Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Begins with Fabiano in Fine Form

Fabiano accepts his US Chess Grandmaster of the Year award, Photo Lennart Ootes

The Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz was opened on August 9, 2018 at the World Chess Hall of Fame, with our top three American players in the field, current Grand Chess Tour leader Wesley So, Paris Grand Chess Tour winner Hikaru Nakamura and our World Championship challenger, Fabiano Caruana. Relive the opening press conference on YouTube and find Chess Journalist of the Year Mike Klein's recap here. After the press conference, Fabiano Caruana accepted his Grandmaster of the Year award, presented by US Chess.

Another highlight of the best luck wishes: "I'm gonna be the next Fabiano!", Photo Lennart Ootes

Fabiano also enjoyed perusing the cards signed with good luck wishes by thousands of our young chessplayers at this year's Spring Scholastics in Columbus, Atlanta and Nashville. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1028104471535071232 Fabiano Caruana did not have good showings in the first two Rapid and Blitz events on the Grand Chess Tour, and actually came into the Saint Louis ranked at the bottom. But the World Championship contender has been working hard on his game and fitness in the last month, and he won his first three games in dazzling style to earn an impressive two point lead going into day two of the Saint Louis R+B.

If you didn't watch the games live, challenge yourself to find Fabiano's best continuation against Levon Aronian in this position:

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "St. Louis Rapid & Blitz GCT"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2767"]
[BlackElo "2822"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "5rk1/p4ppp/1r4q1/3Q3n/3Pp2n/1NP4P/PP3PP1/R3RBK1 b - - 0 23"]
[PlyCount "7"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[EventType "blitz"]
[WhiteTeam "Armenia"]
[BlackTeam "United States"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ARM"]
[BlackTeamCountry "USA"]

23... Nf3+ 24. Kh1 Ng3+ $1 25. fxg3 Qxg3 26. gxf3 (26. Qe5 {Levon's choice in
the game (below)}) 26... Rg6 $1 {And White can pick his poison: Mate in g1 or
g2.} 0-1

[/pgn]

[pgn]

[Event "St. Louis Rapid & Blitz GCT"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2767"]
[BlackElo "2822"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[EventType "blitz"]
[WhiteTeam "Armenia"]
[BlackTeam "United States"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ARM"]
[BlackTeamCountry "USA"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 Bg4 7. Qb3 Qd7 8.
Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. Qxb7 Rb8 12. Qa6 O-O 13. Bb5 Rb6 14. Qa4
Ne7 15. Ne5 Ng6 16. Nxg4 Nxg4 17. h3 Nf6 18. Nb3 e5 19. O-O e4 20. Rfe1 Nh5 21.
Bf1 Nh4 22. Qa5 Qg6 23. Qxd5 Nf3+ 24. Kh1 Ng3+ 25. fxg3 Qxg3 26. Qe5 Nxe5 27.
dxe5 Qxe5 28. Rad1 f5 29. Rd7 Rd6 30. Rxa7 Qg3 31. Rb1 f4 32. Nc5 Qe3 33. b4 f3
34. Re7 fxg2+ 35. Bxg2 Rh6 0-1

[/pgn]

Fabiano also won an incredibly rich struggle against his main rival in the tournament going into round three, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

[pgn]

[Event "St. Louis Rapid & Blitz GCT"]
[Round "3.1"]
[White "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2822"]
[BlackElo "2801"]
[PlyCount "111"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[EventType "blitz"]
[WhiteTeam "United States"]
[BlackTeam "Azerbaijan"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "USA"]
[BlackTeamCountry "AZE"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5
Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 Be7 11. Bc2 d4 12. Nb3 d3 13. Bb1 Nxb3 14. axb3 Bf5 15.
b4 O-O 16. h3 Qd7 17. Bf4 Rfd8 18. g4 Bg6 19. Bg3 h5 20. Nd2 hxg4 21. hxg4 Nxb4
22. cxb4 Bxb4 23. Ba2 c5 24. e6 fxe6 25. Nf3 c4 26. Ne5 Qe8 27. Kg2 Rd5 28. f3
Rad8 29. Rh1 Bd6 30. Qe1 d2 31. Qe3 Bc2 32. Rad1 Bxd1 33. Rxd1 Bxe5 34. Bxe5
Rd3 35. Qe4 R8d5 36. Bb1 Qf7 37. Bxd3 Rxd3 38. Qa8+ Qf8 39. Qxf8+ Kxf8 40. Bc3
Ke7 41. Kf2 g6 42. Rxd2 Rxd2+ 43. Bxd2 Kd6 44. Bb4+ Kd5 45. Ke3 Ke5 46. Bd2 Kd5
47. f4 Kc5 48. Ke4 b4 49. Ke5 a5 50. Kxe6 Kd4 51. f5 gxf5 52. gxf5 Kd3 53. Bf4
a4 54. f6 b3 55. f7 c3 56. bxc3 1-0[/pgn]

There are still 18 blitz games and 6 rapid games in this leg of the Tour--will Fabiano channel his historic 2014 Sinquefield Cup form, or will the lead change hands? Watch it all live startingat 1:50 ET with analysis from Maurice Ashley, Yasser Seirawan and Jennifer Shahade.