Sinquefield Cup and Cairns Cup start simultaneously today

By admin August 10, 2026 Updated: August 11, 2026 0 comments

The fifth leg of Grand Chess Tour 2026 is Sinquefield Cup. It will take place from 10th to 19th August at Saint Louis Chess Club in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. Cairns Cup will also take place at the same simultaneously.

Praggnanandhaa, Humpy, Divya and Vaishali will be in action

The defending champion of Sinquefield Cup, Wesley So will aim to defend his crown. R Praggnanandhaa would certainly like to continue his momentum after winning Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz last week and better his performance from last year.

Carissa Yip won the 5th Cairns Cup last year. She will be defending her crown against Bibisara Assaubayeva, Anna Muzychuk, Humpy Koneru, Zhongyi Tan, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Divya Deshmukh, R Vaishali, Stavroula Tsolakidou and Alice Lee.

Sinquefield Cup and Cairns Cup particpants | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

Sinquefield Cup 2026 participants | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

Schedule and Format

Both Sinquefield Cup and Cairns Cup will have one round per day from 10th to 19th August. Rest day is on 15th August. Round 1 starts at 12 p.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control will be 40 moves in 90 minutes + 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Participants

Sinquefield Cup: World no.2 – Fabiano Caruana (USA), World no.4 – Javokhir Sindarov (UZB), World no.5 – Vincent Keymer (GER), World no.6 – Wesley So (USA), World no.7 – Anish Giri (NED), World no.12 – R Praggnanandhaa, World no.19 – Jorden van Foreest (NED), World no.23 – Levon Aronian (USA), World no. 28 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and World no.32 – Samuel Sevian (USA).

Cairns Cup: GM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ), GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR), GM Humpy Koneru, GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI), GM Divya Deshmukh, GM R Vaishali, IM Carissa Yip (USA), IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE) and IM Alice Lee (USA).