Gukesh tops SuperUnited Rapid 2025 with a 2937 performance
The World Champion, D Gukesh topped SuperUnited Rapid 2025. Despite starting the tournament with a loss, he scored 14/16 in his next eight games. On the final day of Rapid, he started with a draw against Anish Giri (NED). Then he salvaged a draw verus Ivan Saric (CRO) who could have pushed for more. Gukesh finished the Rapid portion with a win over Wesley So (USA). He is at the top of standings. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) scored 11/16 to finish second. He is the only player to remain undefeated. The World no.1, Magnus Carlsen (NOR) is at third place 10/18, followed by Fabiano Caruana (USA) and R Praggnanandhaa at 9/18 each. Nine rounds of Blitz will be played today. Round 1 starts at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Only Jan-Krzysztof Duda remains undefeated, trails Gukesh by three points
D Gukesh will start the Blitz event with a four point lead over the rest. He passed the Rapid test with flying colors as he convincingly finished at the top. He will need to maintain his form for the next 18 games of Blitz spanning over two days to win the tournament. It will certainly not be an easy as Blitz means anything can happen. But one thing is for sure, apart from Classical format, he worked a lot to improve on his Rapid. So one can expect him to carry his momentum and do well in Blitz too.
Round 7: Praggnanandhaa - Saric: 1-1
R Praggnanandhaa (2688) ended Ivan Saric's (CRO, 2589) unbeaten streak. The Croatia no.1 suffered his first loss of the event after six draws.
Gukesh - Giri: 1-1
The World Champion, D Gukesh (2654) played only two Rapid rated games against Anish Giri (NED, 2687). Both of them ended in draws. The third encounter also had the same outcome where Gukesh defended a slightly difficult endgame quite well.
Caruana - Carlsen
The counterintuitive 47.Ke2 was needed to be played to keep the game going. 47.Qg2? dropped the pawn Qxf4 48.Ke2 Qc1 49.Kf1 Qd1 and Black won the game in the next few moves.
Round 8: Gukesh - Saric: 1-1
D Gukesh played three Rapid rated games against Ivan Saric. He had won all three of them including last year at the very same event. This was the first time their game ended in a draw. The Croatia no.1 could have pushed for a maximum in the end but decided to keep things safe.
Round 9: Gukesh - So: 2-0
D Gukesh played only two Rapid rated games against Wesley So (USA, 2709) and he lost both of them including last year at the same event. However, on both occasion he had the black pieces. This time he had the white pieces and also in terrific form.
16...Qc6? was not a good idea as it got into the line of a discover attack. 17.Nh4 Qc7 18.Nf4 g5 19.Nxh5 gxh4 20.Bb2 Rf8 21.Nf4 Black's position started falling apart. White played bravely and won the game.
Carlsen - Giri
Anish Giri (NED, 2687) defended the rook and two split pawns endgame quite well for the better part. However, he faltered 121...Ra6+? 122.Kg5+- White is winning now Ra1 White blundered 123.f5? Black is back in the game Rg1+ 124.Kf6 Ra1 125.Rg2 Kh6 126.Re2 Ra6+?? another blunder but White also could not spot it 127.Re6? instead 127.Kf7 was winning. The game continued 127...Ra7 and Black managed to draw the game.
GM Maurice Ashley (USA) tweeted on Gukesh yesterday
Replay live stream
Replay Round 7-9 games
Rapid Round 9 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 2767 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 1 - 1 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2740 | 10 | |||
| 2 | 6 | 2688 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 1 - 1 | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2699 | 4 | |||
| 3 | 7 | 2654 | GM | Gukesh, D | 2 - 0 | GM | So, Wesley | 2709 | 3 | |||
| 4 | 8 | 2756 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 2 - 0 | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2589 | 2 | |||
| 5 | 9 | 2819 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 1 - 1 | GM | Giri, Anish | 2687 | 1 |
Standings after Round 9
Blitz Round 1 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2593 | GM | Saric, Ivan | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2734 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | 2690 | GM | Giri, Anish | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2883 | 9 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 2814 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2770 | 8 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 2782 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2723 | 7 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | 2615 | GM | Gukesh, D | GM | So, Wesley | 2786 | 6 |
Schedule and Format
SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 2nd to 4th July. The Blitz event will take place on 5th and 6th 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 will be 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment. Only on last day, 6th July, Blitz Round 10 will start 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.
