2022 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz

SAINT LOUIS, Wednesday, September 14 - This month, 13 of the world’s best chess grandmasters part

The fifth day of Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz was smooth sailing for Alireza Firouzja, who made it to the top of the standings and won the 2022 St Louis Grand Chess Tour with four rounds to spare. Alireza scored amazing 8/9 points today and will collect $40,000 for his efforts. Firouzja’s rivals for first place, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura could not chase an unstoppable leader for too long today.

After 9 rounds of blitz, the tournament has the sole leader again – Alireza Firouzja! Coming into the day, both Frenchmen Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja were tied for the lead with 13 points each but by the end of the day Vachier-Lagrave slowed down and let his countryman pass him. Before the second day of blitz, Alireza keeps a comfortable three points distance from MVL.

Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave win the rapid portion of the 2022 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. It was also a big day for Sam Shankland, who moved up the standings and missed out on the first place after losing the last game. We also followed a comeback for Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won all three games today after an unfortunate start of the tournament.

Players fought hard on day two of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament, yet very little progress was made. Tough fights and spectacular fireworks on all boards, but we only had three decisive results out of fifteen games. Alireza Firouzja managed to stay in the lead after a big comeback at the end of the day.

We’re back in the City of Saint Louis, the chess capital of the United States, for the final two legs of the 2022 Grand Chess Tour hosted at the Saint Louis Chess Club. After more than three weeks of top-level action we will learn the name of the new Grand Chess Tour champion.