Caruana suffers two losses
The third day of Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2021 witnessed the same number of decisive games as the first one. Nine out of 15, i.e. 60% games were decisive but most importantly, the points table had a major shakeup on the final day of the Rapid as Caruana got dethroned from the top. Nakamura and Rapport scored an identical 5.0/6.
Round 7: Caruana - Rapport: 0-2
Caruana once again started his day with a loss in this event. Despite being better for the majority of the game, a fumble at the end cost him the game against Rapport.
29.g6 is definitely something that would have accentuated White's advantage in the position.
Should white take on b4 or not? One of them leads to a draw and the other is a loss.
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Nakamura - Leinier: 2-0
Leinier went wrong early in the opening and could not recover for the rest of the game.
11...Qb8 not only just returns the sacrificed pawn, but also allows White to gain significant positional advantage. 11...Be7 would have sufficed.
Liem - Xiong: 0-2
Liem went wrong early in the opening and after a series of incorrect responses, Xiong picked up his first win of the event.
Round 8: Shankland - Liem: 2-0
Liem's woes continued as he made multiple errors in the endgame against Shankland.
Leinier - Svidler: 0-2
Svidler won an absolutely topsy-turvy encounter against Leinier.
One must appreciate Svidler's beautiful 45...Be3+. After 46.Rxe3 Rc4+ White could have continued the fight a bit longer, 47.Kf5 Rxe3 48.Rf8+ Kxe7 and so on.
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Rapport - Xiong: 2-0
Rapport scored a nice victory over Xiong after the latter captured the wrong bishop which turned things in his opponent's favor.
Caruana - Mamedyarov: 2-0
Caruana bounced back by scoring a victory over Mamedyarov.
Round 9: Nakamura - Caruana: 2-0
Caruana went wrong in the endgame against Nakamura.
Find out why 29...Kd5 is a mistake.
Xiong - Shankland: 2-0
Xiong won an exciting battle against Shankland which the former should have won long back, but it ended after the latter made a blunder in the end which seemed to be heading towards a draw.
There is only one safe square for the black king, the remaining two are not. What is it?
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Scoring for the Rapid section: Win - 2 points, Draw - 1 and Loss - 0.
Scoring for the Blitz section will be usual, Win - 1 point, Draw - 0.5 and Loss - 0
Replay Round 7-9 games
Replay the livestream
Standings after Round 9
Links
Grand Chess Tour official site
