Alireza Firouzja Triumphant at Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz
The 2022 Sinquefield Cup is ahead.
The fourth Grand Chess Tour event, the 2022 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, is in the books. On 29-30 August, the grandmasters competed in a double round-robin blitz tournament. Alireza Firouzja showed a great performance, having won the event with four rounds to spare. Hikaru Nakamura is second, while Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave shared third place. Ian Nepomniachtchi finished in fifth place.
Final standings (rapid and blitz):
1. Alireza Firouzja - 26 points
2. Hikaru Nakamura - 21
3-4. Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - 19
5. Ian Nepomniachtchi - 18
6. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - 17.5
7-8. Levon Aronian, Jeffery Xiong - 17
9. Sam Shankland - 13.5
10. Leinier Dominguez - 12.
The final fifth GCT event, the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, will take place in Saint Louis on 1-13 September. The 9-round round-robin tournament will feature the World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE), Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (both from France), Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Hans Niemann (all from the USA), and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan).
The match days are 2-6 and 8-11 September. Tie-breaks, if necessary will be held on the 11th (the tournament playoff) and the 12th of September (the GCT playoff). The games will start at 9 PM (Moscow time).
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