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Gukesh rallies from losing position to stop Caruana from making chess history: 'Today could have been horrible'
It was another comeback win by world champion D Gukesh as he stopped Fabiano Caruana from making a new chess record. Image: Grand Chess Tour
American Grandmaster and world No.3 Fabiano Caruana was stopped from making new chess history by a dogged D Gukesh as the world champion scripted a comeback win over the 33-year-old veteran at the Grand Chess Tour's Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 on Wednesday. Despite losing to 19-year-old Gukesh, Caruana won the Rapid section with 14 out of possible 18 points, while Gukesh finished in the fourth spot with 10 points.
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Nonetheless, Caruana's night was slightly spoiled by the resilience shown by Gukesh. No player has ever managed to score more than 15 points in nine matches of the Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz tournaments. The best is 15 out of 18 points, which has been achieved thrice so far, twice by world No.1 Magnus Carlsen and once by Caruana. The American was looking to set a new chess record by beating Gukesh and reaching the 16/18 points elusive tally.
Gukesh bounces back to stun Caruana
However, his dreams were crushed in the final round by the Indian chess prodigy, who, despite being in a spot of bother and Caruana appearing to have the decisive advantage, fought back in his typical style, kept finding the resourceful moves and eventually won the game in 89 moves with White pieces.
'Today could have turned out to be horrible, but it turned out to be good. The first game was bad. Second was pretty good, I think,' Gukesh said in an interview with the organisers after his victory over Caruana.
Interactive on how Gukesh defeated Caruana:
The victory over Caruana was Gukesh's third and final Rapid game of the day. He started the day in joint fifth with six points. He lost his first match of Wednesday against Leinier Dominguez Perez of the USA in Round 7, before defeating another local Grandmaster, Wesley So, in Round 8 and finishing the Rapid section with a memorable victory over Caruana.
Meanwhile, Levon Aronian finished second in the Rapid standings with 13/18 points, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished above Gukesh in the third spot with 11/18 points.
Saint Louis Rapid 2025 standings
The Blitz segment will start on Thursday.
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