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GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave rose to the highest of the leaderboard on the 2023 Saint Louis Fast & Blitz after scoring 7/9 on the primary day of blitz chess, with a 2971 score efficiency. A loss towards GM Ian Nepomniachtchi was the one blight on his scorecard and the outcome left him on 17/27, two factors forward of GM Fabiano Caruana and Nepomniachtchi.
Following a lackluster efficiency within the speedy section, GM Wesley So recovered properly on day 4 and scored 6/9, shifting him into seventh place.
The Saint Louis Fast & Blitz will proceed with rounds 10 to 18 of the blitz section on Saturday, November 18, at 2:15 p.m. ET/20:15 CET/0:45 a.m. IST.
Standings After Blitz Day 1
| # | Fed | Participant | Ranking | Complete |
| 1 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2771 | 17 | |
| 2 | Fabiano Caruana | 2765 | 15 | |
| 3 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2789 | 15 | |
| 4 | Alireza Firouzja | 2742 | 14.5 | |
| 5 | Liem Le Quang | 2652 | 13.5 | |
| 6 | Ray Robson | 2596 | 13.5 | |
| 7 | Wesley So | 2753 | 13 | |
| 8 | Anish Giri | 2697 | 12.5 | |
| 9 | Sam Sevian | 2581 | 11 | |
| 10 | Jeffery Xiong | 2727 | 10 |
One of many distinctive features of the Saint Louis Fast & Blitz is that the time management modifications mid-tournament, which may have enormous ramifications on every participant primarily based on their talent set. For Vachier-Lagrave, the swap to blitz chess was a optimistic one and, moreover a loss to Nepomniachtchi within the second spherical, the Frenchman was unbeatable.
The explanation for a lot of of Vachier-Lagrave’s early wins got here all the way down to his potential to outplay his opponents from equal endgame positions. After GMs Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, and Ray Robson all fell on this vogue, it grew to become clear that the 2021 world blitz chess champion was going to be robust to defeat.
A attract spherical six with GM Jeffery Xiong slowed Vachier-Lagrave barely and even on this recreation, on the black facet of the Grunfeld Protection, a middlegame queen sacrifice would have landed him in a successful place.
Vachier-Lagrave’s most spectacular chess was performed throughout his round-seven matchup with So. Coming into the late middlegame with a worse place, Vachier-Lagrave determined to counterattack reasonably than grovel and used his knight pair to shred So’s kingside.
Our Sport of the Day has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.
Nepomniachtchi joined Vachier-Lagrave as one of many gamers to learn from enjoying combating chess on Friday and all 9 of his video games had been decisive.
Beginning with 6/7, the two-time world championship challenger regarded as if he would amass the very best rating on day two, however consecutive losses to Firouzja and Giri in rounds eight and 9 compelled him to accept =2nd on each the day and total match standings.
So did not let his disappointing 3.5/9 within the speedy section maintain him again within the blitz and the American’s 6/9 rating has seen him climb to seventh place, simply 4 factors off the lead. Ought to his type tick over to Saturday, So might be able to make a play for the rostrum.
So’s video games had been maybe not as clear as he usually prefers, however the willpower to climb the leaderboard appeared to trump his want to remain true to his usually-solid type.
GM Fabiano Caruana, who completed day three in =2nd, was visibly dissatisfied by his 5/9 rating on Friday, stating, “I did some very foolish issues,” and likewise noting that Vachier-Lagrave’s two-point lead provides him wonderful probabilities of successful the match.
With 9 rounds remaining within the match, it seems to be a three-horse race for the title between Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, and Nepomniachtchi, with a fourth participant in Firouzja possessing an outdoor probability of a comeback. If Vachier-Lagrave is ready to maintain the momentum rolling, he will certainly take the title… although something can occur in blitz!
Methods to watch the 2023 Saint Louis Fast & Blitz
You possibly can sustain with all of the video games and outcomes of the match on our reside occasions platform by following this hyperlink.
All Video games Day 4
The 2023 Saint Louis Fast & Blitz is the fourth leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour and the final of its velocity chess occasions. Gamers compete in a 10-player speedy (25+10) round-robin and a 10-player blitz (5+2) double round-robin for his or her share of a $175,000 prize fund.
Earlier Protection
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