D Gukesh ended his St. Louis Rapid and Blitz campaign of the Grand Chess Tour in joint-sixth position on Friday. The reigning World Champion began the final day on a strong note, with three wins and a draw in the first four games of the Blitz section.
But he could not maintain that momentum as he went on to lose two games and played three draws to finish the event with 18 points. He shares the sixth position with Vietnam’s Liem Le.
Levon Aronian came out on top with 24.5 points, followed by Fabiano Caruana (21.5), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (21), Nodirbek Abdusattarov (20.5) and Wesley So (19).
Next up, Gukesh will be in action at the Sinquefield Cup, which begins in only two days, and is played under the classical chess rules. It is the last event before the Grand Chess Tour finals, and even R Praggnanandhaa will feature in the tournament.
Here are the final standings at St. Louis:
- Levon Aronian – 24.5
- Fabiano Caruana – 21.5
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – 21
- Nodirbek Abdusattorov – 20.5
- Wesley So – 19
- Liem Le – 18
- Gukesh Dommaraju – 18
- Leinier Dominguez Perez – 15.5
- Grigoriy Oparin – 13
- Sam Shankland – 9
Recently, Gukesh also revealed that he felt that other players were more motivated to face him due to his status as World Champion. He said, “I kind of sense that people are more motivated to play against me (after he became world champion).”
“But it’s none of my business, I just play my game. Maybe the first couple of tournaments, I felt this pressure of having to prove something, but then it got better. It has already been eight to nine months, and I played a few tournaments. I think I just got settled into this new state.”