gukesh-slips-to-fifth-caruana-on-top

Reigning world chess champion D Gukesh had a forgettable day at the St Louis Rapid and Blitz as he lost one game and drew two to drop to the fifth position in the 10-player tournament, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour.

 

After a shock defeat at the hands of tailender Sam Shankland of the United States in the fourth round, Gukesh followed it up with two draws against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.

 

Meanwhile, the lead changed hands dramatically as the highest ranked American in the fray, Fabiano Caruana, conceded a draw and defeated overnight leader and Armenian-turned-American Levon Aronian in the last game of the day to take a two-point lead. Like Gukesh, Aronian was able to draw two games and lost one.

 

With just three rounds to go in the rapid, Caruana, on 10 points out of a possible 12, seems poised to win this section, which would give him some advantage going ahead in the blitz section, a double round-robin comprising 18 rounds in all.

 

Aronian is at the second spot with eight points jointly with Wesley So from the United States. A close fourth is Vachier-Lagrave with seven points, while Gukesh shares the next spot with another Cuba-born US player, Leinier Dominguez Perez.

 

Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Liem Le Quang of Vietnam share the seventh spot with five points. Another two points behind is Grigoriy Oparin, who also changed his federation to the United States. The last man standing in the event is Sam Shankland who won his only game against Gukesh, which gave him two points.

 

Gukesh had done well to win two games on the trot after losing to Aronian in the opening round, but a tougher opponent awaited him in the second round. Against Shankland, Gukesh tried to go for complications, but they backfired as the American is known for his decent tactical skills and won a piece with some precise calculation in the middle game.

 

Gukesh did not push for more against Vachier-Lagrave and settled for a draw. He did not get many chances against Abdusattorov as the players headed to a king versus king position after 60 moves.