Wesley So Leads After Day 1 Of Inaugural Champions Showdown: The Kings
GM Wesley So had the best start on day one of the 2025 Champions Showdown: The Kings, a three-day exhibition event in St. Louis, Missouri, held just ahead of the American Cup. Six American grandmasters play rapid, blitz, and semi-classical chess for a $250,000 total prize pool.
Day two starts on Wednesday, March 5, at 1 p.m. ET / 19:00 CET / 11:30 p.m. IST.
Champions Showdown: The Kings Standings After Day 1
St. Louis has been called the Capital of (American) chess for a while now, and new events keep being added. In this first week of March, the World Chess Hall of Fame in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis is hosting yet another, brand new tournament.
In Champions Showdown: The Kings, six players play three games a day in different time controls, over three days: blitz at 3+2, rapid at 15+10, and semi-classical at 60+15. Besides So, the participants are GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, and Ray Robson.
Prizes are awarded per game:
| Time Control | Total Purse Per Game | Winner's Share | Loser's Share | Draw | Total Amount |
| Blitz | $4,500 | $3,375 | $1,125 | $2,250 | $40,500 |
| Rapid | $9,000 | $6,750 | $2,250 | $4,500 | $81,000 |
| Classical | $14,000 | $10,500 | $3,500 | $7,000 | $126,000 |
| Best Game Prize | $2,500 | ||||
| $250,000 |
A further novelty of the format is that the pairings for the second and third day are being determined by the prize money earned by the players, following the formula 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4 and 5 vs 6. (On the first day, players were paired based on the March 1 FIDE classical ratings.)
It's a bit more complicated than that, since players are not supposed to meet in more than one round. If players have already met, "the Chief Arbiter must select the next best matchup," according to the regulations.
In each round, one player has White in both the rapid and blitz games and then plays Black in the semi-classical game. Colors are determined by a drawing of lots.
Unlike the normal build-up of pace in chess—where we are used to seeing rapid and blitz as part of a playoff after a tie in the classical portion—here, each round is starting with the fastest time control.
We saw two draws in the So-Aronian and Caruana-Nakamura blitz games, whereas Dominguez defeated Robson from a quiet but topical line in the Najdorf. Robson's pawn sacrifice was the right idea played with the wrong timing.
"The opening didn't go well," admitted Robson. "It's tough. In blitz, the game just goes and you have to react instantly so if it starts badly, you can just lose very quickly, which is kind of what happened."
With the same colors, the player moved on to the rapid portion and once again, one game ended decisively. So defeated Aronian, as he would do in the semi-classical as well. Aronian needed a few days to get into shape at Weissenhaus last month, and also here he is struggling at the start. So, on the other hand, made a good impression.
"I'm hoping to play a bit better this year," So said in an interview after his three games. "Last year I only won one tournament, which was online in the B group of the Champions Chess Tour. I'm hoping to bounce back this year." As a regular player in this year's Grand Chess Tour, he will have plenty of opportunity to do so. About his strategy for that, So said: "I just need to put in a lot of work and effort in my game, maybe learn a few new openings."
With the most money on the line, Caruana broke the deadlock in his mini-match with Nakamura, winning their semi-classical game from the black side (unlike what the graphic above is suggesting). After an interesting 1.b3 opening, he got a slight edge that eventually turned into a winning but complicated rook endgame.
Caruana initially let it slip away, but just as the draw was up for grabs, Nakamura blundered with 53 seconds on the clock (vs. 1:28 for Caruana). "I thought it was a really nice game, up to a point," said Caruana, "and then of course my technique in that rook endgame at some point was just..."
Meanwhile, Robson took revenge for his early loss by winning the last game of the day. He managed to grind down Dominguez in a knight endgame and also grabbed that $10,500 for a single win, a prize that wouldn't look bad for the winner of a strong open tournament.
How to watch?
You can watch the broadcast on the Saint Louis Chess Club's YouTube channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 2025 Champions Showdown: The Kings events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by GMs Yasser Seirawan & Cristian Chirila, IM Eric Rosen, and WGM Katerina Nemcova.
The Champions Showdown: The Kings is a three-day exhibition event held March 4-6, 2025, in St. Louis, Missouri. Six American grandmasters play rapid, blitz, and semi-classical chess for a $250,000 total prize pool. The participants play three games a day in different time controls: blitz at 3+2, rapid at 15+10, and semi-classical at 60+15.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
