The 2026 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz has only had one leader for four days, and he has been GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. The Indian grandmaster put up the highest score in nine rounds of blitz, scoring 6/9, and is ahead of GM Javokhir Sindarov by 1.5 points. The gap could have potentially been one point closer, but in their direct encounter Sindarov allowed a draw in a king and pawn endgame where he had the extra pawn.
The tournament concludes with the final nine rounds of blitz on Thursday, August 6, starting at 1:10 p.m. ET / 19:10 CEST / 10:40 p.m. IST. All players will face each other again but with the opposite colors.
The tournament looks like a two-horse race between Praggnanandhaa and Sindarov, though in nine more rounds of blitz, anything is still possible.
Standings
Praggnanandhaa did more than just maintain his lead; he put up the highest score in the blitz section alone. GM Levon Aronian is right there with Sindarov, scoring just a half-point less, but his 50% score in the rapid leaves him 3.5 points behind the leader.
Blitz Only Standings
At the start of the day, Praggnanandhaa led Sindarov by one point and GM Wesley So by two, and the race was essentially between these three players.
In round one, Praggnanandhaa defeated GM Vincent Keymer, but So kept pace by defeating GM Jorden van Foreest, while Sindarov made a draw with Aronian. In GM Maurice Ashley‘s words, the game So vs. Van Foreest was an “unmitigated disaster.” So sacrificed one pawn, and then another, to deliver that disaster on the h-file.
Keymer, on the other hand, defended exceptionally well against Praggnanandhaa while playing on the increment for a long time, but eventually cracked when he allowed a passed pawn. Blunders in time pressure would continue to haunt Keymer throughout the day as he scored just 2.5/9, the same as GM Leinier Dominguez.
Round two slowed down the leader’s closest rivals as GM Fabiano Caruana beat So and Van Foreest defeated Sindarov. Caruana won with an outside passed pawn, while Van Foreest found an unstoppable king march to the g3-square as Sindarov’s pieces could do nothing but sit back and watch.
Nearly all the games in round three ended in draws except that, in an equal knight endgame, Dominguez lost on time against So. Even still, So and Sindarov lagged two points behind Praggnanandhaa by this point.
Though he was further back in the standings, Aronian played the brilliancy of the day in round four against GM Anish Giri. The game ended with checkmate on the board on move 30, and it featured a piece sacrifice, followed by an imaginative exchange sacrifice, a true “throw the kitchen sink” kind of game. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.
Sindarov scored a hat trick in rounds four through six to stay in contention with Praggnanandhaa, while So drew Praggnanandhaa, lost against Aronian, and finally beat Keymer in the same rounds.
Sindarov’s three wins came against Caruana (who blundered a piece), GM Awonder Liang (with a kingside attack), and finally against Dominguez, although Sindarov did miss an unusual mate-in-one in the conversion stage. He won anyway, with the three extra pawns.
So was thwarted by Aronian in round five when he blundered a piece to the nasty, although not difficult, 34…Rxc5!. If White captures the rook, he loses his queen. It was a second win in a row for Aronian, though he’d lose to Van Foreest in round seven.
So’s win in round six, against Keymer, seemingly came out of nowhere as after 47.Nc2?? Qa2, White had the move but simply no good way to defend the b3-pawn. This would be So’s last win as he’d draw the next three games.
All the while, between rounds four and six, Praggnanandhaa drew So, beat Van Foreest (with four pawns for a knight!), and drew Caruana.
Round seven brought an end to Sindarov’s winning streak, though he was fortunate to even Giri. Sindarov sacrificed a pawn out of the opening, missed a one-ply response, then sacrificed an exchange out of desperation. Giri had a +3 advantage in the following position, but Sindarov weaseled his way out and, with resourceful defense, made a draw.
In the position below, 16.gxf3 wins for White, but Sindarov said in his interview he knew Giri would not play the most critical line. As predicted, Giri instead went for 16.Bxb6, was still up a pawn, but had very little time to convert it later.
Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa continued his winning ways against Dominguez, who blundered a pawn, and Aronian took down Caruana, who blundered his queen.
Caruana drops his queen and Aronian wins a third time in four games!https://t.co/DXvvPt0qKg pic.twitter.com/M6Tp5qTbDB
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 5, 2026
In the final two rounds, the round-eight direct encounter between Sindarov and Praggnanandhaa was the most important. When the players traded queens on move 22, the predominant feeling was that it should be a draw. Then, Praggnanandhaa overlooked a tactic and blundered a pawn—Sindarov was winning. Finally, in the pawn endgame, Sindarov made a shocking mistake and let go of the full point. It was right in his hands.
Explaining his decision to play 43.Kf4?, Sindarov said, “I saw I’m winning [with] any move.” As any chess-playing mortal knows, any move wins except the one you end up playing in such cases. “I was just playing moves,” said Praggnanandhaa, who was in too much time pressure to evaluate whether the position was losing or drawn.
Had Sindarov won this game, he would have been a half-point behind the leader, with confidence and momentum. Even still, Sindarov thought he was playing “very well.” He summed up his strategy for the final day: “Don’t lose.”
In the final round, all three players at the top of the standings—Praggnanandhaa, Sindarov, So—drew, leaving the Indian grandmaster still in the lead after four days. Praggnanandhaa reflected on the day, “My quality could be better, but +3 is still a good score.” As for his strategy on day five: “Basically not to do anything stupid.”
The 2026 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is the fourth leg and final rapid and blitz event of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour. Ten players compete in a rapid (25+10) single round-robin followed by a blitz (5+2) double round-robin for their share of a $200,000 prize fund and to finish at the top of the tour standings.
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