Wesley rules Grand Chess Tour’s Paris Rapid & Blitz Tournament

CAVITEborn Wesley So captured the Grand Chess Tour’s Paris Rapid & Blitz Tournament after a dominating performance in the second day of the blitz stage and pocketing the $37,500 champion’s purse. Wesley earlier won the rapid phase scoring an undefeated 12 points and then the blitz with 12½ points with just one defeat. The 27-year old lost to Levon Aronian in Round 5, but avenge the loss by beating Aronian in Round 14. All told, Wesley won the event with a round to spare.

Wesley’s closest pursuer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, came in solo second, three points behind Wesley, with Maxime Vachier- Lagrave and Aliresa Firouzja sharing third to fourth places. Aronian and Richard Rapport shared fifth to sixth slots with Fabiano Caruana and Peter Svidler sharing seventh to eight places. The tandem of Etienne Bacrot and Vladimir Kramnik came in ninth place and Teimour Radjabov brought up the rear. Kramnik came out of retirement to play the blitz stage, while his partner Bacrot competed in the rapid phase.

Action moves to Croatia come July 5 for the third leg of the $ 1.275 million five- event Grand Chess Tour. The first leg

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