The Sinquefield Cup is an annual, invitation-only chess tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, honoring Rex Sinquefield and his wife Jeanne, the founders of the Saint Louis Chess Club. Since 2015, the Sinquefield Cup has been a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
Winners
{ | class="sortable wikitable" ! # !! Year !! Winner(s) |- |align="center"|1||2013|| |- |align="center"|2||2014|| |- |align="center"|3||2015|| |- |align="center"|4||2016|| |- |align="center"|5||2017|| |- |align="center"|6||2018|| |- |align="center"|7||2019|| |- |align="center"|8||2021|| |- |align="center"|9||2022|| |}
2013
The first edition (working title: 2013 Saint Louis International) was held from 9 to 15 September 2013 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The four grandmasters played the classic time control 40 moves in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment as of move one, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game in double round-robin format. The total prize fund was $170,000, with $70,000 going to the winner, $50,000 to runner-up, $30,000 to third place and $20,000 to fourth place. The average FIDE rating for the field was 2797, the highest rated tournament at the time. The opening ceremony took place on 8 September 2013, and round 1 was held the next day. This was the last tournament for Magnus Carlsen before the World Chess Championship 2013.
{ | class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+ 1st Sinquefield Cup, 9–15 September 2013, St. Louis, USA, Cat. XXII (2797) ! !! Player !! Rating !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! Points !! TPR |- |- style="background:#ccffcc;" | 1 || align="left" | || 2862 | || ½ ½ || ½ 1 || 1 1 || 4½ || 2968 |- | 2 || align="left" | || 2772 | ½ ½ || || 1 0 || 1 ½ || 3½ || 2862 |- | 3 || align="left" | || 2813 | ½ 0 || 0 1 || || ½ ½ || 2½ || 2735 |- | 4 || align="left" | || 2741 | 0 0 || 0 ½ || ½ ½ || || 1½ || 2623 |}
2014
The second edition was held from August 27 to September 7, at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. It is by rating the strongest tournament in the history of chess, as measured by actual average Elo rating of 2802 for the six participants, all in the top ten of FIDE's Elo rating list: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9 in the world.
The six grandmasters again played the time control of 40 moves in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment for every move, followed by an additional 30 minutes plus the per-move-increment for the rest of the game, in a double round-robin tournament.
The total prize fund was increased to $315,000, with $100,000 going to the winner.
{ | class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+ 2nd Sinquefield Cup, 27 August – 7 September 2014, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, Category XXIII (2801.7) ! !! Player !! Rating !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! Points !! Wins !! || TPR |-style="background:#ccffcc;" | 1 || align=left | || 2801 | || 1 ½ || 1 1 || 1 1 || 1 ½ || 1 ½ || 8½ || || || 3098 |- | 2 || align=left | || 2877 | 0 ½ || || ½ ½ || ½ ½ || 1 ½ || ½ 1 || 5½ || || || 2823 |- | 3 || align=left | || 2772 | 0 0 || ½ ½ || || 1 ½ || 0 ½ || 1 1 || 5 || || || 2808 |- | 4 || align=left | || 2768 | 0 0 || ½ ½ || 0 ½ || || 1 ½ || ½ ½ || 4 || 1 || 1½ || 2736 |- | 5 || align=left | || 2805 | 0 ½ || 0 ½ || 1 ½ || 0 ½ || || ½ ½ || 4 || 1 || ½ || 2729 |- | 6 || align=left | || 2787 | 0 ½ || ½ 0 || 0 0 || ½ ½ || ½ ½ || || 3 || || || 2656 |} After round 7, Caruana had achieved a score of 7/7, which was described as a "historical achievement" by Levon Aronian. Caruana drew his remaining games to finish with 8½/10 and a performance rating of 3098, the highest ever performance rating in a single tournament, besting Carlsen's performance in the 2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament and Anatoly Karpov in the 1994 Linares chess tournament. It was compared to Bobby Fischer's 20-game winning streak in 1970–1971.
Vachier-Lagrave finished fourth, ahead of Aronian on tie-break (direct encounter).
2015
The third edition was held from August 22 to September 3, at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis as the second leg in the 2015 Grand Chess Tour. The tournament featured the seven top players in the world, a feat only surpassed by the AVRO 1938 chess tournament. The Sinquefield Cup was also the strongest tournament featured in the 2015 Grand Chess Tour with an average FIDE Rating of 2795.
The 2015 Sinquefield Cup was a single round-robin event held with a time control of 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by the rest of the game in 1 hour with a 30-second increment from move 41. Wesley So was selected as the tournament invite and joined the nine other players already participating in the Grand Chess Tour.