St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, Day 1: Wildcard Le Quang Liem takes sole lead

by Press release
11/15/2023 – The 2023 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz kicked off on Monday with the first three rounds of rapid action, as the Grand Chess Tour makes its fourth stop of the year. After the first day of play, wildcard GM Le Quang Liem leads the field with 5.0/6, with GMs Alireza Firouzja and Ray Robson tied for second with 4.0/6. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

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.

Grand Chess Tour press release
By IM Kostya Kavutskiy

Day 1 Recap

Both events, the rapid and the blitz tournament, feature a 10-player round-robin format, with a time control of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment for the rapid, and five minutes with a 2 second increment for the blitz. The rapid scoring is doubled, with 2 points earned for each win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 for a loss.

The opening of the event coincided with the World Chess Hall of Fame inductions of grandmasters Bent Larsen, Lajos Portisch, and former Women's World Champion Susan Polgar, hosted at Webster University.

Susan Polgar gives her induction speech. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller

RAPID | ROUNDS 1-3

Liem’s campaign started off strong with a win over GM Wesley So, as a nice tactic allowed Liem to win the exchange along with the game:

Liem-So: 40.Nf6+! followed By d6-d7 would soon force resignation.

Another big win was scored by Firouzja, who took down Caruana thanks to a powerful exchange sacrifice as Black:

Caruana-Firouzja: 29…Rxf3! 30.gxf3 Rg3! left White dead lost to the kingside attack.

Reigning champion Firouzja started off with a huge win over Caruana. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

Meanwhile GM Sam Sevian stunned GM Ian Nepomniachtchi with a fantastic rook sacrifice that left Nepo’s king wide exposed:

Sevian-Nepomniachtchi: After 18.Bxh6!, gxh6 was answered with 19.Rxe6!, upgrading to a full rook sacrifice in order to mate Black's king.

After all games were drawn in the second round, with Liem spoiling a winning position against Robson, the number one player from Vietnam scored another victory in Round 3 against GM Jeffery Xiong, taking the lead thanks to some fine technical play in the endgame.

A surprise leader, but Liem is a former World Blitz Champion. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

The only other winner in the last round of the day was Robson, who got the better of some serious complications against Sevian to find himself tied for second place:

Sevian-Robson: 18…Nxe4! lead to some very unclear tactics after 19.Bxa5 Bxh3!?, which eventually turned in Robson's favor.

A Saint Louis local, Robson started the event with two draws and a win. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

Rapid Pairings for Round 4

The 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz continues tomorrow, November 15th, starting at 1:00 PM CDT. Catch all the action live with grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, and Tania Sachdev on uschesschamps.com and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels.

Games

New ...
Open...
Share...
Layout...
Flip Board
Settings
MoveNResultEloPlayers
Replay and check the LiveBook here
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Be7 7.0-0 Bf5 8.Re1 0-0 9.Nbd2 Nd6 10.Nf1 Bg6 11.Bf4 Nd7 12.Ng3 Re8 13.Ne5 Bxd3 14.Qxd3 Nf8 15.Re2 Ne6 16.Bd2 Bg5 17.Rae1 c6 18.c3 Bxd2 19.Qxd2 Qg5 20.Re3 Nf4 21.Nd3 Ne6 22.Qd1 Nc4 23.R3e2 Nc7 24.Ne5 Nd6 25.Re3 Re6 26.f4 Qxf4 27.Nh5 Qh6 28.Ng4 Qg5 29.Rg3 Qh4 30.Ne5 g6 31.Rf1 Qe7 32.Nf4 Rf6 33.Ng4 Rf5 34.Nh6+ Kh8 35.Nxf5 Nxf5 36.Rgf3 Re8 37.Qd2 Nd6 38.Nd3 f6 39.Qf4 Ne4 40.Re3 Ne6 41.Qh4 Ng7 42.Re2 Nf5 43.Qf4 Kg7 44.Nf2 Nfd6 45.Ng4 Nf5 46.Nf2 Nfd6 47.Ng4 Nf5 48.Rfe1 Qd6 49.Qxd6 Nfxd6 50.Nf2 f5 51.Nd3 Kf6 52.Rf1 h5 53.h4 Re7 54.Nf4 Nf7 55.Rfe1 Nh6 56.g3 Ng4 57.Kg2 Rh7 58.Rh1 Rh8 59.Kf3 Rd8 60.Nh3 Nh6 61.Nf4 Nf7 62.Rd1 Nfd6 63.Nd3 Rg8 64.Nf4 Nc4 65.Nh3 a5 66.Kf4 a4 67.a3 Ra8 68.Ng5 Ra5 69.Rg1 Rb5 70.Rgg2 Rb3 71.Nf3 Rb5 72.Ne1 Ra5 73.Nd3 Ra8 74.Ne1 Rg8 75.Nd3 Ra8 76.Nc5 b5 77.Nd3 Re8 78.Re1 Rg8 79.Nb4 Rc8 80.Rge2 Ncd6 81.Kf3 Nc4 82.Kf4 Ncd6 83.Nd3 Nc4 84.Nc5 Rg8 85.Rh1 Rd8 86.Nd3 Rg8 87.Kf3 Ncd2+ 88.Kg2 Nc4 89.Nf4 Re8 90.Rh3 Rh8 91.Kf1 Ncd2+ 92.Kg2 Nc4 93.Rh1 Re8 94.Rf1 Rg8 95.Rh1 Re8 96.Nd3 Rg8 97.Nf4 Re8 ½–½
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Robson,R2696Xiong,J2681½–½2023C42Saint Louis Rapid 20231.1
Le,Q2731So,W27521–02023D38Saint Louis Rapid 20231.2
Sevian,S2696Nepomniachtchi,I27711–02023A22Saint Louis Rapid 20231.3
Giri,A2752Vachier-Lagrave,M2734½–½2023D85Saint Louis Rapid 20231.4
Caruana,F2795Firouzja,A27770–12023C65Saint Louis Rapid 20231.5
So,W2752Sevian,S2696½–½2023C77Saint Louis Rapid 20232.1
Nepomniachtchi,I2771Giri,A2752½–½2023C50Saint Louis Rapid 20232.2
Xiong,J2681Firouzja,A2777½–½2023D38Saint Louis Rapid 20232.3
Robson,R2696Le,Q2731½–½2023C50Saint Louis Rapid 20232.4
Vachier-Lagrave,M2734Caruana,F2795½–½2023C92Saint Louis Rapid 20232.5
Caruana,F2795Nepomniachtchi,I2771½–½2023A28Saint Louis Rapid 20233.1
Firouzja,A2777Vachier-Lagrave,M2734½–½2023B52Saint Louis Rapid 20233.2
Giri,A2752So,W2752½–½2023D41Saint Louis Rapid 20233.3
Sevian,S2696Robson,R26960–12023C50Saint Louis Rapid 20233.4
Le,Q2731Xiong,J26811–02023A34Saint Louis Rapid 20233.5

Links


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.