Super Rapid Croatia 2026: Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh play a hard-fought draw

By admin July 2, 2026 0 comments

Alireza Firouzja is the early sole leader at Grand Chess Tour 2026 Super Rapid Croatia.

Firouzja grabs an early sole lead

Alireza Firouzja (FRA) scored an unbeaten 5/6 on the first day of Rapid. Vincent Keymer (GER), Anish Giri (NED), R Praggnanandhaa and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) scored 4/6 each. World Champion, D Gukesh and Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) scored 3/6 each.

Round 1: Praggnanandhaa – Keymer: 2-0

R Praggnanandhaa (2690) and Vincent Keymer (GER, 2627) played four rated Rapid games. Praggnanandhaa won two, Keymer one and the remaining game ended in a draw. Their fifth battle went in favor of Praggnanandhaa.

Position after 26.h3

Black had to play 26…Qh6 to keep the game going. Instead, 26…Qh4?? 27.Kg1+-Rxd4 28.cxd4 Ne5 29.dxe5 Qd4+ 30.Kh2 h4 31.Rxg7+ Kxg7 32.Qf6+ and it’s over as White checkmates in the next few moves.

R Praggnanandhaa started the event with a win over Vincent Keymer (GER) | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

The one and only Garry Kasparov made the ceremonial first move on Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and D Gukesh’s board | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Round 1 in progress | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Round 2: Gukesh – Saric: 2-0

The World Champion, D Gukesh (2684) played three rated Rapid games against Ivan Saric (CRO, 2595), all of them at this very event in the last few years. Gukesh won two and the third one ended in a draw.

Position after 22…Nxe4??

In a sharp position, Black went wrong 22…Nxe4?? 23.Rxe4 Rxe4 24..Rg5 is probably cleaner but anyway 23.Qe2+- is also winning for White 23…Rxc3 24.bxc3 Qa1+ 25.Qd1 Qxc3+ 26.Ke2 Qb4 27.Rxe4 Qxe4 28.Rg4 Qe7 29.Qd4 Nf6 30.Rg5 Rd8 31.Qe5 Qd7 32.Qxf6 Qd1+ 33.Kf2 Qxc2+ 34.Kg3 and White won as the checkmate is unstoppable.

World Champion D Gukesh bounced back with a win after suffering a loss in the first round | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Round 3: R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh played a hard-fought draw | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Schedule and Format

Super Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 1st to 3rd July. The Blitz event will take place on 4th and 5th July. It will be a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds will be played on each day. Round 1 starts at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid will be 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment. For Blitz it is, 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment.