Aronian Wins Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz

Levon Aronian won the 2019 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz with a combined score of 22 points, a half-point ahead of Yu Yangyi, Ding Liren, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, all of whom had 21.5 points.

Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave tied for first place in the Rapid portion with 6.5/9. (Rapid results were doubled for the overall point count.) This gave Aronian enough of a cushion to survive a muted performance in the Blitz portion, where Sergey Karjakin joined Yu and Ding at the top of the table with 11.5/18.

Wednesday’s 18th and final Blitz round was critical in determining the ultimate standings. Entering the round, Aronian led the overall tournament with 22 points, while Yu had 21. Right behind them were Ding and Vachier-Lagrave with 20.5 points each. Aronian could therefore clinch uncontested first with a draw, while Yu had to win to hope to catch the leader. Aronian ran into tactics in a worse position, and lost to Vachier-Lagrave in 45 moves.

[pgn] [Event "Saint Louis Blitz 2019"] [Site "Saint Louis USA"] [Date "2019.08.14"] [Round "18.1"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A47"] [WhiteElo "2765"] [BlackElo "2778"] [Annotator "Hartmann,John"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "6k1/5pp1/4pq2/1p6/1P5P/2pRNP2/P2nP2P/5RK1 w - - 0 27"] [PlyCount "38"] [EventDate "2019.08.13"] [EventType "blitz"] 27. Rc1 $2 Nxf3+ 28. Kh1 (28. exf3 Qg6+) 28... Nd4 29. Rf1 Qxh4 30. Ng2 Qe4 31. Rxc3 Qxe2 32. Rc8+ Kh7 33. Rcc1 f6 34. Rce1 Qxa2 35. Re3 e5 36. Rh3+ Kg8 37. Ne3 Qa8+ 38. Kg1 Ne2+ 39. Kf2 Nf4 40. Rf3 Qa2+ 41. Kg1 Qd2 42. Rd1 Qxb4 43. Nf5 Qe4 44. Nh4 Ne2+ 45. Kf2 Nd4 0-1 [/pgn]

This opened the door for Yu, but he could only draw a very tricky same-colored bishop ending against Mamedyarov.

[pgn] [Event "Saint Louis Blitz 2019"] [Site "Saint Louis USA"] [Date "2019.08.14"] [Round "18.4"] [White "Yu, Yangyi"] [Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B29"] [WhiteElo "2752"] [BlackElo "2764"] [PlyCount "143"] [EventDate "2019.08.13"] [EventType "blitz"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nc3 e6 5. Nxd5 exd5 6. d4 Nc6 7. c3 d6 8. Bb5 cxd4 9. Nxd4 Bd7 10. exd6 Bxd6 11. Qe2+ Qe7 12. Qxe7+ Kxe7 13. Nf3 a6 14. Be2 h6 15. Be3 Be6 16. O-O Rhe8 17. Nd4 Kf8 18. Rad1 Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Rac8 20. Bf3 Bc5 21. Rfe1 b5 22. Kf1 Red8 23. Bxc5+ Rxc5 24. Re5 a5 25. Rd4 Rc4 26. Ke1 Ke7 27. Be2 Rxd4 28. cxd4 b4 29. Kd2 g5 30. Re3 Kd6 31. g3 Rc8 32. Bd3 Rg8 33. Rf3 Ke7 34. Re3 h5 35. f4 gxf4 36. gxf4 Kf6 37. Rg3 Rg4 38. Rxg4 hxg4 39. Ke3 Bf5 40. Be2 Kg6 41. Kf2 Bd7 42. Kg3 f5 43. a3 bxa3 44. bxa3 Kf6 45. Kh4 Kg6 46. h3 gxh3 47. Kxh3 Kf6 48. Kh4 Kg6 49. Bh5+ Kf6 50. Bf3 Be6 51. Kh5 Bf7+ 52. Kh6 Be6 53. Bh5 Bg8 54. Be8 Be6 55. Kh7 Ke7 56. Bb5 Kf6 57. Bc6 Kf7 58. Kh6 Kf6 59. Be8 Ke7 60. Bb5 Kf6 61. Bc6 Bf7 62. Bd7 Bg8 63. Kh5 Bf7+ 64. Kh4 Bg6 65. Bc6 Bf7 66. Bb7 Be6 67. Kh5 Bf7+ 68. Kh6 Be6 69. Kh7 Kf7 70. Bc6 Kf6 71. Be8 Ke7 72. Bb5 1/2-1/2 [/pgn]

