St. Louis Rapid and Blitz chess: Levon Aronian wins title; Gukesh ends tied sixth

World champion GM D Gukesh completed tied sixth as Levon Aronian of USA convincingly gained the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz that concluded in St. Louis.

Gukesh raised visions of an amazing comeback on the ultimate day of the occasion as he raced to three.5 factors from his first 4 video games.

Conceding a draw to Aronian within the first recreation, the Indian accounted for Americans Shankland, Wesley So and Uzbek Grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov earlier than dropping steam.

In the final 5 video games, Gukesh drew three and misplaced two video games to finish his total marketing campaign on 18 factors.

Aronian began the day with two factors lead and gained the occasion two rounds to spare scoring 24.5 factors. Fabiano Caruana of United States completed a distant second on 21.5 factors, a half level greater than the French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who completed third.

Abdusattorov ended fourth on 20.5 whereas Wesley So completed on 19 to complete fifth forward of Gukesh and Liem Le Quang of Vietnam.

For Aronian, this was the second back-to-back title after the 42 years previous had gained the Freestyle Grand slam at Las Vegas additionally fairly simply ultimately. The winner bought $40,000 out of a complete pool of $175,000.

Gukesh will now prepare his sights for the subsequent occasion that begins in simply two days. The Sinquefield cup is the final occasion earlier than the finals of the Grand Chess tour and Gukesh might be joined by compatriot R Praggnanandhaa for the occasion.

It might be time to vary gears because the Sinquefield cup might be performed beneath Classical chess guidelines — the forte of Gukesh.