Aronian, Caruana and MVL frontrunners
Fabiano Caruana won the three-day rapid tournament at the tournament in Saint Louis, finishing one point ahead of Levon Aronian. After the first day of the double round-robin blitz tournament, the cards were reshuffled, as Caruana did not get off to the best start.
Out of the nine games in the first half, the world number three failed to score a single win. Over the course of the day, Caruana experienced a series of mishaps.
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In his game against Levon Aronian, a drawn endgame with knight and pawn against knight appeared on the board. Caruana fought to hold the draw with the knight. The game had almost reached its 100th move. One of the drawing ideas involved a stalemate motif, which came up several times during the game - but it did not always work.
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In the final round, Caruana had an extra piece and a winning position against Leinier Dominguez. Technically, the conversion was not entirely straightforward, especially in blitz. However, Caruana overlooked a one-move stalemate trick and once again missed the win.
Gukesh Dommaraju had similarly poor luck, although with slightly better results. The world champion is an intense and excellent calculator who plays less on intuition, a style not particularly well-suited to short time controls. Against Caruana, Gukesh could have forced a straightforward win in a minor-piece endgame but failed to capitalise.
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At least Gukesh managed to defeat Dominguez, though it was his only win of the day.
After the first day of blitz, the standings are split into two groups. No fewer than half of the players scored 6 points: Wesley So, Aronian, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Le Quang Liem and Grigoriy Oparin. Alongside Caruana and Gukesh, both Sam Shankland and Dominguez served as point donors. Dominguez had a disastrous day, managing only two draws.
In the overall standings, which combine the results of the rapid tournament (with double points), Levon Aronian has moved into the lead.
Standings after round 9 - Blitz
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