All Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz interviews
8/19/2017 – Following on the heels of the Sinquefield Cup, the Saint Louis Blitz and Rapid lasted just five days, with each webcast lasting about 4½ hours. Most player interviews took place at the end of the day, after the rapid or blitz games concluded. For posterity, we've once again compiled quick links to all those post-game chats with Maurice Ashley and Cristian Chirila. | Photos: Lennart Ootes
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Rapid review
The format of rapid and blitz meant that most players only descended to the commentary webcast studio once per day at the end of play, but by then they were typically talkative, making for instructive and light-hearted banter. But they also stood for spot interviews between rounds with GM Cristian Chirila.
To make it easy to review these interviews, we've linked to the start of each one from within the full round videos provided by the Grand Chess Tour, via the Chess Club and Scholastic Center's YouTube channel.
15 minutes till the return of @Kasparov63 for #StlRapidBlitz @GrandChessTour watch live https://t.co/onjeEEzIiV pic.twitter.com/SxxgsnEo5Y
— Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade) August 14, 2017
Of course Garry Kasparov was the star of the show, and we heard from him one more time after the tournament's conclusion:
Garry Kasparov's final interview | Source: CCSCSL on YouTube
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Feature on Kasparov's return (Day 4) | Source: CCSCSL on YouTube
Day 1 - Rapid rounds 1-3
Round 1
Levon Aronian (beat Navara)
- Le Quang Liem (beat Caruana)
- Hikaru Nakamura (beat Anand)
Round 2
- Fabiano Caruana (beat Navara)
Round 3
Day 2 - Rapid rounds 4-6
No Round 4 Interviews
Round 5
Ian Nepomniachtchi (beat Kasparov)
- Le Quang Liem (beat Aronian)
Round 6
Day 3 - Rapid rounds 7-9
Round 7
- David Navara (beat Kasparov)
No Round 8 Interviews
Round 9
Day 4 - Blitz rounds 1-9
R1 - Levon Aronian (Draw with Nakamura)
- R2 - David Navara (Draw with Aronian)
- R3 - Fabiano Caruana (Beat Kasparov)
- R4 - Lenier Dominguez (Beat Caruana)
- R5 - Le Quang Liem (Beat Kasparov)
- R6 - Levon Aronian (Beat Nepomniachtchi)
- R7 - Sergey Karjakin (Beat Nakamura)
- R8 - Viswanathan Anand (Draw with Navara)
Longer interviews following Round 9:
Thoughts on wildcards | Source: CCSCSL on YouTube
Day 5 - Blitz rounds 10-18
R10 - Le Quang Liem (Beat Caruana)
- R11 - Sergey Karjakin (Beat Dominguez)
- R12 - David Navara (Beat Karjakin)
- R13 - Lenier Dominguez (Beat Caruana)
- R14 - Fabiano Caruana (Beat Navara)
- R15 - Levon Aronian (Beat Nepomniachtchi)
Longer interviews following Round 18:
Hikaru Nakamura was dissatisfied, but still finished shared second | CCSCSL on YouTube
Levon Aronian's winner's interview | CCSCSL on YouTube
