Magnus Carlsen wins SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2025 with a round to spare, Gukesh third
Magnus Carlsen drew against R Praggnanandhaa in the penultimate round to win Grand Chess Tour SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2025 with one round to go. The World no.1 defeated Ivan Saric (CRO) in the final round to finish with 22.5/36. Wesley So (USA) secured second place 20/36. He scored a half point more 5.5/9 than the champion on the final day of Blitz. The World Champion, D Gukesh recovered well and scored 4/9 in the second half of Blitz to finish third with 19.5/36. Carlsen forced a Berlin draw against Gukesh in their Blitz rematch. The fourth event of the season will be Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz which will take place at Saint Louis Chess Club in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA from 10th to 16th August. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Gukesh finishes strong
The faster formats Rapid and Blitz were known not to be forte of D Gukesh. However, he showed that he has worked on by finishing at the top of the Rapid event. Blitz did not go well, still he managed to recover well on the second half of it. He is only 19-years-old. It is just a matter of time before he catches up in the faster formats too.
"It's nice to win a tournament. Apart from that I felt that I struggled most of the event. I think partly because it was a very very strong field this year. There weren't a lot of weaker players really at all... It felt that especially in Rapid, at least for me, chances were hard to come by. I had one good day really which was yesterday and that turned out to be enough which was a little bit lucky but it speaks to the fact that it was a fairly event tournament and nobody could really break away from the pack but it doesn't feel like I won really. It feels like I just came here, played alright and nobody really did anything special in the end up and I usually end up winning." - Magnus Carlsen shared his emotions on winning the tournament.
Replay live stream
Replay Blitz Round 10-18 games
Blitz Round 18 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2734 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | ½ - ½ | GM | Gukesh, D | 2615 | 5 | |||
| 2 | 4 | 2782 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 0 - 1 | GM | So, Wesley | 2786 | 6 | |||
| 3 | 3 | 2814 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 1 - 0 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2723 | 7 | |||
| 4 | 2 | 2690 | GM | Giri, Anish | 1 - 0 | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2770 | 8 | |||
| 5 | 1 | 2593 | GM | Saric, Ivan | 0 - 1 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2883 | 9 |
Final standings
Magnus Carlsen won US$ 40000, Gukesh $25000 | Graphic: Grand Chess Tour
Schedule and Format
SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz had three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 2nd to 4th July. The Blitz event took place on 5th and 6th July. It was a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds were played on each day. Round 1 started at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. It was a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid was 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment. For Blitz, it wasa 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment. Only on last day, 6th July, Blitz Round 10 started at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000. The top three prizes are $40000, $30000 and $25000.
