 "Despite a tough opening defeat, D Gukesh bounced back to win next two Raid games at Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz on Monday. Images: Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz")
World chess champion D Gukesh bounced back in style after an opening defeat to Levon Aronian to finish Day 1 of the Grand Chess Tour at Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025 with two wins from three rounds of Rapid games on Monday. In a short interview after the three games, Gukesh admitted that he had a poor opening game, but was satisfied with how things turned around for him.
The Indian chess star Gukesh is now third in the Rapid standings with four points after two wins. He trails Aronian and Fabiano Caruana. Aronian is on perfect six points after victories against Gukesh, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Caruana drew his first game against Vachier-Lagrave before beating Abdusattorov and Leinier Dominguez Perez. The world No.3 Caruana is scheduled to take on world champion Gukesh in the final round.
Speaking to the hosts at the end of the day, Gukesh said there’s still a long way to go in the tournament and he’s up for it after two consecutive wins.
“I guess it was overall good. The first game was bad. Once I allowed the knight f3 in the opening…I should have just played g4. I got careless in that one moment and it was just hard to play that,” Gukesh said. “I was happy with how I came back after that….the third (game) was also pretty good. Feeling good about the last three games. It’s just the start of the tournament, so wonderful.”
Analysing Gukesh’s three Rapid games
While Gukesh is not known for his prowess in the faster formats, he has shown enough signs of improving his overall game. The 19-year-old chess prodigy won the Rapid title at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament in Zagreb, Croatia, in July, which was also a part of the Grand Chess Tour. But entered the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025 after suffering a 5-1 thrashing to Jan-Krzysztof Duda in Katowice, Poland, in a Blitz exhibition match.
He was thrashed by Aronian in the opening round on Monday in 45 moves with the 42-year-old Armenian chess Grandmaster, who clinched the Freestyle Grand Slam Las Vegas trophy recently, winning the game with White pieces.
How Aronian beat Gukesh:
Nonetheless, Gukesh launched his comeback against Grigoriy Oparin of the USA with White pieces, beating him in just 32 moves. Oprain conceded the game by making two blunders in the last two moves as 30…Rd8 and 31…gxf6 made checkmate against him unavoidable.
How Gukesh defeated Oparin:
In the final game of the day, Gukesh thrashed Quang Liem Le of Vietnam in 42 moves despite playing with Black pieces.
How Gukesh defeated Liem Le:
In a balanced game, Liem Le moving his Rook to f3 on the 40th move scripted his downfall as he was forced to resign soon after.