8/14/2019 – Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament despite losing his last round game against former leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The French grandmaster ended up sharing second place with Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren — the Chinese duo had a strong showing at the blitz, as they got the best scores in the last two days of action (11½ out of 18, the same score obtained by Sergey Karjakin). World champion Magnus Carlsen finished in sixth place but still leads the overall GCT standings. Express report. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Grand Chess Tour
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Fritz 16 is looking forward to playing with you, and you're certain to have a great deal of fun with him too. Tense games and even well-fought victories await you with "Easy play" and "Assisted analysis" modes.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
€34.90
Aronian outlasts Vachier-Lagrave
Back in 2017, at the semi-finals of the World Cup in Tbilisi, Levon Aronian eliminated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a thrilling Armageddon finale, thus stopping the Frenchman from reaching the Candidates Tournament. In Saint Louis, the Armenian also surpassed his colleague (and friend) in the final day of Blitz. Aronian caught up with the then-leader in round twelve and took advantage of Vachier-Lagrave's three straight losses in rounds 14-16 to take the lead.
The eventual winner of the event reached the final round a point ahead of Yu Yangyi and 1½ points ahead of Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren. 'MVL' in fact defeated Aronian, but Yu Yangyi only drew tail-ender Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, which meant the Armenian finished in first place half a point ahead of Vachier-Lagrave and the two Chinese players (Ding Liren also won in round eighteen).
Sergey Karjakin finished in fifth place, after scoring 11½/18 in the Blitz.
Games and commentary
The blitz tournament is a double round-robin with players receiving 5 minutes per player per game, with a time delay of 3 seconds per move.
At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library, tactics server, opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check and web access to playchess.com
Live commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Maurice Ashley and WGM Jennifer Shahade from 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST, 14:00 EDT)
Results of Rounds 9-18
Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com.
Final standings
Click or tap to expand
Final rapid standings
The rapid tournament scoring system is 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12090 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 874 are annotated.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.