Alireza Firouzja wins 2024 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz

Alireza Firouzja emerged as the winner of the 2024 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. After tying for first place in rapid with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the Iran-born Frenchman delivered an excellent performance in the double round-robin blitz to score 23/36 (11/18 in rapid and 12/18 in blitz) and clinch the title with two rounds to spare.

Wesley So netted just 50% (9/18) in rapid but picked up steam in the blitz segment (11/18) to finish second in the standings.

The same applies to Hikaru Nakamura, who did a better job in blitz (10.5/18) and took third place.

Inversely, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who were in the lead after the rapid part, did not perform as well in the blitz and ended up in 5th and 7th places, respectively.

Coming up next is the 2024 Sinquefield Cup, which begins Monday, August 19, with live commentary from GM’s Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, Cristian Chirila and IM Nazi Paikidze starting at 1:20pm CDT. Tune in to the Saint Louis Chess Club’s Twitch & YouTube channels.

Official website: grandchesstour.org/

Photos: Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes