The St. Louis Online Rapid & Blitz Chess Tournament started Sept. 15 at the lichess.org chess server with ten of the world’s top blitz and rapid players competing.
The combatants are world champions Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Alireza Firouzja, Jeffrey Xiong, and Pentala Harikrishna.
The ten will first play a single round robin rapid at 25 minutes plus five seconds increment per move, and then a double round robin blitz at five minutes plus three seconds increment per move format.
The kitty is a whopping $250,000 – that’s P12,108,750 at the current exchange rate! The overall winner gets $50,000, runner-up gets $40,000, third place gets $35,000 and so forth.
After six rounds of play, Carlsen is leading the pack, with Nepomniachtchi and So tailing him closely. So far, only Wesley is undefeated in the event, racking up two wins and four draws in the Category 21 (average Elo: 2763) competition.
So, Wesley (2770)-Xiong, J (2709) [B30]
lichess.org (1.2) 2020
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.0-0 Nge7 5.d4 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Qb6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3 Ng6 9.c4 Bc5 10.Nc3 Bd4 11.Ne2 Bc5 12.Rb1 a5 13.Nc3 Bd4 14.Na4 Qc7 15.c5 0-0 16.Re1 d6 17.Be3 dxc5 18.Nxc5 Rd8 19.Bxd4 Rxd4 20.Qc2 e5 21.Rbd1 Nf8 22.Bc4 Qe7 23.Rxd4 exd4 24.Nd3 Bg4 25.f4 Be6 26.f5 Bxc4 27.Qxc4 Qd7 28.Ne5 Qc7 29.Qxd4 Rd8 30.Qc5 Nd7 31.Nxd7 Rxd7 32.e5 Rd5 33.Qe3 Qe7 34.h3 Qc5 35.Kh2 Qxe3 36.Rxe3 Kf8 37.f6 gxf6 38.exf6 Rd2 39.Re5 Rxb2 40.Rxa5 Ke8 41.Kg3 c5 42.a4 Kd7 43.Rxc5 Ke6 44.Rc6+ Kf5 45.a5 Ra2 46.a6 Ra4 47.Kf3 Ra3+ 48.Ke2 h5 49.Kd2 Ra2+ 50.Kc3 Rxg2 51.Rc5+ Kxf6 52.Ra5 Rg8 53.a7 Ra8 54.Kc4 h4 55.Kb5 Ke5 56.Kb6+ Kf4 57.Kb7 Rf8 58.a8Q Rxa8 59.Kxa8 Kg3 60.Ra3+ Kg2 61.Kb7 f5 62.Kc6 f4 63.Kd5 f3 64.Ke4 f2 65.Rf3 f1Q 66.Rxf1 Kxf1 67.Kf3 1-0
Carlsen, M (2863)-Nepomniachtchi, I (2784) [A20]
lichess.org (2.1) 2020
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 h5 4.Nc3 h4 5.e3 Nf6 6.Nge2 h3 7.Bf3 e4 8.Nxe4 Ne5 9.N2c3 Nxc4 10.Nxf6+ Qxf6 11.Nd5 Qd6 12.d4 c6 13.Nc3 Qb4 14.a3 Qa5 15.0-0 d5 16.e4 dxe4 17.Bxe4 Be6 18.d5 cxd5 19.Bxd5 Rd8 20.Qe2 Rxd5 21.Qxc4 Re5 22.Qd3 Qc5 23.Qf3 Qc8 24.Bf4 Rc5 25.Ne4 Rc6 26.Ng5 Be7 27.Nxe6 fxe6 28.Be5 Bf6 29.Bxf6 0-0 30.Qg4 Rxf6 31.Qxh3 Rc2 32.b4 Qc6 33.Rad1 Qb6 34.Qg2 Rc3 35.Qe4 Rxa3 36.Rd2 Raf3 37.Kg2 a6 38.Rc2 Rf8 0-1
Aronian, L (2773)-Grischuk, A (2777) [E20]
lichess.org (2.2) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 c5 5.d5 b5 6.e4 d6 7.Bd2 a6 8.Nge2 0-0 9.Nf4 exd5 10.Ncxd5 Nxd5 11.Nxd5 Bxd2+ 12.Qxd2 Nc6 13.cxb5 Nd4 14.bxa6 Qh4+ 15.Kd1 Bxa6 16.Qf4 Qd8 17.Qe3 Kh8 18.Qc3 Bb7 19.Bc4 f5 20.exf5 Rxf5 21.Ne3 Re5 22.Nc2 d5 23.Bb5 Qg5 24.Nxd4 Qxg2 25.Rf1 cxd4 26.Qxd4 Rae8 27.Qf2 Qxf2 28.Rxf2 Re1+ 29.Kd2 Rxa1 30.Bxe8 Rxa2 31.Kc3 g6 32.f4 Kg7 33.Bd7 Kf6 34.Re2 Ra6 35.Kd4 Rb6 36.Kc5 Rb3 37.Rf2 d4 38.Kxd4 Ke7 39.Bg4 Kd6 40.Bd1 Rb4+ 41.Kc3 Re4 42.Bc2 Re3+ 43.Kd4 Rh3 44.f5 Rh4+ 45.Ke3 gxf5 46.Bxf5 Ke5 47.Kd2 h6 48.Bd3 Bd5 49.Bf1 Kd4 50.h3 Be6 51.Rf3 Ke5 52.Kc3 Bd5 53.Re3+ Re4 54.Rxe4+ Bxe4 55.Kc4 h5 56.b4 Bc6 57.Kc5 Bd7 58.h4 Kf4 59.Kd6 Be8 60.Ke7 Ba4 61.Be2 Kg3 62.Bxh5 Kxh4 63.Be8 Bc2 64.b5 Kg3 65.Kd6 Bd3 66.b6 Ba6 67.Kc7 Kf4 68.Bb5 1-0
Carlsen, M (2863)-Aronian, L (2773) [D97]
lichess.org (4.1) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 a6 8.e5 b5 9.Qb3 Ng4 10.h3 Nh6 11.Bd3 Be6 12.d5 Nd7 13.Bb1 Bf5 14.Bxh6 Bxh6 15.Bxf5 gxf5 16.0-0 e6 17.dxe6 Nc5 18.exf7+ Rxf7 19.Qa3 Ne6 20.Rad1 Qf8 21.Qb3 Re8 22.Nd5 Bg7 23.Rfe1 c5 24.Qa3 Ra7 25.Qa5 c4 26.a4 b4 27.Nf6+ Bxf6 28.exf6 Qxf6 29.Qxb4 Rg7 30.Qxc4 Kh8 31.Rd6 Reg8 32.Rexe6 Rxg2+ 33.Kf1 Qxb2 34.Qd4+ 1-0
So, Wesley (2770)-Dominguez Perez, L (2758) [C80]
lichess.org (4.5) 2020
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 d4 11.Bxe6 Nxe6 12.cxd4 Ncxd4 13.a4 Bb4 14.Ne4 0-0 15.Be3 Nf5 16.Qc2 Nxe3 17.fxe3 Qe7 18.Nd4 Nxd4 19.exd4 Rad8 20.Rad1 c5 21.axb5 axb5 22.Qd3 cxd4 23.Rf5 g6 24.Rdf1 Kg7 25.Ng5 Kg8 26.Qh3 h5 27.Qg3 d3 28.Nxf7 Bc5+ 29.Kh1 Rxf7 30.Rxf7 Qxf7 31.Rxf7 Kxf7 32.Qf3+ Kg8 33.e6 Kh7 34.Qf7+ Kh6 35.Qf4+ Kg7 36.Qc7+ 1-0
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rb6!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Rd4/xd2 2.Se6#; 1…Rd3 2.Qc8#; 1…Re4 2.Qxd5#; 1…Rxe3 2.Bxe3#; 1…Qc3 2.Rxc3#./PN
