2026 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz Day 2: Praggnanandhaa Leads, Sindarov Trails By 2 Points

It’s striking for a rapid tournament, but rounds four and six ended in all draws on five boards. Only round five featured two decisive games, but it wasn’t for a lack of gambles and mistakes throughout the day.

Three games could have been decisive in round four, but not one was. Praggnanandhaa won a piece in the opening against Sindarov, but the world championship challenger stirred enough complications to survive; GM Leinier Dominguez had a tremendous position against Giri, but ultimately drew with a queen against rook and two minor pieces; and finally, Liang was winning against GM Jorden van Foreest, was then losing, and finally made a draw, smiling as the players shook hands as well as their heads.

A win for Praggnanandhaa over Sindarov would have extended his lead, but it was not meant to be. By move 13 in a King’s Indian Defense, Praggnanandhaa trapped his opponent’s bishop and looked sure to snag two more points. But Sindarov, as he’s proven before (and would prove again), showed his resourcefulness to save what looked like a hopeless position.

In round five, Praggnanandhaa made up for that miss by winning with the black pieces against GM Awonder Liang, maintaining his lead in the tournament. With the kingside expansion of 14.g4 and 18.f4?, it looked like White (Liang) was the aggressor, but after 18…f6!, the tables turned. As Praggnanandhaa showed in the game, White’s king was weaker, and he found a cheeky queen sacrifice on the last move of the game.

There were two massive turnarounds in that same round five. So, who was trailing the leader by one point, had been better or winning against Van Foreest for most of the game until he fell apart at the end of the game.

Sindarov, on the other hand, was winning right out of the opening against Aronian. Somehow, the former world number-two survived with his king in the center into an exchange-down endgame—still losing. And after that, Aronian even got a winning position, with the knight versus rook, but agreed to a draw by repeating moves. Immediately after shaking hands, Sindarov showed his opponent the winning 66…Qd6!.

Levon Aronian, who was completely lost for most of the game against Javokhir Sindarov, suddenly has a winning position (down the exchange) but agrees to a draw by threefold repetition! pic.twitter.com/FLNXRFWWVs

— chess24 (@chess24com) August 3, 2026

It’s, without a doubt, the best save of the tournament, and GM Rafael Leitao goes over the Game of the Day below. (The annotations will be added soon!)

In round six, Sindarov showed his tenacity in defending a worse position against GM Fabiano Caruana, who has lost one game, made five draws, and is yet to win one. Full credit goes to the Uzbek superstar, however, as he found the exchange sacrifice 30…Rxc7!, a move Caruana saw, and then 35…Bf4!?, a move he did not see. The analysis below shows all the lines Caruana showed in his interview, checked against the engines.

Caruana explained that their previous game must have affected his encounter with Sindarov. Caruana survived a worse position against Dominguez, and Sindarov fumbled a winning position against Aronian. He called his play “not great overall” and summarized the two days so far:

Yesterday [I played] this complicated game against Pragg, which he played really well, and I made some poor decisions at a few moments. Today I should have probably struck in one of my white games, but I could have also lost the game against Leinier more likely than won it.

His goal is to finish the rapid on 50% and bank his hopes on the blitz.

The other key game in round six was Praggnanandhaa vs. So, where the Indian GM managed to give his opponent splits pawns and achieve a stable advantage. But So managed to escape in the heavy-piece endgame, where Praggnanandhaa tried for 117 moves to win with the extra pawn but no real chances.

The last three rounds take place on Tuesday, and Praggnanandhaa will have the black pieces against Giri in the day’s first game, which is round seven.