Resilient Gukesh ends Fabiano Caruana's unbeaten streak, still he tops Saint Louis Rapid 2025
Fabiano Caruana (USA) topped the Rapid portion of Grand Chess Tour Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025. He was undefeated in the first eight rounds. The reigning World Champion was his opponent in the ninth round. He was reeling against the World no.3. Despite having a winning position, Caruana made several mistakes. After a back and forth battle, he suffered his first loss of the event. D Gukesh's resiliency was on display. He became the World Champion for many reasons. One of them can be said as his sheer will to overcome all odds whether it is on or off the board. Nine rounds of Blitz will be played today. Round 1 starts at 12 p.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
Gukesh keeps coming back
Fabiano Caruana is currently the sole leader 14/18. He is closely followed by Levon Aronian at 13/18, then Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 11/18. Gukesh is at fourth place 10/18. A total of 18 rounds of Blitz will be played. So a lot can happen in the next two days.
Round 7: Gukesh - Leinier: 0-2
It is very likely that GM D Gukesh (2687) faced GM Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA, 2705) for the first time in a rated game in any of the three formats. In time trouble, things went sideways in a hurry, from an equal position to lost in three moves.
41.a4 is what White needed to play to keep things locked. Down to the last few seconds, White felt the need to support his knight, hence 41.Qb2? Bxe5 42.dxe5 Rd2 43.Qb4?? Qxa2-+ 44.Qxe7 Rxf2+ 45.Kg1 Rxf3 and it's over.
Round 8: So - Gukesh: 0-2
Wesley So (USA, 2704) and D Gukesh (2687) had played three Rapid rated games against each other. The result was always 1-0 in all three of them. So won two and Gukesh one. The recent result was a victory for Gukesh last month at Superbet Rapid. Once again, the World Champion scored the same result against the inaugural World Fischer Random champion.
36.Nb3 forces the knight trade and keep things balanced. Instead, White rushed and played 36.Nc4? despite having a lot more time than his opponent. Gukesh correctly spotted 36...Nxe4! 37.Rb6 Qc8 38.h4? Nf6 39.Nxd6 Qc5 40.Qb2 Ng4+ 41.Kg2 Qd5+ 42.Ne4 Ra2-+ 43.Qb5 Rxf2+ 44.Kh3 h5 44.Rxg6+ fxg6 and White resigned as checkmate is inevitable.
Round 9: Gukesh - Caruana: 2-0
D Gukesh (2687) and Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2750) played four Rapid rated games against each other. Caruana won the first three and Gukesh won the fourth one. Gukesh's first win in Rapid against Caruana occurred last month at Superbet Rapid. In this round, Caruana was coming with an eight-game unbeaten streak, whereas Gukesh had lost three games.
W#hen you are playing against a stalwart like Caruana and he got 31...Rxg2+, an average player would crumble and succumb to the sheer intensity of the attack. That's not Gukesh. He became World Champion for a reason, resiliency is just one of them. 32.Kf1 Bd8? one mistake is all it took for White to get back in the game 33.Rxd8! Nxd8 34.Bxe5 Black's decisive advantage is gone. 34...Nd7 35.Ke1 Ne6 36.Qxa4? Ng5 37.Nxg5+ R8xg5 38.Bd4 Ne5 39.Qb3 Nc6 40.Bf6 Rg6 41.Qc3 h5? another mistake 42.e5+- now White has the substantial advantage. One more mistake later, Gukesh went on to win the game with precise play.
Replay live stream
Replay Round 7-9 games
Schedule and Format
Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 11th to 13th August. The Blitz event will take place on 14th and 15th 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 12 p.m. local time, 10:30 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.
Round 9 results
Standings after Round 9
Blitz Round 1 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2760 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Shankland, Sam | 2651 | 10 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 2675 | GM | Le, Quang Liem | GM | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2634 | 9 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 2769 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2757 | 8 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 2651 | GM | Oparin, Grigoriy | GM | So, Wesley | 2803 | 7 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 2768 | GM | Aronian, Levon | GM | Gukesh, D | 2613 | 6 |
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000. The top three prizes are $40000, $30000 and $25000.
