The SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament is a Grand Chess Tour event taking place in Zagreb, Croatia. The rapid portion (25’+10”, unlike the 15’+10” of the Meltwater Tour events and the World Rapid Chess Championship) started yesterday and continues through tomorrow (i.e. Wednesday through Friday), and the blitz (5’+2”, unlike the 3’+2” used in the Meltwater Tour and the World Blitz Chess Championships) will be played over the weekend. Ten players are participating, first in a single round robin for the rapid, and then a double round robin for the blitz. The rapid scores count double, so that the rapid and the blitz portions will have the same overall weight.
After two days of the rapids (and thus six of nine rounds), Alireza Firouzja leads a stellar field with an undefeated 4.5/6 (really 9/12, but I’ll stick to normal scoring in today’s report), half a point ahead of Wesley So (also undefeated) and (much more surprisingly) Jorden Van Foreest (who lost to So). Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is next with 3.5 (also undefeated), the last of the players with a plus score thus far.
The next three players’ performance will come as a surprise. Magnus Carlsen has 3 points, as does Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Ian Nepomniachtchi has 2.5. That Mamedyarov would have 3 points isn’t a shock; he’s a great player who is capable of winning events like this when he’s in peak form. What is surprising is that although he has lost a couple of games, to Firouzja and Van Foreest, his wins are over Carlsen and Nepo!
Bringing up the rear, Ivan Saric and Leinier Dominguez have 2 points apiece, and Veselin Topalov - never a rapid and blitz specialist even in his best days - is in the cellar with 1.5 points, drawing all three games today after an 0-3 start on Wednesday.
There’s a long way to go, so don’t count the soon-to-be ex-champion or the (possibly) soon-to-be-champion out. Meanwhile, here are some of the games, with my comments.