The tournament win earned Aronian $37,500 for his efforts, along with 13 Grand Chess Tour Points. Yu, Ding, and Vachier-Lagrave took home $20,000 and 8.33 GCT Points for shared second place. Carlsen Crashes to Earth One of the curiosities of the Carlsen era is the tremendous expectations placed upon the World Champion. Carlsen is expected to win every tournament he enters; when he doesn’t, that fact becomes the headline, while the play of the deserving winner is undermined, explained away as Carlsen’s failure. With all due respect to Aronian, and with the above firmly in mind, no story on the STL Rapid and Blitz would be complete without something on the “collapse” of Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen started the Rapid well enough, winning two games on Day 1, but he lost twice on Day 2 and once more on Day 3, putting him in the middle of the pack as the Blitz approached. Carlsen could only manage 4.5/9 on Day 4, and his mediocre (by his standards) results palpably affected the World Champion. https://twitter.com/GrandChessTour/status/1161417353336426497 Perhaps as a way of hiding preparation for the Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen responded to his difficult tournament position by expanding his opening repertoire dramatically in the Blitz. Some of his openings were normal enough – the Schilemann against Caruana, for instance – but others…. https://twitter.com/GeirSune/status/1161393618453782529 Carlsen ended the event with 17 points in sixth place. He will need to reboot his confidence quickly, as the Sinquefield Cup begins in just two days on August 17th. The Americans

America’s Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Dominguez endured difficult events, finishing in eighth and ninth places, respectively. But both had their moments. Caruana took 2.5/3 in his mini-match with Carlsen, while Dominguez wrapped his Rapid event with this gem of a game against Karjakin.

[pgn] [Event "Saint Louis Rapid 2019"] [Site "Saint Louis USA"] [Date "2019.08.12"] [Round "9.3"] [White "Dominguez Perez, Leinier"] [Black "Karjakin, Sergey"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B12"] [WhiteElo "2763"] [BlackElo "2750"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "2019.08.10"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 Ne7 6. c3 h6 7. O-O Nd7 8. Nbd2 Qc7 9. Re1 Bg6 10. Nb3 a6 11. Bf4 c5 12. Nxc5 Nxc5 13. dxc5 Qxc5 14. Qb3 Qc7 15. c4 dxc4 16. Bxc4 Nc6 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. Qxe6+ Ne7 19. Rac1 Qd7 20. Qxd7+ Kxd7 21. e6+ Ke8 22. Ne5 Rh7 23. g4 Rd8 24. Rc7 Bd3 25. Nf7 Nd5 26. Nxd8 Nxc7 27. Bxc7 g5 28. Nf7 Bc4 29. b3 Bxe6 30. Nd8 Rxc7 31. Nxe6 Rc8 32. Nxf8+ Kxf8 33. Re6 1-0 [/pgn]

Back to Work Many of the players will be back to work on Saturday with the first round of the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. The field includes seven Rapid & Blitz participants – Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, Mamedyarov, Aronian, Ding, and Karjakin – along with Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Viswanathan Anand, and Wesley So. The opening ceremony for the Sinquefield Cup is tonight (August 15th) at 6:30pm CDT, and it will be livestreamed on the STLCC YouTube Channel. This is preceded by an autograph session at the Club from 5-6pm. Round 1 kicks off Saturday, August 17th, at 1pm CDT, with live coverage daily from Yasser Seirawan, Jennifer Shahade, Cristian Chrilia and Maurice Ashley. A Russian stream will also be broadcast from Saint Louis featuring Evegny Miroshnichenko and Almira Skripchenko. Rounds will be played daily through August 28th, with August 22nd as a rest day.