The tournament is the fourth event on the Grand Chess Tour. Three tournaments, all of which were held in Europe, have already been included in the overall tour ranking: the Superbet Chess Classic Romania, the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland and the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia. Immediately after the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, the last event of the Grand Chess Tour will start, also at the Saint Louis Chess Club: the Sinquefield Cup.
Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield during the opening ceremony | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes
At the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, three rounds of 25+10 Rapid Chess are played on each of the first three tournament days. With two points per win, a maximum of 18 points can be gained for the overall standings of the event. On day 4 and day 5, nine rounds of 5+2 blitz per day will follow, with one point per win.
Sportingly, the first day of the tournament was not a success for Levon Aronian, but in terms of shirt selection he was clearly the number one | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes
For Alireza Firouzja the tournament began with a victory over the Azerbaijani Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. A single white rook, which strolled death-defyingly through the opponent’s position, did most of the work:
Alireza Firouzja also won his second game, against Hikaru Nakamura | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes
The highlight in round 3 was Alireza Firouzja’s game against Sam Shankland. GM Karsten Müller analysed the most important variations:
If Black would immediately continue to give checks in the variation after 47.Kf5 Qc5+ 48.e5, then White would reach the curious position shown below, in which the white king cannot be attacked any more:
Commentator Cristian Chirila | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes
That was tough! | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes
