Latest news with #RapidandBlitz2025
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First Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- First Post
Gukesh rallies from losing position to stop Caruana from making chess history: 'Today could have been horrible'
It's never over till its over against chess world champion D Gukesh. On Wednesday, Gukesh scripted another comeback win from a losing position to stop Fabiano Caruana from making a new chess record. 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. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 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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First Post
5 days ago
- Sport
- First Post
'Demolishing the world champion is pretty good': Shankland celebrates as Gukesh suffers a shocking defeat at Saint Louis
It was a poor day for world champion D Gukesh in the second of Rapid section at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 as he suffered a shocking defeat to Sam Shankland, which is the American Grandmaster's only win in the tournament so far. 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. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 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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First Post
6 days ago
- Sport
- First Post
'I got careless': D Gukesh relived as he launches stylish comeback after disastrous start at Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025
Chess world champion D Gukesh was candid in his short interview as he admitted playing a poor opening game before scripting a turnaround with two wins on Day 1 of the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025. Check analysis of his matches. read more Despite a tough opening defeat, D Gukesh bounced back to win next two Raid games at Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz on Monday. Images: Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz World chess champion D Gukesh bounced back in style after an opening defeat to Levon Aronian to finish Day 1 of the Grand Chess Tour at Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025 with two wins from three rounds of Rapid games on Monday. In a short interview after the three games, Gukesh admitted that he had a poor opening game, but was satisfied with how things turned around for him. The Indian chess star Gukesh is now third in the Rapid standings with four points after two wins. He trails Aronian and Fabiano Caruana. Aronian is on perfect six points after victories against Gukesh, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Caruana drew his first game against Vachier-Lagrave before beating Abdusattorov and Leinier Dominguez Perez. The world No.3 Caruana is scheduled to take on world champion Gukesh in the final round. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Speaking to the hosts at the end of the day, Gukesh said there's still a long way to go in the tournament and he's up for it after two consecutive wins. 'I guess it was overall good. The first game was bad. Once I allowed the knight f3 in the opening…I should have just played g4. I got careless in that one moment and it was just hard to play that,' Gukesh said. 'I was happy with how I came back after that….the third (game) was also pretty good. Feeling good about the last three games. It's just the start of the tournament, so wonderful.' Analysing Gukesh's three Rapid games While Gukesh is not known for his prowess in the faster formats, he has shown enough signs of improving his overall game. The 19-year-old chess prodigy won the Rapid title at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament in Zagreb, Croatia, in July, which was also a part of the Grand Chess Tour. But entered the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025 after suffering a 5-1 thrashing to Jan-Krzysztof Duda in Katowice, Poland, in a Blitz exhibition match. He was thrashed by Aronian in the opening round on Monday in 45 moves with the 42-year-old Armenian chess Grandmaster, who clinched the Freestyle Grand Slam Las Vegas trophy recently, winning the game with White pieces. How Aronian beat Gukesh: Nonetheless, Gukesh launched his comeback against Grigoriy Oparin of the USA with White pieces, beating him in just 32 moves. Oprain conceded the game by making two blunders in the last two moves as 30…Rd8 and 31…gxf6 made checkmate against him unavoidable. How Gukesh defeated Oparin: In the final game of the day, Gukesh thrashed Quang Liem Le of Vietnam in 42 moves despite playing with Black pieces. How Gukesh defeated Liem Le: In a balanced game, Liem Le moving his Rook to f3 on the 40th move scripted his downfall as he was forced to resign soon after.
