2025 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz Day 3: Caruana Leads, Misses Out On Record After Loss Vs. Gukesh

Caruana and Aronian have been in first and second at the end of every round in this event so far, and on the last day it truly became a two-horse race for the rapid portion. Caruana was on fire in the first two rounds, but so was Aronian, and they both stacked up wins.

In round one, GM Sam Shankland came well-prepared against Aronian in a sharp and popular line of the Four Knights Sicilian. After blitzing out over a dozen moves, his mistake came as late as move 21…Be4? (he should have picked up the g2-pawn instead), and Aronian took full advantage of the opposite-color bishops middlegame. White’s king was surprisingly safe and snug on the h2-square, while Shankland’s finally collapsed.

Aronian’s attack in round two against GM Grigoriy Oparin turned into a pawn-up advantage in the endgame, which he nursed to a win. And he ended the day with a draw against GM Liem Le—in a 91-move game that exhibited 96.5 accuracy by both sides (Le was much better for a fleeting moment in the rook endgame).

Caruana looked like he was destined for another “perfect day” (his description of yesterday). He almost finished with a perfect score, which would have achieved the highest score ever accrued in Grand Chess Tour rapid & blitz events. The score of 15/18 had been reached three times previously; twice by GM Magnus Carlsen, once by Caruana.

He started with two wins. In the first one—it’s always an awkward encounter—against his second Oparin, he played with computer-like precision and took advantage of a single mistake. Caruana quickly won a piece after playing all the top engine moves. Then he won round two against Le, breaking down the Berlin Defense and getting to offer a queen sacrifice more than once along the way. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below. 

Caruana looked invincible, and what stood between him and a new record was Gukesh playing the white pieces.

We’ll circle back to that game, but first let’s describe the world champion’s first two rounds before this game. He started the day with a loss, his third in the event, against GM Leinier Dominguez. It was the Cuban-American’s first win since round one; this time, and it came down to a nervy time scramble. Gukesh collapsed in a few moves when the players dropped under 20 seconds.

But then the world champion bounced back against GM Wesley So the next game, finding an “petite” queen sacrifice to finish it. 44…h5! left his queen hanging, but taking it with 45.Qxd5 would let to 45…Rh2#. So sacrificed his rook on g6 and resigned immediately after.

You can play through the moves yourself.

So we return to the encounter of Gukesh vs. Caruana. The perfect score looked tangible for Caruana after 15.Qd3? f4 in the game, when Black was clearly better out of the opening. And both players knew he was winning by the time Gukesh played 30.Rxd6. The world champion himself said, “Here I was already quite happy. I mean I was just afraid I would not get any piece above the fourth rank!” 

Caruana was still winning, but an imprecise move order allowed Gukesh counterplay, and by 33.Rxd8! Gukesh was already making threats of his own. He said, “For a long time, it was just about surviving. When you get to this position, you are very happy because you see some threats, some chances.” Caruana had chances to “re-win” the game, but it was Gukesh who created his own.

“He was playing a perfect game until 30…Rag8,” said GM Peter Svidler said about this game in the commentary. Despite being the winner of the rapid portion, Caruana did not join the broadcast for an interview.

Gukesh said, “Today could have been horrible, but it turned out to be good!”  And he welcomes the blitz, saying, “It’ll be a great challenge because Zagreb didn’t go well, so here it will be a chance for me to prove myself.”

Today could have been horrible, but it turned out to be good!

—Gukesh Dommaraju

Vachier-Lagrave, now in third place, made two draws—against GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Dominguez—before landing another blow against So in the last round. It was a remarkable endgame win that’s probably worthy of the Game of the Day analysis. The endgame may look easily holdable at first glance, but Vachier-Lagrave showed that it’s in fact really hard for the black side to defend this:

Two players from the bottom half of the standings who finished on a high note were Shankland and Abdusattorov. It’s been a tough event for Shankland, but he ended with his second win of the event, against Oparin. He pointed out that he’s made only one draw in the nine rounds and that he’s been fighting every game. A win has left him energized: “It was, I guess, a good end to what was otherwise a really lousy set of rapid games, but [it gave me] every bit of confidence for the blitz starting tomorrow.”

Oparin also only had one draw in the nine rounds, but unfortunately he’s had one win and seven losses. Shankland’s two points ahead of him, with one win more.

Abdusattorov also finished well by defeating Dominguez. It leaves him with nine points (tied with So and Dominguez), and he’s in good spirits: “I won one game and made two draws, two very shaky draws I would say. Yeah, but I take it because I started the tournament with -2, so now on 50 percent, [it’s] not bad, so [I’m] looking forward to the blitz.”

What’s next is 18 rounds of blitz. The first nine will take place on Thursday, and scoring will work the regular way from now on: one point for a win, half a point for a draw, and zero for a loss.

The leader, Caruana, has the white pieces against Shankland in the first round. You can see the rest of the pairings below.