Multiple players joined the lead on Day 2 of the 2024 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave came to the day as an early leader but was held to three draws. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja jumped on this opportunity to catch up with him in the standings after scoring 4/6 and 5/6, respectively.

Going to the final day of rapid, this trio shares the lead, followed by Levon Aronian with seven points.

Alireza Firouzja scored a very important victory over Hikaru Nakamura after the American made a severe mistake in a complicated opposite-colored bishop endgame.

Alireza Firouzja – Hikaru Nakamura

White just played 33. a6 and Hikaru made a wrong choice of 33…b6? Instead, he should have opted for 33…bxa6 34. bxa6 Bb5! 35. Ra1 Rd7! and it is very hard for White to make progress. As played, Alireza won a pawn after 34. Rc7 Bxb5 35. Rxa7 Ra3 36. Ra8+ Kf7 37. a7 Ra6 38. Bxb6 Bc6 39. Rc8 Rxb6 40. Rxc6! and confidently converted it in a rook endgame | 1-0, 54 moves

Ian Nepomniachtchi notched up his only win of the day after Leinier Dominguez missed a nice trick playing on increment.

Leinier Dominguez – Ian Nepomniachtchi

After 40. Bb8! keeping an eye on the e5-pawn, White has a good chance to hold this inferior position. Instead, Leinier snatched the e4-pawn with 40. Kxe4, which failed to 40…Bf5+! The point is that 41. Kxe5 is met with 41…Be6+ winning the bishop. Here, Dominguez made the final mistake with 41. Kd5?? (41. Ke3 Bg6 was his last try, although with two connected passers, Black would have had excellent winning chances) and resigned after 41…Be6+ (42. Kc5 e4+) 0-1

Round 7 will see a clash of the leaders, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave taking on Ian Nepomiachtchi as White.

Day 3 of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz continues Wednesday, August 14, with live commentary from GM's Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, Cristian Chirila and IM Nazi Paikidze starting at 1:00pm CDT. Tune in to the Saint Louis Chess Club's Twitch & YouTube channels.

Official website: grandchesstour.org/

Photos: Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes