D Gukesh ends St. Louis campaign with a whimper, finishes in joint-sixth position

D Gukesh ended his St. Louis Rapid and Blitz campaign of the Grand Chess Tour in joint-sixth position on Friday. The reigning World Champion began the final day on a strong note, with three wins and a draw in the first four games of the Blitz section. But he could not maintain that momentum as he went on to lose two games and played three draws to finish the event with 18 points. He shares the sixth position with Vietnam’s Liem Le.

Reigning world champion D Gukesh in action.(HT_PRINT)

Levon Aronian came out on top with 24.5 points, followed by Fabiano Caruana (21.5), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (21), Nodirbek Abdusattarov (20.5) and Wesley So (19).

Next up, Gukesh will be in action at the Sinquefield Cup, which begins in only two days, and is played under the classical chess rules. It is the last event before the Grand Chess Tour finals, and even R Praggnanandhaa will feature in the tournament.