Alireza Firouzja conquers Saint Louis, again!

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/29/2024 – A draw against R. Praggnanandhaa was all Alireza Firouzja needed to take first place at the Sinquefield Cup - and he safely kept the balance until getting the required half point after 47 moves. Firouzja had secured overall victory in the Grand Chess Tour with a round to spare. The eventful final round saw Fabiano Caruana (who grabbed second place), Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave collecting full points. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club
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Déjà vu

Alireza Firouzja made his first trip to Saint Louis only 2 years ago. In a memorable showing, the youngster (who was already representing France at that point) collected back-to-back victories at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament and the Sinquefield Cup. The 3-week performance allowed the then 19-year-old to also win the Grand Chess Tour, which meant an extra $100,000 in prize money. Firouzja climbed to 4th place in the next official FIDE ranking (October 2022), with a 2785 Elo rating to his name.

Now, at 21, Firouzja repeated the feat, winning both tournaments in Saint Louis and grabbing first place at the yearly GCT series. In 2022, he had finished the Sinquefield Cup with 5/8 points - that was the infamous edition which saw Magnus Carlsen withdrawing from the tournament after losing to Hans Niemann - and had to beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in playoffs to claim the title. This time around, he finished undefeated with 6/9 points to become the outright winner.

Another curious coincidence is that the 2 times Firouzja got twin victories in Saint Louis, he came from obtaining disappointing results at the Candidates Tournament. In Madrid 2022 he finished sixth with 6/14 points, while in Toronto 2024 he finished seventh with 5/14 points. This might be the beginning of yet another ascendant streak for the resilient youngster - and his fans will surely be hoping third time's the charm for the 21-year-old.

For his efforts in the GCT series, Firouzja received $323,750 in prize money, as besides his victories in Saint Louis he grabbed shared second place both at the Superbet Classic in Romania and the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz in Croatia. Second and third place went to Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, both in the series and in the Sinquefield Cup (more on their round-9 victories below).

Grand Chess Tour 2024

While Firouzja safely obtained the draw he needed to secure outright victory in his game against R. Praggnanandhaa, the final round of the event featured 3 interesting battles, all of which ended with decisive results - D. Gukesh and Wesley So signed a 35-move draw in a game that was evaluated as close to equal throughout. Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave and Abdusattorov ended the event with victories.

The first one to secure a full point on Wednesday was Abdusattorov, who took advantage of Ian Nepomniachtchi's overly optimistic play to get a 27-move win with the black pieces. The Uzbek ace finished the event with a +1 score, as he recovered from his round-3 loss against Caruana with wins over Ding and Nepo in rounds 7 and 9 respectively.

Later on, MVL joined Abdusattorov in third place by defeating Ding while marshalling the white pieces. The world champion found himself down on the clock in a complex middlegame arising from a Ruy Lopez, lost the thread on move 26 and blundered decisively on move 30. Remarkably, MVL's win put an end to a 25-game streak of draws. A good omen going into the Chess Olympiad in Budapest?

The last game to finish in the round (and the event) was Caruana's victory over Anish Giri. Caruana, who entered the event as the top seed and defending champion, suffered a loss against Firouzja in the inaugural round. However, wins over Abdusattorov, Nepomniachtchi and now Giri allowed him to finish in clear second place both in the Sinquefield Cup and the Grand Chess Tour.

Round 9 results

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave stopped a lengthy streak of draws by defeating world champion Ding Liren | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Caruana 1 - 0 Giri

Analysis by André Schulz

Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Abdusattorov 1 - 0 Nepomniachtchi

Analysis by André Schulz

Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Expert analysis by GM Daniel King

Final standings

All games

Links

Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.