World champion Dommaraju Gukesh scored one win and four draws to slip to joint-sixth in the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz chess tournament, a part of the Grand chess tour, in St. Louis (USA), on Friday.
Gukesh needs to score massively in the second half, as only nine blitz games are left for him to stage a comeback.
Levon Aronian of the United States took sole lead, scoring 6/9 and is sitting pretty in the event ahead of overnight leader and compatriot Fabiano Caruana.
While Aronian has a total of 19 points Caruana is two points behind him and only a half point ahead of third-placed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.
Uzbek Grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov made a comeback of sorts, matching Aronian on points in the blitz and jumped to joint fourth place alongside Wesley So of the United States, both having 15 points each.
Gukesh is a distant sixth on 13 points with Liem Le Quang of Vietnam. The duo are three points clear of another American, Leinier Dominguez Perez. Grigoriy Oparin improved his position a bit and moved to ninth spot on 9 points, 1.5 ahead of Sam Shankland.
Gukesh’s victory came over Dominguez, but the four losses cost him dearly. Caruana lost three and went winless in blitz after a dazzling show in the rapid section while Aronian lost one won four and drew four enroute to regaining the lead.
Vachier-Lagrave was the most solid of them all, scoring two wins and seven draws, and became the lone player to remain undefeated on the penultimate day of this US $175000 prize-money tournament.
Results of first nine round (Blitz):
Round 1: Levon Aronian (US) drew with D Gukesh (Ind); Liem Le Quang (Vie) beat Leiniier Dominguez Perez (US); Grogoriy Oparin (Usa) beat Wesley So (US); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb); Fabiano Caruna (US) drew with Sam Shankland (US).
Round 2: Shankland drew with Gukesh; Abdusattorov lost to Oparin; Dominguez lost to Vachier-Lagrave; Caruana beat Liem; Wesley drew with Aronian;
Round 3: Gukesh lost to Wesley; Liem beat Shankland; Aronian lost to Abdusattororov; Oparin beat Dominguez; Vachier-Lagrave drew with Caruana.
Round 4: Liem drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Caruana drew with Oparin; Dominguez lost to Aronian; Abdusattorov beat Gukesh.
Round 5: Aronian beat Caruana; Gukesh beat Dominguez; Wesley beat Andusattorov; Vachier-Lagrave drew with Shankland; Oparin drew with Liem.
Round 6: Dominguez drew with Wesley; Liem drew with Aronian; Caruana drew with Gukesh; Shankland lost to Abdusattorov; Vachier-Lagrave drew with Oparin.
Round 7: Gukesh lost to Liem; Oparin beat Shankland; Abdusattorov beat Dominguez; Aronian drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Wesley drew with Caruana.
Round 8: Liem lost to Wesley; Vachier-Lagrave beat Gukesh; Caruana lost to Abdusattorov; Shankland beat Dominguez; Oparin lost to Aronian.
Round 9: Dominguez drew with Caruana; Aronian beat Shankland; Gukesh drew with Oparin; Wesley drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Abdusattorov drew with Liem.
Standings with nine rounds of blitz remaining: 1. Aronian 19; 2. Caruana 17; 3, Vachier-Lagrave 16.5; 4-5. Abdusattorov, Wesley 15 each; 6-7. Gukesh, Liem 13 each; 8. Dominguez 10; 9. Oparin 9; 10. Shankland 7.5.
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