Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: D Gukesh finishes in tied sixth position

Gukesh Dommaraju had a disappointing tied sixth-place finish at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2025, despite having a better performance on the second day of the Blitz Program on Friday.

Gukesh scored 5 points out of the final 9 blitz games, but it wasn't enough for him to enter the top 3, and hence he finished in tied sixth place alongside Liem Li of Vietnam with 18 points.

Gukesh drops to 8th in 2025 GCT Tour Standings

He had a brilliant start to the final day, winning three of the first four matches against Sam Shankland, Wesley So of the USA, and Nodirbek Abdustattorov of Uzbekistan, and a draw against eventual Champion Levon Aronian.

But then, two consecutive defeats against two American chess playersLeinier Dominguez and Fabiano Caruana, almost ended his chances of finishing near the top 3.

He completely lost his momentum and finished the competition with three consecutive draws in the final three games against Liem, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, and USA's Grigoriy Oparin.

Gukesh won only 4.5 Tour points from the fifth leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2025, and with an overall 16 tour points, dropped to 8th position in the Tour Standings, leading by Maxime with 28 points.

The final leg of the Grand Chess Tour will be held in the same City from 18th August in a classical format tournament, Sinquefield Cup, after which the four best players on the Tour standings will qualify for GCT Finals.

Final Ranking of Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz:

1st) Levon Aronian (USA) — 24.5

2nd) Fabiano Caruana (USA) — 21.5

3rd) Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) — 21

4th) Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) — 20.5

5th) Wesley So (USA) —19

6-7) Liem Li (VIE), D Gukesh (IND) — 18

8th) Leinier Dominguez (USA) — 15.5

9th) Grigoriy Oparin (USA) — 13

10th) Sam Shankland (USA) — 9