Aronian Leads St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, Gukesh Struggles

St. Louis, USA, Aug 15 (PTI) — In the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz chess tournament, part of the Grand Chess Tour, World Champion D Gukesh registered one victory and four draws on the opening day, leaving him tied for sixth place. Gukesh needs to achieve significant scores in the remaining nine blitz games to make a strong comeback.

Taking the sole lead, Levon Aronian of the United States secured 6 out of 9 points, positioning himself comfortably ahead of his compatriot and the overnight leader, Fabiano Caruana.

Aronian amassed a total of 19 points, placing him two points ahead of Caruana, who in turn is just half a point ahead of France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who is in third place.

Uzbek Grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov made a notable recovery, tying with Aronian in blitz games and climbing to joint fourth place with Wesley So of the United States, both having accumulated 15 points.

Gukesh stands in a distant sixth position with 13 points, sharing it with Liem Le Quang of Vietnam. These two are three points ahead of another American, Leinier Dominguez Perez. Meanwhile, Grigoriy Oparin improved his standing slightly to move into the ninth spot with 9 points, 1.5 points ahead of Sam Shankland.

Gukesh managed a victory against Dominguez, but his four losses significantly affected his standing. Caruana, after an impressive rapid section, lost three games and went winless in blitz. Aronian regained the lead, losing one game but winning four and drawing four. Vachier-Lagrave had the most consistent performance, remaining undefeated with two wins and seven draws on this penultimate day of the $175,000 prize money event.

The complete results of the first nine blitz rounds are as follows:

Round 1: Levon Aronian (USA) drew with D Gukesh (IND); Liem Le Quang (VIE) defeated Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA); Grigoriy Oparin (USA) defeated Wesley So (USA); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB); Fabiano Caruana (USA) drew with Sam Shankland (USA).

Round 2: Shankland drew with Gukesh; Abdusattorov lost to Oparin; Dominguez lost to Vachier-Lagrave; Caruana defeated Liem; Wesley drew with Aronian.

Round 3: Gukesh lost to Wesley; Liem defeated Shankland; Aronian lost to Abdusattorov; Oparin defeated Dominguez; Vachier-Lagrave drew with Caruana.

Round 4: Liem drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Caruana drew with Oparin; Dominguez lost to Aronian; Abdusattorov defeated Gukesh.

Round 5: Aronian defeated Caruana; Gukesh defeated Dominguez; Wesley defeated Abdusattorov; Vachier-Lagrave drew with Shankland; Oparin drew with Liem.

Round 6: Dominguez drew with Wesley; Liem drew with Aronian; Caruana drew with Gukesh; Shankland lost to Abdusattorov; Vachier-Lagrave drew with Oparin.

Round 7: Gukesh lost to Liem; Oparin defeated Shankland; Abdusattorov defeated Dominguez; Aronian drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Wesley drew with Caruana.

Round 8: Liem lost to Wesley; Vachier-Lagrave defeated Gukesh; Caruana lost to Abdusattorov; Shankland defeated Dominguez; Oparin lost to Aronian.

Round 9: Dominguez drew with Caruana; Aronian defeated Shankland; Gukesh drew with Oparin; Wesley drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Abdusattorov drew with Liem.

Standings with nine blitz rounds remaining: 1. Aronian 19; 2. Caruana 17; 3. Vachier-Lagrave 16.5; 4-5. Abdusattorov, Wesley 15 each; 6-7. Gukesh, Liem 13 each; 8. Dominguez 10; 9. Oparin 9; 10. Shankland 7.5.

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