Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So emerge joint winners in Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz; P Harikrishna finishes seventh

Chennai: A below-par performance in Blitz-2, in which he managed only three points from nine rounds, saw Indian Grandmaster P Harikrishna finish joint seventh in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz online chess tournament. World No 1 Magnus Carlsen and American Wesley So finished joint winners. Harikrishna’s solitary win on the final day of the tournament came against American Jeffrey Xiong, the lowest rated player in the field, as he suffered four losses to go with three draws. He was tied for seventh place with Xiong. [caption id=“attachment_8833711” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  World No 1 Magnus Carlsen and American Wesley So finished joint winners. Reuters[/caption] The India No 2, who had pulled off an upset win over Carlsen in Blitz-1, could not reproduce the good form and went down to the Norwegian world champion in the sixth round of Blitz-2 in a 47-move encounter. He had started well in the Rapid, securing nine points but could win only 3.5 and 3 points in Blitz-1 and Blitz-2, respectively. Carlsen, who was not in his usual dominant form, opened the Blitz-2 with a defeat at the hands of Hikaru Nakamura (USA) but did what was needed to secure the top spot with So. He posted three wins to go with five draws to finish with 24 points. Carlsen and So received $45,000 each for their efforts. Nakamura took the third spot with 21 points and earned $35,000. Harikrishna’s share of the seventh place earned him #14,000 in the tournament hosted by US-based St Louis Chess Club. A win in a rapid game was worth two points, a draw one point. In each blitz game, a win was worth one point and a draw gave half a point. Final standings (Rapid, Blitz-1 and Blitz-2): 1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Wesley So (USA) 24 points, 3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 21 points, 4. Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) 18.5 points, 6. Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 18 points, 7. Jeffery Xiong (USA) and P Harikrishna (India) 15.5 points, 9. Alireza Firouzja (Iran) and Leinier Dominiguez (USA) 12.5 points.