GM Ray Robson scored a crucial win over GM Alireza Firouzja in round six of the 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz on the white side of the King’s Indian Defense: Makogonov Variation on Wednesday.

Robson entered the sole lead thanks to day-one leader GM Le Quang Liem’s tumultuous day. The Vietnamese GM suffered a tragic loss at the hands of GM Fabiano Caruana and got caught up in more drama against GM Anish Giri when he incorrectly claimed a threefold repetition.

While rounds four and five produced 10 draws and no decisive games, the third round of the day had four winners: GMs Robson, Caruana, Giri, and Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave. For the Dutchman, the extra half-point came surprisingly when GM Sam Sevian flagged on the easier side of a drawn endgame.

The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz will continue with rounds seven through nine of the rapid segment on Thursday, November 16, at 11 a.m. PT/20:00 Central European.

Standings (2 points for a win in rapid chess)

Overnight preparation is a dangerous weapon in the hands of the world’s top chess players and in round four, the games reflected this. Five draws transpired and eight of the 10 players played with above 97-percent accuracy, according to Chess.com’s Game Review.

The only game where a win seemed likely was GM Wesley So-Caruana. Playing with the black pieces after a difficult first day, Caruana evoked chess legends of old and played the Ruy López Opening: Morphy Defense, Deferred Steinitz Defense.

Crossing into uncharted territory with 11.Nb3, So found himself in a spot of bother and decided to give up the exchange to avoid nasty tactics. After trading into an endgame where neither king was safe, Caruana rushed with 40…Kh7??, opening the floodgates for White’s queen to infiltrate and deliver threefold repetition.

While round four was a near-perfect picture of solidity, the second round of the day was full of missed chances, despite five draws occurring. Le’s stellar run almost came to an end when he was nearly beaten by Giri after pinching a pawn in the middle game.

His lucky stars aligned even when incorrectly claiming a threefold. Down by two pawns in a queen endgame, the 32-year-old stopped his clock and informed the arbiter that his next move, 71…Qd5? would be a draw. Svidler was quick to spot that the draw claim is correct but the move is wrong and Le actually needed to play 71…Qe6.!. Fortunately, the tournament leader was able to hold his nerves and hold his opponent to a draw.

The defending champion Firouzja also missed a major opportunity to join Le in the lead following an ambitious queen sacrifice that saw the game spiral out of control.

Continuing purely on their increment, both players were unable to play precisely, and in the end it was Firouzja who needed to find a brilliant move to force a draw.

With the rankings remaining unchanged after two rounds of play, players came out of the woodwork to try and assert their authority on day two. Robson was one such player, and the Puzzle Battle champion saved his best game for a showdown with Firouzja.

With the white pieces, Robson elected to play the Makogonov Variation, an opening considered to be one the most dangerous setups against the King’s Indian Defense, against the world’s number-one blitz chess player. The opening choice paid off.

A five-pawn storm was on the menu for Robson and after opening up the g-file, the puzzle champion converted duly. Our Game of the Day, which flung Robson to the top of the leaderboard, has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao. 

Le-Caruana was the other important result in terms of the standings in round six. After emerging from a Queen’s Gambit Declined opening with a slight edge, spectators were surprised to see the Webster University head coach’s position collapse in a heap.

On the ground commentators—GMs Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, and IM Tania Sachdev—were shocked to find that Caruana had found a way to trick Le into a worse ending, thereby ending his unbeaten run.

To cap off the day, a flagging took place between Sevian and Giri during a completely drawn endgame! Being the presser while up an exchange in the endgame, Sevian was in disbelief that Giri was able to assemble a fortress. Sevian failed to notice when his flag fell on move 89, and the agonizing loss cost him an easy half-point. 

All Games Day 2

The 2023 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is the fourth leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour and the last of its speed chess events. Players compete in a 10-player rapid (25+10) round-robin and a 10-player blitz (5+2) double round-robin for their share of a $175,000 prize fund. 

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