World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju increased his lead over GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda to three points and kept a four-point gap to GM Magnus Carlsen as he made two draws and scored a dominant win over GM Wesley So to score 14/18 in the rapid section of the 2025 SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz. GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Fabiano Caruana are a full five points back.
Day four starts Saturday, July 5, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 6:30 p.m. IST.
SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia Standings After Day 3
Gukesh has dominated the rapid, but there are still 18 rounds of blitz to go before prizes are handed out.
The Streak Ends, But Gukesh Grows His Lead
Midway through Gukesh’s round-seven game against GM Anish Giri, it seemed he was taking over and might score a sixth win in a row, but then the advantage slipped away. Gukesh could have taken a draw but instead took risks, confessing to GM Cristian Chirila, “I was also kind of pissed that I didn’t make the most of the earlier position I had!”
Accurately assessing where you can risk without serious danger is a champion’s trait, however, and Gukesh proved correct when Giri took a draw by repetition in a superior position.
Giri ends Gukesh’s winning streak—and in fact had winning chances before taking a draw by repetition! https://t.co/opJa0QFLnL pic.twitter.com/0kqgfOnSNp
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 4, 2025
The same story played out in the next round, as Gukesh won the opening battle against local hero GM Ivan Saric, built up a winning advantage, but then couldn’t make progress against resolute defense by Saric.
The Croatian star admitted, “I was very lucky not to be lost” when he found the only defense of retreating his knight to a1. At the end it was understandable that he didn’t want to play on with his king exposed. Nevertheless, he did have two extra pawns!
The Gukesh effect? Saric takes a draw by repetition in a winning position and Gukesh will end the rapid section at least in the shared lead! https://t.co/1l87ni5Ez0 pic.twitter.com/upQR5Kv6lc
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 4, 2025
After those shaky draws, the third game of the day, against GM Wesley So, was very different. So had started the day in third place, but lost to GM Alireza Firouzja, missed an excellent winning chance against Praggnanandhaa, and then only suffered in the final round.
“Overall it’s really nice to get a dominating game like this!” is how Gukesh summed up a game where he got a huge advantage out of the opening before 16…Qc6? invited disaster, that duly came.
Gukesh’s win in the final round meant that he ended the rapid section in Zagreb with 14 out of a possible 18 points.
Caruana, who said his loss to Gukesh was his worst game of the tournament, praised the young Indian star, commenting: “He’s been very impressive, also because his wins have not been the result of opening prep, but just good practical play, and putting pressure, and good calculation, and so he does deserve the score fully.”
On the other hand, Caruana felt GM Garry Kasparov‘s suggestion that we are witnessing a new era of dominance might be going too far.
Caruana on Kasparov talking about Gukesh now dominating: “Garry wanted maybe a soundbite or he has a flair for the dramatic, but I wouldn’t read so much into a few days of rapid — I think I had a better score last year and I don’t remember these comments!” #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/vo9HROTkIj
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 4, 2025
Caruana was right on the score, since he’d scored 15/18 in the rapid in Zagreb a year earlier, even if you could point out that Carlsen wasn’t in the field. The parallel is interesting, however, since the next player was three points back, another player was four points back, and then the “chasing pack” was five points off the pace—exactly the scenario this year. Back then Caruana went on to win by four points after the blitz.
Gukesh, meanwhile, was keeping his feet firmly on the ground. Confronted with Kasparov’s comments, he explained:
I prefer not to think in those terms. I still see myself as a player who’s working hard to improve every day, just taking one game at a time, one tournament at a time. I’m really glad Garry said that, but I think there’s still a long way to go!
I still see myself as a player who’s working hard to improve every day.
—Gukesh Dommaraju
Gukesh also made up for something he’d forgotten to do the day before—give his cousin a shoutout for predicting a win over Carlsen!
Gukesh gives a shoutout to his cousin, who’d predicted he’d beat Magnus and asked for a shoutout if he did! #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/0mbKaf5fxJ
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 4, 2025
Duda, Carlsen Lead The Chasing Pack
Duda is the one player to have beaten Gukesh in Zagreb and also the one player to remain unbeaten. He started the final day of rapid just two points behind Gukesh, but saw that gap grow to three after he drew all three games. He missed some chances against Firouzja, but otherwise could have no complaints. “I was being tested today, for sure—I had two games over 100 moves, but I managed in the end,” he told GM Simon Williams.
The first of those was an epic 156 moves against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who was winning for large sections of the game but briefly risked losing near the end.
A 156-move draw vs. Abdusattorov and Duda remains 2nd, two points behind Gukesh, and the only unbeaten player in Zagreb! https://t.co/zbnaiXBJMJ pic.twitter.com/VH1j1CbLKC
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 4, 2025
Then the final game of the day was a mere 108 moves against Praggnanandhaa. “Now it’s going to be a different tournament,” said Duda, a two-time World Blitz Chess Championship runner-up.
Eight-time World Blitz Champion Carlsen, who on day one of the Zagreb blitz in 2023 scored 9/9, is four points back but looks to be regaining his rhythm. He started the day with a fine, complex win over his great rival Caruana. It was far from flawless, with Carlsen explaining, “I have no doubt that I was worse, probably considerably so, but it suited my mood ok, since I really wanted to fight.”
That’s our Game of the Day, which is analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Carlsen was then left somewhat frustrated when he couldn’t find a way to keep pressing in a sharp tussle with Abdusattorov before he had White against Giri in the final round of the day.
This was the chance to keep the gap to Gukesh to a very bridgeable three points, and Carlsen used all his tricks to try and squeeze out a win, with Giri reflecting, “He knows how to put you in a position where he’s comfortable—it got very unpleasant from the start.” The slow grind eventually led to what Giri called “one of the hardest theoretical endgames that exists,” where one player has an extra f- and h-pawn, but the game should be drawn.
“This is like one of the hardest theoretical endgames that exists, rook f and h pawn. I once had a training session where I spent a couple of days on this position. We concluded that it’s really, really hard.”@anishgiri saves a tough position vs. Magnus in round 9. pic.twitter.com/NyLRAsr5mc
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) July 4, 2025
The 133-move game had the drawn outcome that theory predicts, but at two points near the end Carlsen was objectively winning, something we know for a certainty since chess positions with seven pieces or fewer have been “solved” and recorded in “tablebases.”
That leaves Carlsen needing to perform near his best, or for Gukesh to stumble, to make up the gap, while other players are even further off the pace. Praggnanandhaa and Caruana are five points back, but Caruana in particular has shown glimpses of top form. After the loss to Carlsen, he hit back to take down Giri and then win a spectacular game against Saric.
“It’s basically a cautionary tale for what happens if you sideline your queen in the middlegame,” said Caruana, after he lured his opponent into a devilish trap. The sequence 18…e4? 19.fxe4 Nxe4 20.Nxe4!! invited Black to win an exchange, but it was a pyrrhic victory.
Will Gukesh be able to maintain his lead the way Caruana did in 2024, or will he be hunted down in the blitz? It’s going to be exciting with nine rounds on both Saturday and Sunday.
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.
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