St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Aronian begins third day with victory

Armenia’s leading chess player Levon Aronian began the third day of the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) by winning former contender for the world champion title, US chess player Fabiano Caruana. In the 7^th round, Aronian played with black figures and won at the 51^st step.

With 12 points (2 points given for victory, 1 point given for a tie), Aronian is the sole leader on the table. French chess player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has 9 points and lost to world champion Magnus Carlsen in the 7^th round.

In the first round, Aronian had won Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in the second round — Russian chess player Sergey Karjakin, in the third round — Azerbaijani chess player Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, in the fourth round, Aronian tied the match with Ding Liren, in the 5^th round, he won world champion, Norwegian chess player Magnus Carlsen, and he tied the match with Cuban chess player Leinier Dominguez (representing the USA) in the 6^th round.

Hungarian and Chinese chess players Richard Rapport and Yu Yanji will be Aronian’s opponents in the last two rounds of the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz.