Reigning world champion D Gukesh bounced back from an opening round loss to American Levon Aronian with wins over Grigoriy Oparin and Liem Le Quang, finishing the first day in joint third place at the St Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour.

Gukesh was outplayed by Aronian in a complex opening-round battle, but rebounded strongly, producing a resounding victory against Oparin before crushing Liem to end the day with four points out of a possible six.

With each rapid win worth two points, Aronian took the lead by winning all three games on the opening day. Fresh from his triumph in the recently concluded Freestyle Chess tournament in Las Vegas, the American GM beat key rivals Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to maintain a perfect score. Aronian sits on six points, followed by compatriot Fabiano Caruana on five. Gukesh shares the third place with another American, Wesley So.