Super Blitz Croatia 2026: A great day for Firouzja

By admin July 5, 2026 0 comments

Alireza Firouzja scored an unbeaten 8/9 to regain his sole lead, heading into the final day of Grand Chess Tour Super Rapid and Blitz 2026.

Praggnanandhaa does a Carlsen

After a great finish in the Rapid, Praggnanandhaa lost his momentum. He started the day 1.5/2, before losing four games in-a-row against Jorden van Foreest, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Alireza Firouzja and D Gukesh. He scored only 3.5/9 to move his score 15.5/27. Firouzja scored an impressive 8/9, remained undefeated to move to 20/27. He is closely followed by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nodirbek Abdusattorov at 17/27 each. World Champion, D Gukesh scored 4/9 to take his score 14/27.

Firouzja seems to be storming to a first place unless someone else has something to say on the final day of Blitz. He scored seven wins and conceded only two draws against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri.

Alireza Firouzja (FRA) in sole lead 20/27, followed by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 17/27 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Olympiad Women Gold medalist, GM Natalia Zhukova (UKR) made the ceremonial first move on R Praggnanandhaa and Vincent Keymer’s (GER) board | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Interview with Alireza Firouzja | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Interview with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Interview with Nodirbek Abdusattorov| Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Replay live stream

Replay Blitz Round 1-9 live commentary by GMs Yasser Seirawan, Cristian Chirila, & Maurice Ashley, IM Nazi Paikidze, and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

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.