The 2023 edition of the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament will serve as a thrilling appetizer to the end of this year’s Grand Chess Tour, making it once again one of the most prestigious chess tournaments in the faster time controls.
This is the third event of its kind in the Grand Chess Tour, and even though the format may ring a bell from previous years of the action, some of the players participating this time may surprise you.
St. Louis Rapid & Blitz 2023 schedule and format
Though the event technically takes place between Nov. 12 and 19, that involves the players’ arrival and departure, too (and don’t ask us why the kind people of the St. Louis Chess Club insist on listing their event schedule in this manner), meaning the action actually takes place between Nov. 14 and Nov. 16 for the rapid games and then two days of blitz on Nov. 17 and 18, with playoffs scheduled for the same day should they be needed.
Then, the Sinquefield Cup begins the very next day (kind of), with the classical action running from Nov. 21 to Nov. 30 or Dec. 1, depending on the need for playoffs.
The games are all played over the board, with the rapid matches in a 20+5 (20 minutes per player plus five seconds per move) format and the blitz following the 3+2 (three minutes per player plus two seconds per move) structure.
The winner will take home $40,000 USD for their troubles, but even the last-place finisher can console themselves with a $7,000 payoff for a few days of fast-paced chess.
St. Louis Rapid & Blitz 2023 participants
This year, the following 10 players will participate in the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz event (with the players marked with an asterisk also sticking around for the Sinquefield Cup):
- Le Quang Liem
- Wesley So*
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave*
- Ian Nepomniachtchi*
- Alireza Firouzja*
- Fabiano Caruana*
- Anish Giri*
- Sam Sevian
- Jeffery Xiong
- Ray Robson
That’s right, no Magnus! No Ding, either, which must be seen as a disappointment to chess fans, even if he is confirmed to return at the 2024 edition of Tata Steel Chess.
Grand Chess Tour standings: who’s in the running?
With two events to go in the globetrotting competition with its separate $1.4 million prize fund, the situation is beginning to clarify. Players can only participate in four of the five events, but as it happened so often this year, Fabiano Caruana is in the driver’s seat.
Not only does he have a two-point lead over Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but he also has an extra event to spare over his Polish rival: the closest players who will still play at both events, Alireza Firouzja and Wesley So, are on 15.75 and 15.25 points, respectively.
