D Gukesh fell to sixth position on the penultimate day at the Grand Chess Tour event in St. Louis. After the Rapid section, Gukesh was in fourth position, but the first nine rounds of the blitz category saw him slip to sixth place, as he fell to four defeats and as many draws. Meanwhile, he managed only a solitary win against American Leinier Dominguez.
Gukesh finished the Rapid section with 10 points and just added three more to his tally. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana fell to second position, and Levon Aronian climbed to the top of the standings. Aronian has a total of 19 points, and Caruana is two behind him, and only a half point ahead of third-placed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov made a comeback in the Blitz category and matches Aronian on points in the format. He also went to joint fourth place with Wesley So, and both have 15 points each.
Vietnam’s Le Quang is also sixth with Gukesh, and they are three points ahead of Dominguez. Meanwhile, Grogoriy Oparin is in ninth spot with nine points, 1.5 ahead of Sam Shankland.
Gukesh began his Blitz section with a draw against Aronian and Shankland, before crumbling to a defeat against So. Against So, Gukesh had an equal position, but his weakness in the shorter format was exposed as he made mistakes under time pressure. He also lost to Nodirbek before managing to get his solitary win against Dominguez.
In his last four matches, the Indian GM has suffered two losses and has also managed to bag two draws.
Against Gukesh, players seem to be more motivated to notch a win as he is already the reigning World Champion. Speaking after the Rapid campaign, Gukesh revealed, “I kind of sense that people are more motivated to play against me (after he became world champion).”
“But it’s none of my business, I just play my game. Maybe the first couple of tournaments, I felt this pressure of having to prove something, but then it got better. It has already been eight to nine months, and I played a few tournaments. I think I just got settled into this new state.”
