The first half of the blitz section at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament saw Wesley So and Alireza Firouzja climbing in the standings by scoring 7 and 6½ points respectively. Firouzja, who tied for first place in the rapid section, is now the sole leader, while So is now sharing second place with Ian Nepomniachtchi, at a 1½-point distance from Firouzja.
Tense struggles saw many of the games being decided by one-move blunders. Following the games live with the great commentary by Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler and Nazi Paikidze is surely entertaining, as the participants showcase their ability to make difficult decisions in deep time trouble - until one of them falters decisively.
Besides Firouzja, Nepo and So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian are well within reach of winning the tournament - i.e. half the field have realistic chances of claiming overall victory before the final 9 rounds of blitz.
In the crucial encounter between Firouzja and So, the latter failed to foresee a tactical idea that allowed Firouzja to promote a pawn by sacrificing an exchange.
50...Re1+ was a decisive mistake, as after 51.Kh2 Rb1 there is 52.Rxc6 bxc6 52.Bb4, blocking the b-file. So resigned.
Wesley So | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Two rounds later, after beating Leinier Dominguez, So got a lucky break - Aronian went from having a clearly better position to blundering the game away with a single queen manoeuvre.
69.Qxb5 loses the queen to 69...Qf1+, with a skewer.
Levon Aronian | Photo: Lennart Ootes
By Kostya Kavutskiy
