World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju and world number-one Magnus Carlsen will meet again on day two of the 2025 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz after ending day one tied for the lead on 4/6 together with GMs Wesley So and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Gukesh lost the first game to Duda, but bounced back to beat GMs Alireza Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, while Carlsen made two draws and ground out a fine win over So.
Day two starts Thursday, July 3, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Carlsen And Gukesh Meet Again In Formidable Lineup
“There aren’t a lot of players you can feast on!” is how Carlsen described the lineup for the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia, the third event on the 2025 Grand Chess Tour.
For the previous rapid and blitz event in Poland there were only five of the tour regulars, while the wildcards were, on paper, weaker, despite one of them, GM Vladimir Fedoseev, defying the odds to crush the field. This time, however, we have seven of the tour regulars, who must each play two of the three rapid and blitz events and both classical tournaments, including second and third-placed Praggnanandhaa and Firouzja.
Grand Chess Tour Standings Before SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz
| Rank | Player | FED | Poland | Romania | Croatia | Total | Prize Money |
| 1 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 10 | 10 | 20 | $97,666 | ||
| 2 | R Praggnanandhaa | 8 | 10 | 18 | $102,666 | ||
| 3 | Alireza Firouzja | 6 | 10 | 16 | $82,666 | ||
| 4 | Levon Aronian | 7 | 3.5 | 10.5 | $37,125 | ||
| 5 | Fabiano Caruana | 7 | 7 | $32,000 | |||
| 6 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 6 | 6 | $26,000 | |||
| 7 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3.5 | 1 | 4.5 | $20,000 | ||
| 8-9 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 3.5 | 3.5 | $17,125 | |||
| 8-9 | Wesley So | 3.5 | 3.5 | $17,125 | |||
| — | Vladimir Fedoseev | 13 | 13 | $40,000 | |||
| — | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 5 | 3.5 | 8.5 | $28,125 | ||
| — | Aravindh Chithambaram | 3.5 | 3.5 | $9,500 | |||
| — | David Gavrilescu | 2 | 2 | $8,000 | |||
| — | Veselin Topalov | 1 | 1 | $7,000 | |||
| — | Magnus Carlsen | ||||||
| — | Anish Giri | ||||||
| — | Ivan Saric |
And the wildcards? There are only three, and only Croatian number-one GM Ivan Saric is an underdog, although he had an excellent first day with three draws and chances for more. The remaining wildcards are world number-10 GM Anish Giri, previously a tour regular, and world number-one Carlsen, who is the very clear favorite to win the whole event. As So commented, “It’s quite upsetting Magnus is always here to ruin tournaments for the top players!”
Carlsen has won nine of the 11 Grand Chess Tour rapid and blitz events he’s played, including the last five in a row, and scored a 9/9 sweep on the first day of blitz in 2023 on the way to clinching the title. Carlsen had mixed emotions about his return, commenting, “Coming to Zagreb specifically is a little bit of a mixed bag for me, since it is a format that I really enjoy and a city that I really enjoy and I have lots of good memories, but I also have very, very difficult memories from not playing last year.”
Carlsen had to pull out of the 2024 event to be with his mother in her final days.
In 2025 a lot of the focus will be on a guaranteed three more games between Carlsen and the current World Champion Gukesh, after their last clash ended in a Gukesh win and Carlsen slamming the table in rage. Another former World Champion, Garry Kasparov, joked about needing to reinforce the tables in the Westin Hotel in Zagreb.
👀 We’ll buy extra-heavy tables! https://t.co/2EC2yQ4sRS
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) June 3, 2025
As if any more spice were needed, Carlsen added some in the interview above when he talked about Gukesh’s relative weakness at faster time controls compared to his level at classical chess.
In the course of 27 rounds things usually show. Gukesh hasn’t done anything to indicate that he’s going to do well in such a tournament, but I hope for his sake that he can play better. Playing him in this tournament I will approach it as if I’m playing one of the presumably weaker players.
Playing him in this tournament I will approach it as if I’m playing one of the presumably weaker players.
—Carlsen on facing Gukesh in Zagreb
The players will first clash in the final round of day two, while after day one they’re neck-and-neck along with So and Duda on 4/6—it’s two points for a win and one for a draw in rapid chess.
SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia Standings After Day 1
Duda Shocks Gukesh, But World Champion Strikes Back
Duda and Gukesh know each other very well, since they played blitz training games in advance of the 2024 FIDE World Championship, but Duda’s choice of the Center Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.d4!?, and then a less-trodden path, caught Gukesh off-guard in the first game of the day. After failing to counterattack in time the Indian star came under a brutal attack, and had no chances after 26.f5! appeared on the board.
Duda takes down the World Champion! pic.twitter.com/cnr9Iq3Fdf
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 2, 2025
Gukesh took that loss stoically, however, commenting, “The Jan-Krzysztof game was a pretty decent game overall, but just that opening, I got an unpleasant position, and after that he just played a very good game.”
Up next was the player Carlsen called his biggest rival in Zagreb, 2022 and 2024 Grand Chess Tour Champion Firouzja, but Gukesh pointed to his opponent’s “careless” play in the opening. Firouzja did come close to equalizing, however, before he failed to safeguard his queen in time, allowing it to be trapped with 34.Bf1!.
Firouzja tried to limit the damage but couldn’t stave off defeat.
Gukesh then won again in the final game of the day, taking down his colleague Praggnanandhaa, who had a tough day at the office, including missing a one-move win against Firouzja in the first game of the day. Gukesh pointed to his opponent’s lack of time, saying, “It was not easy for him to make moves and automatically mistakes happen,” while also pointing out the “really nice trick with 17…e5!.” There were still chances after that for Praggnanandhaa, but it was an uphill battle.
So Gukesh ended the day on four points, level with his rival Carlsen.
“Rusty” Carlsen Grinds Out Win Vs. So, Almost Grinds Out Loss Vs. Duda
“The result is good, of course, but I’m not very happy with my play,” was how Carlsen summed up his first day back at work after his honeymoon. He described his first-round draw against Saric as “solid but not what you dream of,” before adding that he felt “really, really rusty” in the next two clashes. That didn’t, however, stop the round-two win over So looking like a vintage Carlsen grind to the rest of the world. Carlsen himself saw some highlights, saying the following of 22.Qd3:
I thought Qd3 was a nice moment. I’m not sure the computer approves or anything, but the thing is there are way too many pawns on the board and at the moment that favors the knight, so I thought unbalancing the pawn structure slightly means that I have more pawn breaks and more possibilities for eventually getting my bishops to work.
So would later lament how close he was to a draw, but Carlsen went on to demonstrate the power of the bishop pair. That’s our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
That loss for So was sandwiched between wins over GM Fabiano Caruana (“I didn’t think I was that better in game one, but I somehow won”) and Giri, with the latter win turning 180 degrees in the space of a couple of moves. “When he took on f2 I wanted to resign,” confessed So, but fortunately he didn’t!
Afterward So listed his goals, starting with returning to the top-10 and qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour Finals in Sao Paulo, but pointed out thinking about the results is of limited use:
Chess is so competitive. Everyone wants to win, qualify for the Candidates, but at some point you have to start with playing good moves!
At some point you have to start with playing good moves!
—Wesley So on how to achieve better results in chess
Meanwhile two more of the leaders had a remarkable conclusion to their game. Carlsen was once again in grind mode, since he had an extra pawn in a queen endgame and a huge lead on the clock against Duda. “I wasn’t really on my game at all there when it comes down to scrambles where the rustiness is felt the most,” said the world number-one, who continued pushing for a win beyond the point it was wise—until Duda took a draw by repetition in a winning position!
An incredible finish as Magnus blundered, but Duda made a draw by repetition when he could have won the game! https://t.co/BOq8L2Yooy pic.twitter.com/7JwSKgLxlA
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 2, 2025
Let’s look at the key moment.
That made all the difference between Duda being the sole leader and a four-way tie for first place.
The event has only begun, however, with two more days and six rounds of rapid chess to be followed by two days and 18 rounds of blitz over the weekend.
How to watch?
The 2025 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz is the third event on the 2025 Grand Chess Tour and runs July 2-6 in the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia. The 10 players first compete in a single rapid round-robin with a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, followed by a blitz double round-robin with a 5+2 time control.
Previous coverage:
