# Leinier Domínguez won Chess 960 super tournament

**Date:** 09/11/2021

In a sensational manner, American Grandmaster of Cuban origin Leinier Domínguez prevailed in the Champions Showdown, a tournament in the 960 Chess or Random mode that just concluded in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Domínguez began this Friday's round at the top of the standings, but faltered in his initial afternoon match against Samuel Shankland (USA), which allowed three other players to catch up with him in the lead.

He then played against Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the stage was set for a spectacular finish at the expense of Armenian Levon Aronian, a victory that was combined with draws by Shankland himself and Wesley So (also from the venue), as well as a loss by legendary Russian Garry Kasparov.

In this way, the player from Guines reached six points out of nine possible and led by the slimmest margin over the trio formed by the Frenchman and the two Americans mentioned above, taking home the $37,500 dollars allocated to the champion of the tournament.

After them, with five points, the Baku Ogre anchored, and the table was completed by Fabiano Caruana (USA-4.5), Aronian (4), Shakh Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan-3.5), Hikaru Nakamura (USA-3) and Peter Svidler (Russia-2.5).

This chess modality was devised by the unforgettable Bobby Fischer, and in it the initial position of the pieces is decided randomly—although said process is subject to certain restrictions—which determines the existence of 960 possible arrangements before the start of each game.

The champion of the previous edition of the Champions Showdown had been Nakamura, while So is the current world champion.