusattorov sacrificed a pawn to blow open the center and attack the king, but Aronian found several only moves to survive.
In fact, Aronian said that he’d seen but underestimated his opponent’s pawn break 19.e4. After the pawn sacrifice that followed, he said, “I was actually thinking he’s going for a draw after [22…]Qd5,” believing White’s plan plan was 23.Nc3 Qd6 24. Ne4 with a repetition, “and then when he played 23.f5 I realized, oh my God, Qg4 is there.” No matter, his position was fine and he found the right moves to weather the storm, and he later outplayed his younger opponent in an opposite-color bishops middlegame. GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes the Game of the Day below. below:
Asked whether he was thinking about the tour points for Sao Paulo, Aronian replied that if you have no expectations there will be no disappointments. He also said, “I came here to fight. I like to play in very strong events like this one, and it’s a chance to learn something.”
Praggnanandhaa 1-0 Gukesh
With this win, Praggnanandhaa has evened his lifetime score against the world champion, though he clarified, “I think two [wins] were from when we were kids, so that doesn’t really count.” Gukesh has been a difficult opponent for him, as he explained, “I’ve been having some tough results lately against him. Last year I messed up three winning positions… it’s good to finally get a win.”
Praggnanandhaa said, “It just felt like he was off today. I got a really good position out of the opening,” later adding that Gukesh took 20 minutes to think in a known opening position of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted (by transposition) by move seven. Things went south quickly; 13…Ba7? was the wrong square for the bishop, then further mistakes with 14…Rd8? and finally 16…Nxd7? left Black with a lost position, despite a symmetrical pawn structure and equal material. Praggnanandhaa was merciless, and his commentary is included in the notes below.
Sevian ½-½ So
Sevian, the only wildcard of the event, was one idea away from winning, although it wasn’t an easy one. The most critical moment of the game came after the decisive mistake 30…Rd6? 31.Qxf6 gxf6. Sevian played the natural 32.Be6, cementing his bishop on a protected square, when in fact 32.Rc7! (temporarily sacrificing the pawn) Bxd5 33.Bg6! would have left Black absolutely paralyzed.
Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Firouzja
Firouzja’s opening experiment with the Norwegian Variation of the Ruy Lopez (5…Na5) nearly got him burned. Vachier-Lagrave, with his immense experience on the white side of the Spanish Game, knew the line deeply enough to tell Firouzja after the game that 16…Re8 was better than the move 16…Bf6 played.
Though Firouzja was still only slightly worse, the position was difficult to play. He thought for 58 (!) minutes on his next move, and by move 18 he had just eight minutes against an hour and seven.
“If he was a bit more precise, I would be punished for sure,” said Firouzja who ended up escaping from what for one move was a lost position. 23.h3! was the only winning move, but its non-forcing nature would have also been extremely difficult to face for an opponent in time trouble. Firouzja, resourceful as ever, slipped away.
Caruana ½-½ Duda
This was the only game of round one where neither side reached a winning position. When GM Yasser Seirawan asked Duda if there was any moment where he “felt some chances existed for either yourself or Fabi,” he replied, “No, I think it was very solid.”
Both leaders will get the white pieces in round two. Praggnanandhaa will play against Caruana, while Aronian faces the newcomer Sevian. The two young players who lost, Gukesh and Abdusattorov, will play each other in a matchup that usually promises fireworks.
Round 2 Pairings
The 2025 Sinquefield Cup, taking place from August 18 to 28 in St. Louis, is the last leg and final classical event before the Final of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour. It is a single round-robin with 10 players with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. It features a $350,000 prize fund.
