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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:
Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3
The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.
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
