St. Louis Rapid and Blitz: Gukesh joint fifth after six games; Caruana snatches sole lead

St. Louis (US): Reigning World Champion D Gukesh had a relatively unremarkable day at the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, as he lost one game and drew two, placing him in the middle of the standings in the 10-player tournament, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour.

After a shock defeat at the hands of tailender Sam Shankland of United States in the fourth round, Gukesh followed it up with two draws -- against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, the lead changed hands dramatically as highest ranked American in the fray, Fabiano Caruana conceded just a lone draw and defeated overnight leader – the Armenian-turned-American Levon Aronian in the last game of the day to take a two-points lead.

Like Gukesh, Aronian was just able to draw two games and lost one.

With just three rounds to go in the rapid, Caruana, on 10 points out of a possible 12, seems poised to win this section which would mean that he would have some advantage going ahead in the blitz section which will have a double round-robin comprising 18 rounds in all.

Aronian is still a not-far-behind second on eight points, sharing the second spot with Wesley So, also from United States. A close fourth is Vachier-Lagrave on seven points, while Gukesh shares the next spot along side another US import Leinier Dominguez Perez, who is a born Cuban.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Liem Le Quang of Vietnam share the seventh spot on five points and another two points behind is Grigoriy Oparin who also changed his federation to United States. The last man standing in the event is Sam Shankland with the lone prize catch of Gukesh that netted him two points.

The Indian ace had done well to win two games on the trot after losing to Aronian in the opening round but a tougher opponent awaited him in the second round.

Against Shankland, Gukesh tried to go for complications but they backfired as the American is known for his decent tactical skills and won a piece with some precise calculation in the middle game.

Gukesh did not push for more against Vachier-Lagrave and settled for a draw and against Abdusattorov he did not get many chances as the players headed to a king versus king position after 60 moves.

Results round 4: Leinier Dominguez Perez (Usa( draw with Levon Aronian (Usa); Sam Shankland (Usa) beat D Gukesh (Ind); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) beat Grigoriy Oparin (Usa); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) drew with Liem Le Quang (Vie); Wesley So (Usa) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa).

Round 5: Gukesh drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Wesley drew with Aronian; Caruana beat Shankland; Liem drew with Abdusattorov; Dominguez drew with Oparin.

Round 6: Abdusattorov drew with Gukesh; Caruana beat Aronian; Shankland lost to Vachier-Lagrave; Liem drew with Dominguez; Wesley beat Oparin.

Standing after round 6: 1. Caruana (10); 2-3. Aronian, Wesley (8 each); 4. Vachier-Lagrave (7); 5-6. Gukesh, Dominguez (6 each); 7-8: Liem, Abdusattorov (5 each); 9. Oparin (3) 10. Shankland (2).