The penultimate event of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has concluded in St. Louis, with French GM Alireza Firouzja victorious in the 2024 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz.
Firouzja entered the blitz portion of the event in a three-way tie for first place after three days of rapid, but quickly shot out ahead of his co-leaders. The speedster led by a point-and-a-half after the first day of blitz, and doubled his lead by the end of the event. His 23/36 score put him three points ahead of GM Wesley So, who won $30,000 for his second-place finish.
So finished a half-point ahead of fellow American GM Hikaru Nakamura, thanks in large part to an unfortunate end to their head-to-head encounter. Below you can review a video of the final moves along with a reconstruction:
Sometimes chess is painful🫣😢
— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) August 15, 2024
♚
♚
♚#STLChessClub #STLRapidBlitz #GrandChessTour #chess pic.twitter.com/R2M582W1xT
After a weekend off, the Sinquefield Cup begins today in St. Louis at 1:00 p.m. CDT. A full schedule of the event, plus more information, can be found here.
Both participants of the upcoming FIDE World Championship Match, D. Gukesh and Ding Liren, have arrived in St. Louis and met for the first time at our production house, where we conducted interviews with them. Are you looking forward to their game in the Sinquefield Cup, which… pic.twitter.com/fEp9cvcD2y
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 17, 2024
A major story headed into today's opening round is the head-to-head meeting of GMs Ding Liren and Gukesh D. This will be the first time the two players have faced off since Gukesh won the 2024 FIDE Candidates tournament earlier this year. The 2024 FIDE World Championship will officially begin in just under three months in Singapore.
This event is also significant for the final standings in this year's GCT. With their strong showings last week, Firouzja has now leapfrogged GM Fabiano Caruana to top the leaderboard, while So has jumped into third place. With bonuses paid out to the top three finishers in this year's Tour, there will be more storylines to follow in this year's event.
Full regulations on Tour bonuses can be found here. More blitz games can be seen in our study here.
Categories
Archives
- October 2024 (12)
- September 2024 (23)
- August 2024 (27)
- July 2024 (44)
- June 2024 (27)
- May 2024 (32)
- April 2024 (51)
- March 2024 (34)
- February 2024 (25)
- January 2024 (26)
- December 2023 (29)
- November 2023 (26)
- October 2023 (37)
- September 2023 (27)
- August 2023 (37)
- July 2023 (47)
- June 2023 (33)
- May 2023 (37)
- April 2023 (45)
- March 2023 (37)
- February 2023 (28)
- January 2023 (31)
- December 2022 (23)
- November 2022 (32)
- October 2022 (31)
- September 2022 (19)
- August 2022 (39)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (35)
- May 2022 (21)
- April 2022 (31)
- March 2022 (33)
- February 2022 (21)
- January 2022 (27)
- December 2021 (36)
- November 2021 (34)
- October 2021 (25)
- September 2021 (25)
- August 2021 (41)
- July 2021 (36)
- June 2021 (29)
- May 2021 (29)
- April 2021 (31)
- March 2021 (33)
- February 2021 (28)
- January 2021 (29)
- December 2020 (38)
- November 2020 (40)
- October 2020 (41)
- September 2020 (35)
- August 2020 (38)
- July 2020 (36)
- June 2020 (46)
- May 2020 (42)
- April 2020 (37)
- March 2020 (60)
- February 2020 (38)
- January 2020 (45)
- December 2019 (35)
- November 2019 (35)
- October 2019 (42)
- September 2019 (45)
- August 2019 (56)
- July 2019 (44)
- June 2019 (35)
- May 2019 (40)
- April 2019 (48)
- March 2019 (61)
- February 2019 (39)
- January 2019 (30)
- December 2018 (29)
- November 2018 (51)
- October 2018 (45)
- September 2018 (29)
- August 2018 (49)
- July 2018 (35)
- June 2018 (31)
- May 2018 (39)
- April 2018 (31)
- March 2018 (26)
- February 2018 (33)
- January 2018 (30)
- December 2017 (26)
- November 2017 (24)
- October 2017 (30)
- September 2017 (30)
- August 2017 (32)
- July 2017 (27)
- June 2017 (32)
- May 2017 (26)
- April 2017 (37)
- March 2017 (28)
- February 2017 (30)
- January 2017 (27)
- December 2016 (29)
- November 2016 (24)
- October 2016 (32)
- September 2016 (31)
- August 2016 (27)
- July 2016 (24)
- June 2016 (26)
- May 2016 (19)
- April 2016 (30)
- March 2016 (37)
- February 2016 (27)
- January 2016 (33)
- December 2015 (25)
- November 2015 (23)
- October 2015 (16)
- September 2015 (28)
- August 2015 (28)
- July 2015 (6)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- April 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (3)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- October 1991 (1)
- August 1989 (1)
- January 1988 (1)
- December 1983 (1)