Caruana Wins Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz After Miracle Hold
GM Fabiano Caruana won the 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz by half a point after securing a draw with second-placed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final round. Caruana's 6/9 score on Saturday allowed him to overtake Vachier-Lagrave, whose 3.5/9 was in stark contrast to his day-four performance. It was still enough to capture second place and $30,000.
For his winning efforts, Caruana won $40,000 and 13 Grand Chess Tour points, meaning that even a mediocre performance in the final leg of the tour, the Sinquefield Cup, will see him take the top prize.
Final Standings
| # | Fed | Player | Rating | Total |
| 1 | Fabiano Caruana | 2765 | 21 | |
| 2 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2771 | 20.5 | |
| 3-4 | Liem Le | 2652 | 20 | |
| 3-4 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2789 | 20 | |
| 5 | Alireza Firouzja | 2742 | 18.5 | |
| 6-7 | Wesley So | 2753 | 17 | |
| 6-7 | Ray Robson | 2596 | 17 | |
| 8 | Sam Sevian | 2581 | 16.5 | |
| 9 | Anish Giri | 2697 | 16 | |
| 10 | Jeffery Xiong | 2727 | 13.5 |
Caruana was the first to admit that Vachier-Lagrave "had a very strong position to win the tournament" following the Frenchman's dominant performance over the first nine rounds of blitz, though he did refrain from assigning any certainty to this in his day-four interview.
Little did Caruana know, but by the final round of the event, he would hold a half-point lead over Vachier-Lagrave AND receive the white pieces against his adversary to determine the 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz champion.
While drawing odds with the white pieces would be considered an immense advantage in classical chess, time management and nerves level the playing field somewhat in blitz. With clear convictions, Vachier-Lagrave's weapon of choice was the Semi-Slav Defense: Main Line, Semi-Meran Variation and despite the queens being exchanged, enough imbalance remained to leave all three results possible.
As the players worked towards the endgame it suddenly felt that Vachier-Lagrave was pressing. Seconds left on the clock meant the players had very little time to calculate deeply and desperation kicked in for Caruana after his opponent won a pawn.
Hanging on for a miracle, Caruana's prayers were answered as Vachier-Lagrave misplayed with 57...Re2??, allowing his rook to get trapped! The game was still drawn when all was said and done, but for the world number-two, a draw couldn't get any sweeter.
Our Game of the Day has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Losses in rounds 10 and 11 to GMs Liem Le and Ian Nepomniachtchi were the start of Vachier-Lagrave's downfall and the results reduced his lead to just half a point. The fault barely lay with the former world blitz champion though as he was subjected to several dazzling tactical shots, seen especially in his game with Nepomniachtchi.
A win over GM Alireza Firouzja in round 12 was the last win that Vachier-Lagrave would end up scoring and this slump allowed Caruana to take control.
Although Caruana's 11/18 doesn't have the same ring as 7/9 or 15/18 scores (the latter of which was Firouzja's astonishing result in the blitz in the 2022 edition), it shows the importance of consistency over the entire event.
No winning performance is complete without a few outstanding games, though, and Caruana's 50-move endurance test against Giri was one of these. In the Sicilian Defense: Canal Variation, Caruana borrowed an idea from Antipov-Kevlishvili that we covered several weeks ago during the 2023 Collegiate Chess League.
The top-scoring player on the final day with 6.5/9 was Le, and his 11/18 performance in the blitz ended up netting him third place overall and a $25,000 sum. Though the middle section of the tournament was grueling for the Vietnamese GM, having the best score on day one and day five brought his tournament full circle.
With the speed chess coming to a halt in St. Louis, eyes turn to the 2023 Sinquefield Cup, which will start on November 21. Six of the players from the rapid and blitz event will be back up while GMs Levon Aronian, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Leinier Dominguez, and Richard Rapport will jet in to vie for a piece of the $350,000 prize fund.
How to watch the 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz
You can keep up with all the games and results of the tournament on our live events platform by following this link.
All Games Day 5
The 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is the fourth leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour and the last of its speed chess events. Players compete in a 10-player rapid (25+10) round-robin and a 10-player blitz (5+2) double round-robin for their share of a $175,000 prize fund.
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