Playing solid chess on the final day of blitz, GM Levon Aronian won the 2025 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz after securing first place with two rounds to go. A lackluster GM Fabiano Caruana said he “stopped being able to play chess” but still finished in second place. Third came GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who leads the Grand Chess Tour standings ahead of the Sinquefield Cup that starts Monday, August 18, at 1:10 p.m. ET / 19:10 CEST / 10:40 p.m. IST.
Final Standings
Caruana had shown excellent form during the rapid, but somehow things didn’t work out at all for him in the blitz, where his play was marred with blunders. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju had a disappointing finish as well and now basically needs to win the upcoming Sinquefield Cup if he wants to make it to the Grand Chess Tour Finals, scheduled for September 28-October 3 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Blitz Only Final Standings
Aronian went into the final day of blitz with a two-point lead and nine rounds to go. Caruana, who had been leading after the rapid, had dropped to second place while Vachier-Lagrave was the only other serious contender. At the end of the day, the top three remained the same.
“I’ve been playing very solidly today and it kind of worked; I think my opponents were getting more nervous than I was,” said Aronian, who drew four of his games and won two. His only loss, vs. GM Grigoriy Oparin, came in the penultimate round after he had just secured victory.
A crucial win was against his main rival, Caruana, who had won their individual game in the rapid but lost both blitz games to Aronian. The American GM basically got outplayed in the early middlegame and was defending a hopeless position for a long time. In the final phase, both players missed something big, after which the game saw its logical result after all.
Aronian finished with a win in the final round against tail-ender GM Sam Shankland, who should be praised for his fighting spirit. He avoided a move repetition and why not, if you have a chance to finish with a victory against the tournament winner? But somehow Aronian managed to wrestle himself out of a tough position and counter in the endgame.
After his victory at the Freestyle Chess event in Las Vegas, Aronian once again won a strong tournament this summer as the oldest participant in the field. His explanation: “At some point, last year especially when I didn’t have so many events, I realized how unhappy it gets me not to play chess. Now I want to play good, and my family is supporting me playing a lot because they know that it brings me joy. This is the best.”
An even older, legendary chess player and Grand Chess Tour ambassador took notice:
Thank you! I am getting grizzlier by the hour! https://t.co/583DkTknzT
— Levon Aronian (@LevAronian) August 15, 2025
Caruana followed up his disappointing 3/9 with a 50-percent score on Friday, just enough to stay half a point ahead of Vachier-Lagrave (21.5 vs. 21) in the final standings. Their mutual game was a clear example of Caruana’s bad form.
“I stopped being able to play chess, the last two days,” said Caruana afterward. “You know, my childhood coach was recently inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame, Bruce Pandolfini. I think I should be inducted into the US Chess Hall of Shame!”
What about the world champion? Like Caruana, he had scored 3/9 on the first day of blitz and did better on the next. Gukesh even started with 3.5/4, but then came two losses against GM Leinier Dominguez and Caruana, after which the Indian GM finished his event with three draws.
He scored a nice win against GM Wesley So although he was in trouble at some point. At this time control, we see the best players in the world miscalculating a lot because they simply lack the time:
Vachier-Lagrave had every reason to be satisfied with his third place, which meant that he had climbed to the top of the Grand Chess Tour standings. Also, he has virtually secured a spot in the Finals in Sao Paulo.
“Today I was not playing very well so clinging to third place is very satisfying,” he said. “It clinches my goal to play with a free mind in the Sinquefield Cup!”
MVL noted that there was still a theoretical chance that he wouldn’t make it to Sao Paulo, but for that “you need a specific top four and me in last place.”
His game with the world champion in the penultimate round was a fantastic fight and it looks like he was still winning at the end:
That game was a strong candidate for Game of the Day, but eventually this author decided that there was an even better one, analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below:
After five days of fast-paced chess, the players are getting some rest over the weekend. Then, it’s time for the Sinquefield Cup, the final, classical tournament in the Grand Chess Tour which will decide the remaining three spots for the Finals in Sao Paulo. That’s assuming that Vachier-Lagrave is already in.
The 2025 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz was the fourth leg and final rapid and blitz event of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour. Six tour players and four wildcards competed in a rapid (25+10) single round-robin followed by a blitz (5+2) double round-robin for their share of a $175,000 prize fund and to finish at the top of the tour standings.
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