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'Demolishing the world champion is pretty good': Shankland celebrates as Gukesh suffers a shocking defeat at Saint Louis
Sam Shankland's only in at Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 so far has come against D Gukesh. Images: Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025
American chess Grandmaster Sam Shankland enjoyed 'demolishing' world champion D Gukesh of India on the second day of the Rapid section at Grand Chess Tour's Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 on Tuesday, as the Chennai Grandmaster slipped to sixth spot in the standings. The 19-year-old Gukesh finished the first day with two wins in three matches, but suffered a defeat against lowly ranked Shankland with White pieces in his first game of the second day.
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Gukesh finished the day with two draws against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. He is currently sixth in the standings with six points from six games, four behind Fabiano Caruana, who holds the sole lead. Levon Aronian is second with eight points, the same as Wesley So at the third spot.
Shankland clinches his only win against world champion Gukesh
Shankland took 62 moves to beat Gukesh in a balanced game where both players made the right moves almost every time, except for Gukesh getting a few of them wrong. While he did not commit any massive blunder during the match, a few inaccuracies under pressure, like playing 9…exd4 when Be7 was the best, followed by 12…Rb8, when Be6 would have been the right move, put him on the back foot. 17…Qa5 was a major mistake in the match by the Indian Grandmaster, while 18…Rxb2 was also an inaccuracy, as he was forced to resign after 62 moves.
Shankland had a Knight advantage over Gukesh when the world champion resigned. The 33-year-old American Grandmaster was relieved after beating Gukesh, as he had lost all three games on Day 1. Celebrating the victory, Shankland said 'demolishing the world champion' was a good way to turn things around.
'It's a good relief after yesterday, when I looked like I was going to lose every single game. Starting 0-3 is tough, but coming in and demolishing the world champion is a pretty good way to turn it around,' Shankland said.
How Shankland 'demolished' Gukesh:
Shankland, however, remains at the bottom of the standings with two points from six matches, with his only win coming against Gukesh. He lost to Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave in the remaining matches of the day.
Gukesh will be back in action on Wednesday for the remaining three Rapid games, including a match against world No. 3 Caruana. However, a Rapid title in Saint Louis, like in Zagreb, looks unlikely.
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