Latest news with #SaintLouisRapidandBlitz2025
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First Post
17 hours ago
- Sport
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Levon Aronian wins Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025; World Champion Gukesh finishes joint sixth
Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025 with 24.5 points, sealing the Grand Chess Tour title with two rounds to spare. Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished second and third, while World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju shared sixth place with Liem Le. Levon Aronian claimed victory after 18 rounds of blitz and three days of rapid chess. FIDE/GCT The fourth event of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour, the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025, ended on Friday, August 15, with Levon Aronian lifting the title. The Armenian-American grandmaster played solid and attacking chess throughout and finished on 24.5 points, a full three points ahead of the rest of the field. Aronian sealed the title with two rounds to spare after drawing French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Aronian won against Sam Shankland in the final round, which earned him the top prize of $40,000 (Rs 35 lakh). STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It's official! Levon clinches the #STLRapidAndBlitz title with 2 rounds to spare after drawing MVL!#grandchesstour — Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 15, 2025 American GM Fabiano Caruana, who drew with Leinier Dominguez in the final round, came second on 21.5 points, taking home $30,000 (Rs 26 lakh). Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished in third place with 21 points and a prize money of $25,000 (Rs 21 lakh). Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan finished fourth on 20.5 points, while Wesley So ended fifth with 19 points. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju shared sixth place with Vietnam's Liem Le, both scoring 18 points. After losing to Caruana in Round 15, Gukesh drew his next three games. With this victory, Aronian also earned 13 Grand Chess Tour points, putting himself firmly in the race for the overall GCT title. Standings after Blitz Round 18 # Player Title Rating Points 1 Levon Aronian GM 2732 24.5 2 Fabiano Caruana GM 2750 21.5 3 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave GM 2725 21 4 Nodirbek Abdusattorov GM 2721 20.5 5 Wesley So GM 2704 19 6 Liem Le GM 2655 18 7 Gukesh Dommaraju GM 2687 18 8 Leinier Dominguez GM 2705 15.5 9 Grigoriy Oparin GM 2634 13 10 Sam Shankland GM 2621 9
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First Post
4 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.
