World Champion D Gukesh returns to action at Grand Chess Tour Super Rapid and Blitz 2026

By admin May 5, 2026 Updated: July 1, 2026 0 comments

The first leg of Grand Chess Tour 2026 is Super Rapid and Blitz. The World Champion, D Gukesh will be seen in action along with Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Javokhir Sindarov, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Vladimir Fedoseev, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Hans Niemann and Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

Fedoseev is the defending champion

The World Champion has decided to only focus on Rapid and Blitz events as he pulled out as a full tour participant of Grand Chess Tour 2026 season. He was replaced by FIDE World Cup 2025 and FIDE Candidates 2026 winner, Javokhir Sindarov.

Schedule and Format

Super Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 5th to 7th May. The Blitz event will take place on 8th and 9th May. 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 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 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.

Participants

The lineup includes the World no.3 and Grand Chess Tour 2025 winner – Fabiano Caruana (USA), World no.5 and World Championship Challenger – Javokhir Sindarov (UZB), World no.8 – Alireza Firouzja (FRA), World no.9 – Wesley So (USA), World Cup 2021 winner and World no.13 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL), the reigning World Champion and World no.18 – D Gukesh, World no.22 – Hans Niemann (USA), World Blitz 2021 champion and World no.27 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA), the reigning and defending champion of this and World no.34 – Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO), and Poland no.2 and World no.68 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek

The participants of the Super Rapid and Blitz 2026 | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Prize

The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 200000. The top three prizes are US$50000, $40000 and $30000.

Photo Gallery

Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew the number 7 | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Guess who drew the number 7 | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

The defending champion Vladimir Fedoseev got number one | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Lukasz Seweryniak, General Manager, Superbet Poland, made the inaugural first move with the World Champion – D Gukesh | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

A musical performance | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Javokhir Sindarov and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich played a fun doubles game against Jan-Krzysztof Duda and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour