St. Louis Rapid & Blitz, Day 1: Caruana Leads After a 3-0 Start; So in the Cellar

While his games weren't clean masterpieces from start to finish, a combination of strong play and resilience has placed Fabiano Caruana into clear first after a 3-0 start. He defeated Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian with the black pieces in the first two rounds, followed by a tough win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round 3. He's a point ahead of Sergey Karjakin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - or rather, a two-point lead since the rapid games count double. (They're scored on a 2-1-0 system, while the blitz games starting on Tuesday are weighted in the traditional way: 1-.5-0.)

The games of the first two rounds were exceptionally interesting, in contrast to the sleepy round 3 (mostly non-) battles - excepting Caruana-Mamedyarov. I've managed to say something about almost all of the games, so enjoy the games, with my comments, here.