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First Post
5 days ago
- Sport
- First Post
D Gukesh's Blitz struggles exposed with four defeats in single day at Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025
D Gukehs's weakness in the Blitz games were exposed as he suffered four defeats in nine games and only managed one win on Day 1 of the Blitz section at the Grand Chess Tour's Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 on Thursday. World champion D Gukesh had a horrible day at Grand Chess Tour's Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 on Thursday as the Blitz round got underway. The 19-year-old Indian chess Grandmaster could collect only three out of the possible nine points on Day 1 of the Blitz round as he suffered four defeats, including on time from an equal position against American Grandmaster Wesley So in Round 3. Having already scored 10 out of 18 points in the Rapid section, Gukesh was in the fourth spot, but he has now slid to the sixth spot in the standings with a total of 13 points against his name. Just in the Blitz-only standings, Gukesh finds himself in the seventh position, while American Levon Aronian leads with six points. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Aronian's fantastic display on the opening day of the Blitz round has also helped him to overtake Fabiano Caruana in the overall standings. He heads the table with 19 points, followed by Caruana on 17. French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is third with 16.5 points. The chances of Gukesh winning the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025 are as good as nil. Check who dominated in blitz today and who had a rough day at the office🧐!#GrandChessTour — Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 15, 2025 The Blitz section of the Grand Chess Tour competition is played in a double-round robin format with a time control of 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment. As it's the fastest format in the tournament, Gukesh has often been found at sea against the top opponents. At the Grand Chess Tour Zagreb event, Gukesh lost five consecutive matches on Day 1 of the Blitz round. Gukesh suffers poor Day 1 in Blitz section On Thursday, he began the Blitz section with a tense draw against Aronian and Sam Shankland, before suffering a defeat against So, despite being in an equal position, which highlighted Gukesh's weakness in failing to calculate moves quickly under time pressure. As he is more of an analytical player rather than relying on his instincts, the Chennai boy has often found it tough in Blitz matches. Gukesh loses on time in an equal position against Wesley So in Round 3 of GCT St. Louis Blitz! — ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) August 14, 2025 Gukesh also lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov before scripting a victory against Leinier Domínguez Pérez. In the last four matches, Gukesh suffered two defeats, against Le Quang Liem and Vachier-Lagrave respectively, and notched up two draws, against Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin. The remaining nine rounds of Blitz will be played on Friday, followed by the Classical event of the Grand Chess Tour – Sinquefield Cup, which will start on 18 August.
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First Post
6 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.
