St. Louis Rapid and Blitz: D Gukesh recovers from early losses to claim fourth spot
World champion D Gukesh recovered from an opening loss against United States' Leinier Dominguez Perez to defeat fellow Americans Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana, finishing fourth in the rapid section of the St.
Louis Rapid and Blitz, part of the Grand Chess Tour. Despite starting with a loss for the third consecutive day, Gukesh's position remains strong with 18 blitz games still remaining in the $175,000 prize-money event.
Fabiano Caruana topped the rapid standings with 14 points, despite his defeat to Gukesh. He is followed by Armenian-born American Levon Aronian on 13 points, while France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is third with 11 points, just a point ahead of Gukesh, who has had a mixed tournament so far.
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Leinier Dominguez, Wesley So, and Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov share fifth place with nine points, two ahead of Vietnam's Liem Le Quang. American Sam Shankland sits ninth with five points, and Grigoriy Oparin is last with three points.
Gukesh lost to Dominguez after misplaying a promising middle-game position, allowing Dominguez to invade the seventh rank at a critical moment. He then bounced back by defeating Wesley So, who struggled under pressure, in the penultimate round of rapid.
Against Caruana in the final round, Gukesh capitalised on a significant oversight to secure victory despite being nearly outplayed earlier.
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Rapid round results:
Round 7: Gukesh lost to Dominguez; Aronian beat Shankland; Abdusattorov drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Oparin lost to Caruana; Liem drew with Wesley.
Round 8: Gukesh beat Wesley; Caruana beat Liem; Dominguez drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Shankland drew with Abdusattorov; Oparin lost to Wesley.
Round 9: Gukesh beat Caruana; Liem drew with Aronian; Abdusattorov beat Dominguez; Oparin lost to Shankland; Wesley beat Oparin.
Standings after Round 9 (Rapid):
Caruana – 14
Aronian – 13
Vachier-Lagrave – 11
Gukesh – 10
5-7. Dominguez, Abdusattorov, Wesley – 9 each
Liem – 7
Shankland – 5
Oparin – 3
Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
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