St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, Day 1

MVL the early leader; Caruana tied for last after two major stumbles.

Day 1 of the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz has been short on accuracy but high in drama and excitement. Most of the games have been decisive, almost all have been hard-fought, and there have been some fascinating opening ideas as well, especially from Ian Nepomniachtchi and his knight moves to the edge of the board. After three rounds, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave leads with 2.5 points (or rather 5/6, if my assumption is correct that the usual rapid & blitz scoring is in effect, doubling the point totals for the rapid games relative to the blitz) with Levon Aronian and Nepomniachtchi half a point (or a full point - see the last parenthetical) behind.

MVL won a good game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in round 3, but was somewhat lucky to draw against Hikaru Nakamura in round 1 and very lucky to win against Praggnanandhaa R. - who should have won - in round 2. At the other end of the crosstable, Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana are tied for last, giving away half and full points in almost every game. Pragg was winning against Aronian in round 1 but only drew, and against Nepo in round 3 before losing. Caruana’s draw with Wesley So in round 1 was normal, and in round 2 he may have chased the ghost of a past advantage for too long before blundering in an equal ending. Round 3 was even worse: he was winning with Black after just eight moves against Nakamura when the latter fell into a known trap. Caruana lost anyway.

There’s a long way to go; for now, here are all the day 1 games, with my comments.