Alireza Firouzja ominously said he felt “very fresh” after he beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura to take the sole lead on 5/6 after Day 1 of the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz. Hikaru, who went unbeaten in 27 games to win the 2021 event, lost twice, handing Magnus Carlsen the world rapid no. 1 spot, but he did then bounce back in the final game to beat Levon Aronian.
Firouzja started with 2 wins, Nakamura with 2 losses! | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour
Day 1 of the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz saw only Alireza Firouzja win two games, while star names such as Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov suffered.
You can replay all the games from the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz using the selector below.
It’s hard to believe — and largely down to the pandemic — but 19-year-old world no. 4 Alireza Firouzja was playing in St. Louis for the first time. “It was my dream from childhood to play here,” he said after the day was over.
His play in the first game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov initially looked nervy, since after a long pause he grabbed a pawn with 8.Bxf5!?, turning a good position into a dubious one.
Before Vladimir Kramnik could rail against the chess understanding of the young, however, Alireza gradually outplayed Shakhriyar positionally and then saw the tactics much more clearly.
Shakh may have thought he was taking over with 29…Nf5!?
Black would be better after any move other than what Alireza played instantly, 30.Nh3! The knight gets out of the way both so the g7-rook can defend g3 and the d2-bishop can attack the h6-rook.
30…Nxg7 was in fact the only move to stay in the game, but Shakh played 30…Rf6? and was losing after 31.Rg5!, even if there was still complicated play ahead.
Alireza Firouzja beat defending champion Hikaru Nakamura | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour
In Round 2 Alireza really caught fire, going for a bold h-pawn push against Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru said he was influenced by losing the first game when he took the bait on h4, ruining his kingside pawn structure.
It was after 21…Rc5! that he knew he was really in trouble.
Hikaru thought for almost 7 minutes (the time control in St. Louis is a slow rapid one of 25 minutes + 10 seconds a move), but couldn’t find a good antidote. The rook swings over to f5, the knight comes to h5, the bishop takes on h4, and Firouzja had an attack that was working like clockwork.
To Hikaru’s credit he held on and got chances even deep in the endgame, but in the end Alireza brought the game to a logical conclusion.
It’s hard, meanwhile, to say what the logical conclusion should have been to Firouzja’s final game of the day. His opponent was Sam Shankland, who went into the game unbeaten after a mammoth 118-move draw against Fabiano Caruana and then an unremarkable draw against Leinier Dominguez.
In Round 3 Alireza went for some tactics that weren’t really working, but when Sam miscalculated it was his young opponent who had all the chances with a swarm of dangerous pawns. 47.Kf5! towards the end and White would be winning, but Firouzja’s 47.Kxh5 allowed a nice trick.
“First of all I am very relieved that he didn’t see 47…Qxc6!” said Alireza, who spotted his mistake immediately after he made his move.
The point is 47…Qxc6! 48.d8=Q+ Qe8+!, and after queens are exchanged the b-pawn wins the race to give birth to a new queen and win the game. Beautiful geometry, which Alireza showed to his opponent when the game had fizzled out into a draw after 48…Qxh3+.
Hikaru Nakamura was the other main story, since he went into the tournament as the defending champion and the world no. 1 on the rapid rating list. When he won the event in 2021, he didn’t lose any of his 27 games, but this time round he started with an immediate loss, to Leinier Dominguez. Hikaru put it down to missing one move, after 28…Qf6 (or 28…Qd5, as Hikaru originally planned).
Understandably Hikaru was focused on the kingside, imagining tactics with the bishop coming to f4, g5 or h6, but here Leinier spotted 29.Ba3!
“For a human it’s simply a lost position”, said Hikaru, with the point that after exchanging the bishop for the c5-knight, white has the beautiful c4-square for his knight and total positional domination. There were some twists and turns, but Leinier took home the full two points for a win.
That meant a change at the top of the live rapid rating list, with Magnus Carlsen, still in Norway as he prepares to travel to St. Louis for the Sinquefield Cup, taking over as no. 1. Here are the ratings after Day 1.
If you can recap the Candidates as you play, you can recap the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, and Hikaru did just that.
The final game of the day meant he could end on a positive note, since he beat Levon Aronian, whose play couldn’t quite match his shirt.
Just another day at the office for Levon Aronian | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour
Levon had already lost his way when he went for a trick with some huge holes in it.
Hikaru regretted not playing for the gallery with 28…Rxa1!! 29.Nxd7 Rff1!, but 28…Qf5! was also crushing. After 29.Nxe4 Rxa1! Levon resigned, since 30.Rxa1 runs into 30…Qf1+ and back-rank mate.
The tournament has only just got started, with Alireza Firouzja pursued by Leinier Dominguez and two more players. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was happy to survive tough games with Black against Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniachtchi before exploiting a loose endgame move by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
The kibitzers are pretty strong in St. Louis! | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour
21-year-old Jeffery Xiong also got off to a great start as a late replacement for Richard Rapport. As well as two draws, he took down Fabiano Caruana, who as in the Candidates played the most moves of the day, but with little success. This position summed up Fabi’s day.
16…Bh3! and Black seems to equalise on the spot — the reason it’s possible is that 17.Bxh3?? runs into 17…Nf3+ and White is crushed.
Fabi instead took almost 8 minutes to play 16…Qe6?! and after 17.Bxd5 Qxe1+ 18.Rxe1 was left defending a miserable endgame. He had some tricky chances to hold, but didn’t take them.
Xiong started with a draw against Nepomniachtchi, but what was Nepo doing here? | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour
Xiong will start Day 2 against Firouzja, who then plays Caruana and Dominguez. You can follow the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz games live here on chess24 from 13:00 CDT/20:00 CEST, featuring live commentary from Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler and Cristian Chirila.
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