Closing out the 2024 Grand Chess Tour season are the final two events held in the Chess Capital of America, Saint Louis, Missouri. The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz kicked off on August 12. The third and final speed chess event of the 2024 GCT (and the fourth overall) features seven tour players and three American wildcards -  Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez - fighting for a prize fund of $175. The format is nine rounds of rapid action followed by eighteen rounds of blitz for a total of 135 games spread across five days.

After the first three rapid games, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took an early lead with two wins over Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and a draw against Hikaru Nakamura, scoring a total of 5/6 (with a victory counting for two points in rapid).

Tied for second are Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez and Ian Nepomniachtchi, each with 4/6.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja are sitting on 3/6, sharing third place.

There are some exciting matchups in Round 4, including Fabiano Caruana as White against the leader, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Day 2 of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz continues Tuesday, August 13, with live commentary from GM's Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, Cristian Chirila and IM Nazi Paikidze starting at 1:00 pm CDT. Tune in to the Saint Louis Chess Club's Twitch & YouTube channels.

Official website: grandchesstour.org/

Photos: Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes and Crystal Fuller