St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, Day 3

Three lead going into the blitz.

Coming into day three of the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz there was a three-way tie for first between Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with Levon Aronian a point behind them in clear fourth. After day three? It’s exactly the same: Nepo, Firouzja, and MVL are the co-leaders and Aronian is in solo fourth a point behind them. The places further down shifted a bit, but going into the blitz tomorrow and Friday the top of the leaderboard tells the same story. It’s not for any want of decisive games, either, as eight of the day’s 15 games had a winner, and both Nepo and MVL won and lost a game. (Likewise Aronian, but Firouzja drew all three of his games.)

As noted the blitz starts tomorrow (Thursday), with the games being scored in the usual way (one point for a win, half a point for a draw, and nothing for a loss) as opposed to the 2-1-0 scoring for the rapid. Here are today’s games (about half of which have some analysis by yours truly), and here are the standings:

(1)-(3) Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja, Vachier-Lagrave 11

(4) Aronian 10

(5)-(7) So, Nakamura, Dominguez 9

(8)-(9) Abdusattorov, Caruana 8

(10) Praggnanandhaa 4