Saint Louis Rapid 2024 R1-3: A tough start for Praggnanandhaa
R Praggnanandhaa had a rough start at Grand Chess Tour Saint Louis Rapid 2024. He drew against Levon Aronian (USA) then lost his next two games against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and Ian Nepomniachtchi. In the first two games, he got himself a better position. Yet he was unable to capitalize on his chances. His tough form continues from Biel GMT. MVL has gained an early sole lead scoring 5/6. He is closely followed by Nepomniachtchi, Aronian and Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA) at 4/6 each. The defending champion, Fabiano Caruana (USA) also had a forgettable start. He could only muster 1/6. Round 5 starts today from 1 p.m. local time, 11:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Crystal Fuller/Grand Chess Tour
MVL takes an early sole lead
Praggnanandhaa's form went down after 12th Norway Chess 2024. Sure he finished third at 57th Biel GMT and won medals at World Rapid and Blitz Team 2024 but he is not playing at his level which is quite high. Fabiano Caruana equally had a tough day. Both of them have plenty of rounds to recover as it is quite a long event - six rounds of rapid and 18 rounds of Blitz games are left to recover.
Round 1: Aronian - Praggnanandhaa: 1-1
It has been nearly 1.5 years since Levon Aronian (USA, 2754) and R Praggnanandhaa (2688) faced each other. Praggnanandhaa had a few good chances to score his first win in a rated game, over the only two-time World Cup winner in history.
Keeping the queens on the board would have given Black more practical chances 33...Rc4 34.Qd6 a4 is a better choice than what was played in the game 33...Qc5 34.Qxc5 Rxc5. Although Black stilll got a couple of more chances. A few imprecise moves shut the window of opportunity quickly and the game ended in a draw.
Round 2: Praggnanandhaa - Vachier-Lagrave: 0-2
The first and only time Praggnanandhaa defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2747) in a rated game was last year at Tata Steel India Blitz 2023.
30.c4 right now is suggested by the computer. Black obviously cannot take as Rc3 drops the knight due to the absolute pin. 30.Rb6+ Kc7 now White can no longer play c4 directly as the tactical support is gone. 31.b3 Ne4 32.Re6 Nxc3+ 33.Kf1 Nd5 the position became balanced and eventually White blundered and lost the game.
Nakamura - Caruana, Round 3
The battle between the World no.2, Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2747) and World no.3, Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2777) was an exciting one. They followed a game played between Anand - Mamedyarov and Cheparinov - Shevchenko, last year for a few moves before deviating. Caruana needed to play 14...Ne3! to turn things in his favor. 14...Nf4 15.Qg4+ put White in control Kd6 16.Bxf4 Bxf4 17.Qxg7 and White went on to win the game.
Draw of Lots
Video Gallery
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Replay Round 1-3 games
Round 3 results
Standings after Round 3
Round 4 pairings
| Table | White | Score | Fed. | Rating | Black | Score | Fed. | Rating | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Praggnanandhaa R | 0.5 | IND | 2688 | GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 1.5 | UZB | 2732 | |
| 2 | GM Caruana, Fabiano | 0.5 | USA | 2777 | GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2.5 | FRA | 2747 | |
| 3 | GM Firouzja, Alireza | 1.5 | FRA | 2731 | GM Nakamura, Hikaru | 1.5 | USA | 2746 | |
| 4 | GM Aronian, Levon | 2.0 | USA | 2754 | GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2.0 | USA | 2693 | |
| 5 | GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2.0 | FID | 2753 | GM So, Wesley | 1.0 | USA | 2735 |
Schedule and Format
Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 12th to 14th August. The Blitz event will take place on 15th and 16th August. It will be a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds will be played on each day. Round 1 starts at 1 p.m. local time, 11:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid will be 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment. For Blitz, it will be 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment.
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000.
