Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: D Gukesh stuns Caruana to enter top 4 after rapid
Gukesh registered two consecutive wins in the final two rapid games.
Dommaraju Gukesh stunned Fabiano Caruana at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz. (Photo Credit: Lennart Ootes)
GM Gukesh Dommaraju stunned the tournament leader Fabiano Caruana in the final round of the rapid Program at the 2025 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz Tournament in Missouri, the USA, on Wednesday.
For the third consecutive day, Gukesh lost his first match of the day as he blundered two pawns at the 43rd move with just 2 seconds on the clock and faced a defeat against Leinier Dominguez of the USA.
He, however, bounced back strongly to register two consecutive wins in the following rounds against Wesley So of the USA and the leader, Fabiano Caruana, in the final round, respectively.
Gukesh stopped Caruana's four-match winning run by handing him his first defeat of the tournament and also stopped him from setting a new Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz record of 16/18 points in the rapid section.
With these two wins on the third day, Gukesh has now jumped up to 4th place with 10 points from nine rapid rounds, just a point away from the podium before heading towards the long 18-game blitz program.
Fabiano Caruana continued to lead the program with 14 points, closely followed by his countryman Levon Aronian on 13 points in second place.
The first stage of the double round robin Blitz program will start on Thursday, having 9 matches for each of the 10 players, with one point for a win and half a point for a draw.
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