Gukesh to face Magnus Carlsen in the first round of SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2023
SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz 2023 is quite possibly the last stop for the many of the upcoming FIDE World Cup 2023 participants. D Gukesh will make his Grand Chess Tour debut against none other than the world no.1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) himself. Fabiano Caruana (USA), Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja (FRA), Vishy Anand, Richard Rapport (ROU), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL), Ivan Saric (CRO) and Constantin Lupulescu (ROU) are the remaining participants. Who do you think will become the champion? The tournament takes place at The Westin Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia. Round 1 Rapid starts today from 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Gukesh makes his Grand Chess Tour debut
Schedule and Format
SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 5th to 7th July. The Blitz event will take place on 8th and 9th July. It will be a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds will be played on each day. Everyday game starts at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Only last day, 9th July games will start at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid will be 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment and for Blitz, it will be 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment from move no.1.
Participants
The lineup includes the World no.1 - Magnus Carlsen, World no.3 - Fabiano Caruana, World no.5 - Ian Nepomniachtchi, World no.6 - Alireza Firouzja, World no.9 - Vishy Anand, World no.10 - Richard Rapport, World no.13 - D Gukesh, World no.20 and FIDE World Cup 2021 winner - Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Croatia no.1 - Ivan Saric and Romania no.6 - Constantin Lupulescu.
Rapid Day 1 Pairings
| Round 1 on 2023/07/05 at 15:00 | ||||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 2629 | GM | Gukesh, D | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2829 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | 2760 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2794 | 9 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 2745 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | GM | Anand, Viswanathan | 2731 | 8 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 2761 | GM | Rapport, Richard | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 2752 | 7 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | 2572 | GM | Lupulescu, Constantin | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2635 | 6 | ||||
| Round 2 on 2023/07/05 at 16:30 | ||||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
| 1 | 10 | 2829 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2635 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | 2752 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Lupulescu, Constantin | 2572 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 8 | 2731 | GM | Anand, Viswanathan | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2761 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 9 | 2794 | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 2745 | 3 | ||||
| 5 | 1 | 2629 | GM | Gukesh, D | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2760 | 2 | ||||
| Round 3 on 2023/07/05 at 18:00 | ||||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 2760 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2829 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 3 | 2745 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | GM | Gukesh, D | 2629 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 4 | 2761 | GM | Rapport, Richard | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2794 | 9 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 2572 | GM | Lupulescu, Constantin | GM | Anand, Viswanathan | 2731 | 8 | ||||
| 5 | 6 | 2635 | GM | Saric, Ivan | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 2752 | 7 | ||||
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000 with the first prize being US$ 40000.
Magnus Carlsen drew no.10 and made a funny gesture about throwing it away
A nice photo of Dr. Rajinikanth (father of Gukesh), D Gukesh and Vishy Anand
Garry Kasparov playing alternative simul
Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic played a few moves against the World no.1, Magnus Carlsen
Photo Gallery
