World Champion D Gukesh had a strong finish to the Rapid section of the Grand Chess Tour: Saint Louis event by posting consecutive wins.

Gukesh defeated Fabiano Caruana in a thrilling endgame in the ninth round to finish on 10 points. Caruana topped the Rapid section with 14 points, followed by Levon Aronian (13) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (11). Gukesh defeated Wesley So in the penultimate Rapid round.

The event enters the Blitz segment, featuring double round-robin games. The total points from Rapid & Blitz combined will decide the winner of the $40,000 first-prize event (₹35 lakh).

Gukesh is the only Indian in the 10-player field. Nordirbek Abdusattorov, Leiner Dominguez, Liem Le, Sam Shankland and Grigoriy Oparin are the other participants.

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Gukesh, the reigning classical World Champion, is not regarded as a strong Rapid and Blitz player. Though Gukesh is World No. 6 in classical chess, he is ranked No. 27 in Rapid and No. 93 in Blitz.

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