lireza Firouzja was unstoppable and cruised to victory on the last day of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, winning his first event on the Grand Chess Tour. The 19-year-old dominated and clinched victory with four rounds to spare.
Alireza Firouzja's performance in St. Louis Rapid & Blitz goes into history as one of the best Grand Chess Tour performances of all time. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Firouzja's victory in USA's chess capital was the most dominant in the Grand Chess Tour's history of speed chess events, which started in 2016.
On Day 1 of the blitz, Firouzja scored 7/9. Today the teenage sensation improved on the result and scored 8 points.
With this Firouzja sets some noteworthy records:
Firouzja lost only one of his 18 games, and was undefeated in the blitz portion. His overall score in St.Louis is the third best in Grand Chess Tour history, only matched by Magnus Carlsen, who scored 27 points in Kolkata in 2019 and 26.5 in Abidjan in 2019. His blitz score of 15 points is 0.5 points higher than Carlsen's 14.5 score from Leuven 2017.
Play through all the games from the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz on our broadcast page.
Alireza Firouzja's result goes into history as one of the best ever for a teenager | photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
"I could reveal a secret," Firouzja said with a smile. "It was my promise for a long time that if I come to St. Louis I would win the tournament."
"Who did you promise it to?" commentator Christian Chirila asked.
"To myself!"
Firouzja said he had his whole family with him in St. Louis, which was an important factor. "I am very thankful."
About winning the event, he said:
"It means a lot. It's a very tough tournament. I think this rapid and blitz was the strongest, because there are many wildcards that are not very high rated."
The current top 10 rankings in blitz. Source: 2700chess.com
He gained 108 rating points to jump five spots to 2nd on the World Blitz rankings, breaking 2900 for the first time.
"Remarkable! This is just crazy good!" Yasser Seirawan said about Firouzja gaining more than 100 points.
Alireza Firouzja in his second blitz game against Levon Aronian. | photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
The Iranian-born Frenchman's victory was never under threat. Hikaru Nakamura followed up his 7/9 score from Day 1 with 6.5 points on Day 2. That was enough for clear 2nd place, five full points behind Firouzja.
His chances for tournament victory were ruined when he lost two games in a row.
"I am disappointed. I didn't show up for three days. With the way Alireza played throughout the tournament, he is a very deserving winner," Nakamura said.
A key game for Firouzja was his win over Nakamura in round 4.
21.f4? Bxd3! 22.Qxd3 Nf3+ 23.Kg2 Rc2 Firouzja misses 23...Ne1! with the idea of 24.Rxe1 Qxd3, but is still clearly winning. 23...Rc2 24.Qxc2 and Firouzja later won. 0-1
"It was a pretty impressive victory," St. Louis commentator Yasser Seirawan said about the game.
Levon Aronian helped Firouzja towards victory in the next round by handing him an early Christmas present:
16...Bf5?? 17.Bxc6 White wins a full piece and easily converted. 1-0
Firouzja won the next three rounds, slowed down a bit with a draw in the next game, but finished in style with another win.
For Firouzja, the result was huge after a poor performance in the Candidates in June, where he ended 6th among the eight participants. He rated his victory even higher than his 1st place from FIDE's Grand Swiss in 2021, which earned him qualification to the Candidates.
Alireza Firouzja is the youngest ever winner of an event in the Grand Chess Tour. Here with the trophy. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
"For now this is more important for me than the Grand Swiss. The cycle of the Candidates is not the ideal base. This means a lot to me, maybe even more than the Grand Swiss."
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave couldn't follow up from his performance on the first day of blitz, but still scored a decent result and finished 4th in the end. That result was enough to overtake Wesley So as the leader in the Grand Chess Tour.
Richard Rapport was forced to withdraw from Saint Louis due to not meeting US travel restrictions related to Covid-19, and was replaced by Xiong and Hans Niemann in the Sinquefield Cup.
That event begins September 2nd and will feature none other than Magnus Carlsen, who will try to win the event for a record 3rd time. The opening ceremony is today.
See also:
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