Finishing second in any event or tournament would often be a point of pride for any player, right? Wrong, for American-Italian grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, things are different. Caruana, who placed second in the recently concluded Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025, a Grand Chess Tour event on Friday, wants to be inducted into the US Chess “Hall of Shame” after reflecting on his performance in the blitz portion.
For context, Caruana won the rapid event in Saint Louis, finishing with 14 out of a possible 18 points. Expected to continue his strong run in the shortest time control in blitz, he instead suffered a free fall, losing six games and finishing eighth out of 10 players with 7.5 points. Despite this, he secured second place overall with 21.5 points, just half a point ahead of France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
“I don’t actually know. I stopped being able to play chess the last two days…,” chuckled Caruana during the post-tournament analysis with GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Nazi Paikidze. “My childhood coach was recently inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame… Bruce Pandolfini and I think I should be inducted into the US Chess Hall of Shame,” he laughed.
Fabiano Caruana: “I stopped being able to play chess the last 2 days… My childhood coach was recently inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame, Bruce Pandolfini, and I think I should be inducted into the US Chess Hall of Shame!” pic.twitter.com/oUH0QTM7d1
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 15, 2025
When asked if he was happy with his second-place finish, Caruana replied: “I usually try to… but I can’t be happy, no.”
“I mean, of course, second place is not bad or anything, and I’m lucky to have second place considering how I played in the blitz. It was going very well. I think I was playing well in rapid. I believe that my quality was very high until the last game, and even including the last game, it’s still a pretty good result overall,” he added.
Golden run for Aronian
Meanwhile, American-Armenian Levon Aronian continued his stellar form to claim yet another title. After finishing the rapid portion second behind Caruana with 13 points, Aronian dominated the blitz, scoring 11.5 out of 18 to win the event with a combined 24.5 points.
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