Fabulous Fabiano Caruana dominates SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2024
Fabiano Caruana (USA) won SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2024 with five rounds to spare. He has been consistently delivering top class performance for more than a year. Going into the final day of Blitz, he was 4.5 points ahead of the field. So it was almost certain that he would win the tournament. He scored 6/9 on the final day to finish with 27/36, a massive four points ahead of the field. Wesley So (USA), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and Alireza Firouzja (FRA) scored 23/36 each to share second place. D Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi scored 14/36 and 13.5/36 each to be placed at seventh and ninth position respectively. MVL played the most beautiful game of the day against Levon Aronian (USA). This is Caruana's second consecutive GCT event triumph. He is currently leading the GCT standings with 22.25 points. The next event is Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz from 11th to 16th August in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Caruana wins two consecutive Grand Chess Tour events
"I had a quite a bit of luck of course. But very happy with my play as well. The last day was mostly about chasing Magnus' record which I almost managed. I realized that at some point it's just so difficult - to collect points when everyone wants to beat you, it's really tough" - Fabiano Caruana shared his feeling on winning SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2024. "I think I have been hearing this for the last five years or something. I think sometime things come together. It's not always that my performances are good. In the last year or so, my performances in Rapid and Blitz have been sometimes quite decent." - Caruana on doing well in the faster time control events lately.
Vachier-Lagrave - Aronian, Round 15
Arguably the best game of the day was played Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2764) against Levon Aronian (USA, 2766) in Round 15. 15.Ngh5! is start of a series of beautiful moves and ideas executed on the board by former World Blitz champion.
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Final standings after Blitz Round 18
Grand Chess Tour standings
Schedule and Format
SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 10th to 12th July. The Blitz event will take place on 13th and 14th 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.
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000.
