Levon Aronian is on a roll! After winning the Norway Chess 2017 in a convincing manner, he now dominated the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz and won it with a three-point margin. Garry Kasparov played some scintillating chess on the final day as he scored 6.0/9 and showing the world that he might have retired, but he still could beat the best. Vishy Anand, however, could not make a comeback. He won only one blitz game out of 18 rounds. We have the full report from Saint Louis.

Sergey Karjakin showed why he is the world blitz champion as he amassed eight points out of a possible nine on day one of the Saint Louis Blitz. This helped him come closer to Levon Aronian on top of the leaderboard, but the Armenian maintained his consistent play and leads the combined rapid and blitz event by two points. With the players getting five minutes each and three seconds delay, it would be a bit too much to not expect errors, but having played the Sinquefield Cup and the rapid section, the fatigue surely had a say in many of the games. Saravanan reports from Saint Louis.

The Saint Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour consists of nine rounds of rapid chess and eighteen rounds of blitz. On the third day of rapid where rounds 7, 8 and 9 were played Levon Aronian emerged as the sole leader with 6.0/9. He was followed by Nakamura and Caruana on 5.5/9. In our day three report from United States IM V. Saravanan takes us through the most interesting moments of the games and also brings to you a perfectly captured video of Kasparov's dejected expression after blundering big time against David Navara.

Day two of the Saint Louis Rapid held special importance. Two old foes Vishy Anand and Garry Kasparov, who had played the World Championship match against each other 22 years ago, were going to be seated opposite each other in the sixth round. It was a complex Sicilian Defence that ended in a draw. Meanwhile, Kasparov lost his first game after making a comeback by spoiling a very promising position against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Nepo is now the sole leader of the tournament. Our author IM V. Saravanan brings you all the action from the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Saint Louis became the focal point of world attention as the 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov, sat on the board, back from his retirement after 12 years! V. Saravanan was at the venue and he tells us about how the playing hall suddenly started looking really small as people rushed to buy tickets to see the great Garry in action. Kasparov managed to remain unbeaten with three draws on day one. Vishy Anand had an off day as he scored just 0.5/3. We have a full report with the biggest blunders, brilliant moves and all the action from the first day of Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz.

When Vishy played Kasparov for the World Championship Match in 1995, the Indian youngster was brilliant, but inexperienced. One of Anand's major drawback was lack of high class opening preparation. Fast forward 22 years and the same Anand is feared in elite chess circles as a master of opening preparation! Chess fans always wondered how would Kasparov have fared against this meticulously prepared Anand. Well it remained only a theoretical question as Kasparov had retired in 2005. But now from 14th-18th we will see Garry back on the board in Saint Louis, and the age-old rivalry will be renewed. V. Saravanan takes you down the memory lane.

Maxime Vachier Lagrave has won many super tournaments in his life. He is also called as Mr. Biel for his excellent performances over the years in the Swiss grandmaster event. However, this Sinquefield victory surely trumps everything else that he has conquered. In the final round he won a smooth game against Nepomniachtchi and won the title with a score of 6.0/9. Vishy Anand drew his game with Wesley and achieved an admirable second spot with 5.5/9. Third place went to Magnus Carlsen. Final report of the event from Saint Louis by V. Saravanan.

The penultimate round at the Sinquefield Cup 2017 kept all the possibilties open. Vishy Anand drew his game against MVL. The duo maintained their lead with 5.0/8 along with Levon Aronian. Magnus Carlsen was unable to win against Nepomniactchi. He is now joined on 4.5/8 by Sergey Karjakin who was able to outplay Wesley So. Five players have a theoretical chance to win the title! We are in for a tense finale! Complete round 8 report from Saint Louis.

Vishy Anand's detractors will surely take some rest after the Indian ace's excellent play at the Sinquefield Cup. Anand, who had already stunned everyone with some mind boggling calculations against Caruana, showed fine endgame technique against Nepomniachtchi and beat him in a complex rook endgame. He now leads the tournament along with MVL and Aronian. With two rounds to go, this might be Anand's chance to win the Sinquefield Cup for the first time in his career. Saravanan reports from Saint Louis.

After a day's rest, action rekindled in St. Louis as players crossed swords in the sixth round of the Sinquefield Cup. Wesley So lost his third game of the event against Levon Aronian. Magnus Carlsen swamped Hikaru Nakamura with an exchange sacrifice and made the American sweat blood to wriggle out with a draw. Fabiano Caruana came out with a novelty which even the silicon machines had missed considering. Saravanan Venkatachalam sends us an insightful report bringing forth the reasons for So's downfall drawing from the concept of doing instead of being - a concept articulated by Jonathan Rowson in his book Chess for Zebras .

It was a day when Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen showcased some brilliant calculating skills and self belief in order to win their games against Caruana and So respectively. We say self belief because when your opponent makes a move which you have thought was impossible, it is natural to doubt your calculation. But great players go beyond that doubt and play the move in case they find no holes in their calculation. Anand did just that, and so did Carlsen to score the only victories of the day. Blow by blow analysis of both the games.

After gaining from the humble tactic of the knight fork in the 3rd round, it was the turn of Mighty Magnus himself to fall to the ruse, when he overlooked a simple detail and lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the 4th round, allowing the Frenchman to gain the sole lead with 3 points. The game also reinforced for the umpteenth time the all too often repeated and glorified cliche Chess is 99% tactics. Magnus' defeat and Nakamura falling to Nepo were the only decisive games of the round. The other three ended in draws. We have a comprehensive round four report from Saint Louis.